Sony XA-5400ES

[Knuckledragger]

Aardvark is a man with priorities.

[brat]

Right now I'm listening to XA-5400es. Someone here already said it: good player but not great. Mine is not burned-in (about 10-12 hours) but I doubt we can expect some great improvement. My Cary 306 SACD surpasses it in every way except bass depth where the sony goes a little deeper. Sound is more two-dimentional and flat - the most obvious difference. Tonal balance is good with slightly humped bass compared to the cary. There are some peaky highs which may settle down with burn-in, I suppose. Headstage is much smaller. Something interesting: somewhere I've read an opinion that the 5400 makes CD and SACD sound similar. It's completely true: SACD playback is terrible!! The same flat sound as the CD!! My Cary has opened my eyes for the superioriy of SACD standart. I've never heard so spacious and naturally balanced sound, so well shaped instruments and "real" vocals. But I can't feel anything like that with the sony - on SACD mode my hybrid SACDs with original DSD recordings sound worse than their CD layers on the Cary.
Some good words: mmm... The bass is great - textured and well controlled. This player will fit some bass-shy transducers. Maybe If I have another player, not the Cary, I would like this sony but now.... In fact I have another player - an old heavily modded Pioneer PD-9300 (two PCM58 DACs) and it's sound is quite similar to the 5400 but the pioneer has bigger soundstage

I had some hopes for XA-5400ES. I wanted a new player with warmer and more "analog" sound to replace the Cary. This sony definitely is not it's successor.