Sony SCD-XA5400ES SACD player showcased at CEDIA

The SCD-XA5400ES looks like a regurgitated 9000ES albeit with HDMI. Despite a rave review in Hi-Fi News the 9000ES sounded very poor for the rip-off price of £2500 charged in the UK. The 5400ES is only $1200 in the US but far more expensive in England the treasure Island for car electronic & designer clothing manufacturers.

The SCD-XA9000, €3000 ,SOUNDS NEARLY LIKE the world best digital audio sistem: the dCS sacd transport + dac , that costs more than 30.000,00 EURO
I tested myself that Sony SCD-XA9000ES sounds really analog and natural with SACD as well with CD,
and the new ,balanced outputs added this time, Sony SCD-XA5400ES only can sound better than XA9000 !!!!
and for about 1500 euro ONLY !!!
I can´t wait for buy my SCD XA5400ES, guy

It will be interesting to read the review of the Sony XA5400ES in December Hi-Fi Choice. I did not agree with their review of the Marantz SA-7 S1 which fortunately I was able to sell on with no loss this time possibly due to all the inaccurate rave reviews. SACD is only worthwhile in multi-channel surround sound.and I am trying to find a receiver that does not internally convert DSD to PCM

G.Bearman

The Hi-Fi Choice review of the SCD-XA5400ES was totally useless as its stupid policy is to downplay surround sound due to objections from its 2 channel only readers who Alan Sircom says threaten to cancel subscriptions. the only reason to buy this Sony product that has the worst PR for Consumers in the Industry, they issue blatant misleading technical information e.g. The STR-DA 5400ES receiver uses the full resolution of the DSD signal (32 bit) from input filtering through to processing the signal, then and only then does the amplifier at the final stage convert to PCM. This way you can ensure the full resolution of the DSD signal can be fully utilised.

Impossible to obtain a UK demonstration. Does the SCD-XA5400ES decode DSD via HDMI without internally converting to LPCM. The Sony receivers unfortunatly all go to PCM despite Sony misleadingly saying that PCM has the same resolving power as DSD, the latter is 4 times greater .

Hello,
Whilst I have no subscription or affiliation to hifi news, they quote the price of the sony scxa5400es as £1200. See March 2009 for the review.
Regards,
Dave Venables.

Despite finding the 9000ES totally useless . I have purchased the Sony XA5400ES and find the SACD performance both Stereo & Multi-Channel to be excellent.However despite burning it in for over 600 hours the RB CD sound is no where near as good as my 20 year old modified Marantz CD94 which contains the best ever 16 bit DAC the Double Crown S2 TD1541.This old player is far superior to the latest overweight Marantz SA-7S1.

I’ve got a XA5400ES for a couple of weeks now and I can truly recommend it! It’s to my knowledge the first SACD player ever that matches pure CD players at the same price range, while offering the SACD clarity as an extra! This has been my threashold to invest in SACD up until know, as most of the recordings available are CDs.

CD Sound is to me caracterized by soft clarity without the pitch associated with Cyrus. With SACD you add more detail and definition, ofcourse.

For reference I compare to my Cyrus 8x and the elder SONY 930ES through Adcom 555 markII, 2 versions of Heffa tube amp (Push-Pull 708 vs KT88) both with Lundahl transformers and a zero NFB single end 300B also with Lundahl transformers and chookes. Loudspeakers are Seas Odin, Focal and a Seas Thor. The latter two with R-L equalized actice subwoofers based on Seas Excel vs Peerless THS.

Give it a chance (while there are still some SACD discs on the market…

Gösta Lemne, Sweden

If you want the very best sound from the Sony XA5400ES you should get the matching receiver STR-DA5400ES ensure that the very low jitter HATS is enabled and the sound via HDMI is excellent with both RB CD & SACD.

I took my own advice and purchased the STR DA-5400ES receiver which unfortunately is troublesome.First the XA5400ES (also a small problem) the mains socket is too large for the power cord supplied and the fit is so loose that the cord either falls out or disconnects. The STR-DA5400ES with HATS ON sounds very good with both SACD & RB CD but with HATS OFF the sound is quite mediochre. I was unable to try out my DVD’s as for some strange reason the receiver cuts out and despite many attempts to RESET it would not. The Sony Centre said they had the same problem and I accepted an immediate refund. Sony’s PR is probably the worst in the Business ,so unfortunately my advice is do not buy SONY. THe Onkyo 706 is a excellent receiver very good value and decodes DSD direct to Analogue without decimating PCM conversion, unlike the Sony.

I use an SCD XA9000ES and a TA DA9000ES and find the sound very valve like – no complaints, although I do get the occasional click with the ilink connection which I cure with servisol switch cleaner applied every three months.
I was interested to see you couldn’t play dvd’s on the 5400ES amp. Through which connection? was it through the HDMI? Also you say the 9000es is useless, in what way I woudld be interested to hear, regards A.

Hi to G Bearman: thanks for posting the info on the 5400es as I am/was planning on getting this receiver. Are you saying that Sony UK have had the same problem with numerous units of this model, or do you mean they acknowledged the problem when testing yours? What mystifies me is that the web is full of people saying that they have had the 5400es for months and it is great. What HIFI, where I saw your review, seemed to have had no problems with films either. I would appreciate any clarification you could offer.