For all you folks who own a CD player that cost under $9000;
your player is now more or less obsolete!
I have been using the Ayre C5xe for the past three years, and before I bought it I listened extensively to everything under 10 grand, and it sounded the best to me so I forked out $6000 for it (which for me was a very big deal). I thought I had bought my last CD player.
The new Sony SCD-XA5400ES smokes the Ayre; it is SO gorgeous-sounding that I seriously wonder if there is ANYTHING, at ANY price, that sounds better! My Ayre, which I thought sounded so good, now sounds sluggish and muddy when I do a head-to-head comparison with the 5400 (one caveat; my Ayre has not been upgraded to the MP version...but it was STILL the best-sounding player in 2006...A+ per Stereophile at that time...).
The Sony costs $1500, and in my opinion, it has turned the world upside down as far as CD/SACD playback is concerned.
We may need an A++ rating....
I have never heard playback so absolutely realistic from ANY player at any price. If Sony was selling the 5400 for $8000, I would buy it in a heartbeat; for $1500...it is just f#$%^& unbelievable!
I think that the 5400 is going to be seen as a watershed product for many years to come; a breakthrough in both performance and price. I will guarantee you that all of the manufacturers that sell players for over $3000 are going to turn white and say "holy shit...we are in trouble" when they hear the 5400 next to theirs!
A lot of engineers are going be scrambling to play catch-up!
I hope that JA does a full review of this thing ASAP and tells us how the Sony engineers managed to produce such an amazing machine at such a low price. I want to know all the technical naughty bits, John...lol. 
P.S.-I wouldn't wait too long to buy one; Sony might decide to raise the price to $2500 (I am sure they can sell all they can build for that price or even more...).
P.P.S.-All of the above refers to balanced outputs only; I have no idea what the unbalanced outputs sound like...and I could care less; the hi-end needs to abandon unbalanced connections permanently.
For all you folks who own a CD player that cost under $9000;
your player is now more or less obsolete!
I have been using the Ayre C5xe for the past three years, and before I bought it I listened extensively to everything under 10 grand, and it sounded the best to me so I forked out $6000 for it (which for me was a very big deal). I thought I had bought my last CD player.
The new Sony SCD-XA5400ES smokes the Ayre; it is SO gorgeous-sounding that I seriously wonder if there is ANYTHING, at ANY price, that sounds better! My Ayre, which I thought sounded so good, now sounds sluggish and muddy when I do a head-to-head comparison with the 5400 (one caveat; my Ayre has not been upgraded to the MP version...but it was STILL the best-sounding player in 2006...A+ per Stereophile at that time...).
The Sony costs $1500, and in my opinion, it has turned the world upside down as far as CD/SACD playback is concerned.
We may need an A++ rating....
I have never heard playback so absolutely realistic from ANY player at any price. If Sony was selling the 5400 for $8000, I would buy it in a heartbeat; for $1500...it is just f#$%^& unbelievable!
I think that the 5400 is going to be seen as a watershed product for many years to come; a breakthrough in both performance and price. I will guarantee you that all of the manufacturers that sell players for over $3000 are going to turn white and say "holy shit...we are in trouble" when they hear the 5400 next to theirs!
A lot of engineers are going be scrambling to play catch-up!
I hope that JA does a full review of this thing ASAP and tells us how the Sony engineers managed to produce such an amazing machine at such a low price. I want to know all the technical naughty bits, John...lol.
P.S.-I wouldn't wait too long to buy one; Sony might decide to raise the price to $2500 (I am sure they can sell all they can build for that price or even more...).
P.P.S.-All of the above refers to balanced outputs only; I have no idea what the unbalanced outputs sound like...and I could care less; the hi-end needs to abandon unbalanced connections permanently.