Sony SCD-XA9000ES SACD Player - Page 11

Conclusion

We had the SCD-XA9000ES several weeks in our labs for testing, thanks to Sony. There are no words to describe the quality of the overall construction. The Audio Circuit Boards, the R-Core power transformers, the digital circuit, the analog audio circuits, with a Tri Power Digital-to-Analog Converter using eighteen separate SA DAC chips, and the i.LINK output circuit indicates what a great job Sony has done. Next to the SCD-XA9000ES, many devices, even those costing $1000, look cheap. However, the $2000 price tag for the player is a huge amount to spend. But then, this is a High-End proposal, a flagship for Sony and not many people can acquire such a device. For this reason, it would not be fair to judge the SCD-XA9000ES in the standard way we do with other standalone players. I think most candidate buyers don't care how capable the CD error correction is or if it can reproduce compressed audio. The purpose of this player is to produce high quality sound from SACD media, and in this respect, the player is simply superb. The rest will take it as a lifestyle :-)

Don't forget that for judging the sound quality of this SACD device, you'll need similar quality components as far as an amplifier and speakers are concerned.