My little-used Sony SCD-XA5400ES SACD player is faulty already

You can still buy if you want it. Based on someone's recommendation here to Steve, our fearless leader, I got my spanking new 5400ES last June (2013). It is really a good and reliable machine: hours of high quality musical sound from both SACDs and regular CDs. (Never thought I would say that about CDs! Try especially the DCC gold disks in this player. They will sound really good!)

Highly recommended for the steal price of $1,100.00 in a factory sealed box from a SONY autorized dealer.


Despite the above, still remaining staunchly analog (LPs.)

 

Agreed - I have had mine for 3 years or more (lost track of when I bought it) and it's been so reliable,

 

I'm the OP - that fault I mentioned still recurs very occasionally but I find it goes if you just reboot the machine a few times. It still makes the familiar growling noise when playing CDs, too. But these are small faults and I'm very happy with the thing otherwise. In fact my only real gripe is that it's not programmable which seems perverse in a player of this calibre.

Does yours make the growling noise, Lyndon Perry?

 

Mine has never made a peep during the playing of a disc. This particular unit has seen a lot of playing time with both CDs and SACDs.

 

Usually CD players are nearly silent during play, though I've noticed that they may also make a variety of whirring and clicking noises when loading discs, initializing, or seeking. I guess the noise could be a very faint gritty noise from the tracking actuators.

Both my SCD XA5400ES SACDder and BDP-S5000ES Blu-ray are built on the same chasis and externally look almost identical and exhibit the kind of noisesI described above.

 

Hello!

I'm looking for help, I just bought it a new laser to replace mine on the SONY SCD-XA5400ES and remove the old one installed the new one and got the
message "NO DISC" so can somebody help me the whole procedure like after install the new one for the player recognize the laser.
If I installed the old one back everything is fine but the new one the player do not recognize.

Thanks in advance

 

There's a solder blob on the pickup that must be removed otherwise it will not work. You'll need a pencil type soldering iron and a solder sucker. You should use a grounding strap as well.

 

Future proof yourself . Get a DAC and a new CD transport. So far, my Cambridge CXC is doing very well.
Woo Audio makes a nice transport as well.

 

What if one wants SACD playback?

Bill

 

I believe some transports supports SACD, however they may be quite expensive.

 

Indeed. Look for my thread here on the forum and you will see a close-up of the solder blob. Not difficult to remove.

 

True. Then one has to find a DAC that will accept HDMI for SACD/DSD playback. I'm not well versed in DACs but isn't that option rare and quite expensive? My question was that you posted "CD transport".

Bill

 

The McIntosh MCT450 transport ($4k) and D150 DAC ($3k) support SACD. I presently own the D100 DAC,however it does not accept HDMI.

I was considering the MCT450 for my redbook transport, however 4K is. a lot of scratch.

I am looking at Woo Audio and Moon Neo for considerably less $.

 

Generally rare and possibly expensive (subjective determination) but almost any modern AVR or prepro will accept HDMI for SACD/DSD playback.

 

That is a lot of money for sure. If one has a two channel system wouldn't it be less expensive to go with a higher end CD/SACD player?

Bill

 

AFAIK, the Bryston BDA-3 is the only high end DAC that supports this so far.

http://forums.stevehoffman.tv/threads/new-bryston-bda-3-dac-with-sacd-input-dsd-over-hdmi.391669/

Of course there are many home theatre receivers that accept DSD over HDMI, but that is a different product category

 

I agree 100% but for some the "modern AVR or prepro" would not cut it . It works quite well for me though .

Bill

 

Consequently, those folks will have to pay more.

 

Thanks for your help. I try to access to see it but I can't so can you please send me the picture

 

You will see several photos in this Photobucket series of shots I made at the time.

http://s632.photobucket.com/albums/uu43/ghtoz/XA777ES-NewLaser/?albumview=slideshow