Round Bass/User Interface/ Remote/ Good imaging on the highs and mids

Where''s the singer? Behind the band?

Okay. Well I had been searching for a new CD player for about a month. I purchased three models, the Sony CA70ES, the NAD c541i; and the Sony CA9ES. I chose the latter. Why? Because it had bass. I listen to Massive Attack and Radiohead. I need bass! The bass sounds great on this unit. The highs are well defined as well and I''m actually hearing little sounds I had never heard before. The NAD c541i was incredibly accurate but it didn''t deliver the clarity I needed on the thumps and hums. The only negative - Vocals sound airy and scratchy sometimes. And often it sounds as if the singer is behind the band. Know what I mean? But that might be my connection. I have two-way Advent Baby IIs - no subwoofer.

Similar Products Used:

Sony CA70es; NAD C541i; Sony CDP-970

Excellent build quality
Nice clear sound

The low bass could be better

I have this unit for about 4 months now. It is hooked up to a Sony ES 333 (or something like this) receiver and NHT 1.5 speakers. The CD changer clearly otperforms in sound dynamics the cheaper non-ES Sony models I compared to. The reason I bought it is that it has good signal to noise ratio and dynamic range, 5 year warranty and all the good ES stuff that's inside (check Sony's web site for what's in...).


Aside from a problem I describe further down (which I hope will be fixed by lubricating the moving parts), the sound could also be better: the low end is definitelly rolled-off. If I use the optical output, the low end is excellent, distinctly better than the low end from the analog output. Apparently the DAC in the receiver does a better job in the low end than the one in the CD player. Unfortunately, the rest of the spectrum is handled just the opposite: the CD player does a much better job than the DAC in the receiver: the sound from the receiver DAC (while having nice bass) is harsh and not so transparent. The CD produces clean and transparent mid and high end. I tried very high-end cables costing as much as the CD player itself: they improve the mids and highs as well as the clearness of the sound but do nothing about the base: this means the CD DAC is to blame...The only option is to try an outboard DAC, but then why spend half a grand on the CD player when any $100 CD player would give me an optical output as good as any. And if it costs 1/5-th of the ES model I could just throw it away if it breaks down instead of paying for the 5 year warranty...


I had hard time deciding between this unit and the Harman-Kardon 5 CD changer: the latter supports HDCD and has dual DACs that are supposedly good. But htere are reports for bugs with some of the HK units (depending on serial number). And the thing is made in China (not to offend anybody but my experience has been that the quality of Chinese-made products is generally inferior, which has nothing to do with the ability of China to create great products: rather the cost-cutting practices of whomever orders the products).

Finally the warranty and excellent build quality of the Sony made me pick it. I bought it for $450 new from J&R Music World in NY. When I opened the box the unit inside had a dent from being dropped, although there were no problems with it - worked. Nevertheless I exchanged it because my warranty could be affected by mechanical defects on the outside. The new one I got turned out to be a used one: with scratches and condensation on the back: so I exchanged it again. The third one was OK. No problems and the sound was great (except for the low end from the analog outputs).

But, around the 3rd month it started to experience resonances and during the 4-6th song on most CDs started to produce a very loud mechanical noise ike wind houling through a crack (not via the speakers but from inside the unit). This sound is due to the resonance that happens when the CD rotates with specific speed and it reaches its peak aroud the 4-5 song usually (the CDs rotate with variable speed). It does this sound on most CDs, so this is not a bad (unbalanced) CD. It also dependes on the temperature and humidity I guess, since it does not occure always.

Would I recommend this thing? It has excellent sound, construction and warranty, better than most CD players in the price range below $400.

But if you are willing to spend that much (which means you want the best sound possible) I think the better option is to get a 5 disk DVD changer, get an outboard DAC for audio, solder a good cable yourself from a category 5 network cable (just cents for the foot) and $10 dollars Monster Cable RCA jacks and enjoy.

By the way, the cable I soldered as described above, outperforms the $200 dollars per 1/2 meter Monster Cables I tried and is as good as the $270 Transparent MusicLink Plus cable. All of the above a definitely better than the cables that come in the CD player box or the $15 dollars RadioShack or Monster or no-name cables.

Similar Products Used:

Sony 300 disk changer (non-ES)
Sony 5 disk changer (non-ES)

solid construction, classic looks, quiet operation
balanced overall music reproduction.

list price

I have been auditioning various 5 disk changers and stumbled on the CA9ES at a clearance sale. I picked it up for $300, comparable to the prices of the other changers I had been looking at. I was very pleased with the solid sound quality of the player. The sound is full and clear and very detailed without being bright. The bass has a nice roundness to it and separation and depth is wonderful. A solid player, close to justifying the $700 list price.

Similar Products Used:

HK 8550, Yamaha 775 and NAD523 changers

Solid build, variable output, optical output

Vibrations, the sound is not worth the money

This is a follow-up review to my older review below. I have the unit for 8 months now. I have it hooked up to a Sony STR DE 333 ES receiver via optical cable to the DVD/LD input of the receiver. Why the DVD? The sound of the digital to analog converter there (24 bit/96KHz) is clearly superior to the CD player's own DAC. Additionally, I think the CD input in the receiver either uses a different DAC or there is another piece of circuitry that makes it sound inferior to the DVD input. With the DVD input the base is deeper, more detailed and cleaner. The dynamics are better. With a pair of good headphones (Sennheiser HD 600) this is apparent immediately, but is audible with decent speakers too. The major reason I write this review is to share the problem I had with the player: after a month or two break-in it starts making mechanical noise audible between the 3 and the 6th song on most CDs (starts 10 to 20 minutes into the disk and disappears after that: no noise in the beginning or the end of the disk, due to the position of the laser and the CD rotation speed combination). This is due to some mechanical resonance inside the unit and is very annoying if you are close to the unit and the music plays soft or between the songs. I had the unit serviced by Sony, in two weeks I got it back with the transport replaced. The same problem reappeared almost immediately. I returned it for service again. This time they sent me a brand new unit (marked that it complies with Sony standards as of January 2000). Same problem again, a bit less audible, but nevertheless there. I suppose the design is flawed. I originally bought this unit because I hoped its sound would be good enough. And it is better than almost any changer below $3-400 dollars. But since I end-up listening via the optical output which gives better sound, it really makes no difference for the sound if I were using almost any $100 dollars player with optical output. Advice? Get a good DVD changer for casual listening instead. This Sony unit is fine only if your amp is in the sub $400 price range and your speakers are not the most revealing type. And in this case you’ll be better off getting a 200 CD changer – very convenient.

User interface

None when it was made

I got this CD player for free due to a shipping mishap (supposed to be $460). It needed immediate warranty repair on the tray. Since then it's been four years and I can say I still like it. At the time it had a lot of features other players didn't at the price. The disc xchange was a fairly new feature at the time and it works great. Using good interconnects and speakers that sound coming from it is wonderfully detailed. I compared it to the Adcom and Rotel of the time and while I don't believe either one of them sounded any better or worse the Sony clearly has the better user interface which is why I bought it. What's the point of having a nice CD player if you need to think about what you're doing just to skip a track?

Similar Products Used:

Adcom, Rotel, and a host of others.

Be gone treble grain!

Retail price?

I preferred the sound of this unit's DAC to that of the MSB Link D/A. Strangely enough, it's the same DAC that's in the Sony DVP-s7000, but this unit sounds better to me. I wonder how long this unit will stick around given the high price and the influx of Sony SACD changers. Eliminated the harshness in my system my Rotel added - so pleasant to listen to, there's a subtle grace to the treble. I have admittedly mixed feelings toward Sony, but not their ES CD Players.

Sure, there's better stuff out there but you'll have to trade the disc changer convenience, or get a pricey external Dac (my recommendation: Entech 205.2 - which BTW is for sale, contact me if you're interested). Have had no problems with this unit - get one if you still can, just don't pay retail!

Bought the unit from Onecall for $ 429.99 . Very Good Sound, Alluminium Front Panel, Dot Matrix display, Dual Power Transformers. Build Quality is pretty good, but does have a few buttons on the front panel that are made of very cheap plastic. The Cd-tray is rather 'shaky' . It is made in Malaysia ; the reason I chose this player over the CPD-CA80ES was because they have pretty similar specs but the 9ES was about $ 100 more, so I figured that the unit is made in Japan and therefore has good build quality. Well, I was a bit dissapointed when I saw tacky plastic buttons. Anyway, I give it four stars for sound, 3 stars for build quality and 2 stars for value.

This is Sony's top of the line 5 disc changer. It's starting to show it's age (it was introduced in 1995), but it still offers excellent performance and sound.
So what's right about this CD player? It sounds great, and it's built like a tank, complete with an aluminum face plate. As previously noted, the tray is plastic, but it's a non issue considering what the player does with the disc once it's playing. The CDP-CA9ES isn't going to break your wallet, either. The list price is $700, but I don't know anyone who's paid that much for this CD player (I paid $400). It also offers optical, coax, and gold plated analog outs. Interestingly, there are separate discrete power supplies for the analog and digital outputs. It also has the usual Sony ES CD features like a current pulse DAC, 3 stage oversampling to minimize requantizing noise, and a proprietary timing chip to minimize timing slips (jitter, which is practically a non-issue anyways).

The CDP-CA9ES also has a "custom file" system where you can store the name of 172 (why 172? who knows?) CD's into memory. There's no keyboard input, so you'll be dependent on the remote for titling. An AMS knob like the newer Sony CD players? Nope. Due to it's age, it doesn't read CD text titles, either. In the oddest twist I've seen to date for a Sony CD player, there's no way to AMS scan through a track without the remote. Perhaps the ES engineers thought that was too "low end". Who knows?

There are also a host of odd features that the average user is unlikely to ever use, but they're here. The "music clip" feature can remember the order you like to play your CD's in, and which tracks you like skip, etc. I've never been able to find a practical use for this feature, and I probably never will. Track programming is also limited to 32 tracks. This hasn't been a problem for me, so far, but hey: it seems like an arbitrarily small number.

So what's the biggest problem with the CDP-CA9ES? It isn't the sound. It really sounds fantastic, especially when compared to my newer CDP-CE525. It's the age of the unit, and the lack of newer user friendly features that most consumers take for granted these days. For example, the CDP-CA9ES has an s-link control jack, but it's the type that was discontinued in 1996! It's not aging very gracefully.

All I really care about is the sound, since all I'm using it for is recording to MD. Breaking down the ratings:

Sound: 5
Build: 4 (plastic trays seem dated and tacky)
Extra: 3 (not a lot of frills, and a very, VERY dated design now)

Overall: 4 stars

Have had my CDP-CA9ES for about two years and think it is a fine machine. AS with the other reviews, I paid about $450 against a list price of $700, when new. I find it has all the functions I need, especially the great sound (bad CD's sound horrible and good CD's sound wonderful). Have thought of moving up to the CAL CL-10, but can't see geting anything more esoteric until there are some DVD/CD changer combo's to look at (I here Sony has a good one just out). Regardless of its dated design, it is well made and sounds great. Associated equipment: Bryston B60RP/2B-LP running in bi-amp mode, Rega 3 w/Shure V15, McIntosh 7082 tuner, Aerial 6 speakers, all with Tara Labs and Cardas interconnects. Highly recommeded for value (5 stars). Technology and quality are 4 stars (not sure what the other reveiwers want in a changer other than rigid, not particulating plastic).

Build quality.

Features. Especially when compared to less expensive players.

I bought this CD player and I had a defect in which a loud popping noise (sounded like skipping or static)was coming out of the left channel. It was exchanged and the second player worked okay.
The sound was at first was very warm, almost more like a record but airy. I started getting used to it but never liked it. The bass was weak compared to my ancient and cheap Sony CDP-C615. The features were very poor for a player of this price. There was no front panel in track fast forward or reverse and I had no interest in the other music clip features. The build quality was very good but I was really disappointed with this unit, especially compared to my old Sony that was originally less than 1/3 the price!
Sony needs to discontinue this unit and save its reputation.
Even at the $200 discount this is no value.