Price Paid:  $250.00 from second hand

Summary:
I have bought this unit second hand,to try out sacd.
It was hardly used by the owner,because after he bought this player,he could get his hands on a scd 555es.
The plastic foil was still on the screen,and I could not find anny scratch or fingerprint on the machine.
There were only 7 discs played on it.
When I took it out of the box,and connected it to my pre amp,it sounded horrible,I was very dissapointed.
But then I thought it isn,t even burnt in yet,so I let it spin for a few days,and its sound improved by the day.
At first it was easily outperformed by my marantz cd63ki,but 2 weeks later it was par.
I bought a sacd of pink floyd,and was dissapointed again,I expected much more.
It sounded even more natural on de 63ki!
You could hear more spacy sound on the sony,but the bas was to much,and the stage became mudded when the band gave full potention.
Now,4 weeks later,it became much better,and can you hear the real difference with the 63
I have now a sacd from Diana Krall,a modern recording on sacd,and this realy sounds phenominal!
Now I can hear the full potention of sacd,real natural flow of music,Krall realy in the room in front,good 3d image,and a real piano with no edgy sound,this is what I expected of sacd!
Everything is sounding clear,transparant,and very open,leaving the marantz way behind.
There is a feeling of beiing there,as it should be.
Afterall,Im happy now with it,and the sound still improves.
Now I hope that sacd will make it in this world,and won,t dissapear after a few years,because Iunderstand that not manny people are interrested in sacd,if they are no audiophile.
Here in the netherlands it is hard to find many titles on sacd,and are expencive in my oppinion.
We have to wait and see.

Strengths:
fluid with sacd,nice build for the money,good with cd.

Weaknesses:
discloader looks weak,no cdrw,no volume output.

Similar Products Used:
no sacd at home but,
marantz
denon
mission
philips




my equipment contains:
pre -power:croft(tube)
speaker :sonus faber-KEF

Price Paid:  $300.00 from practical hifi

Summary:
I bought this cd player after reading favourable reviews on this site. paid £200 for it.At first I did not get much enjoyment out of it. My preamp was guilty big time. Then I changed my preamp and bam the sound opened up and bass became better defined. Let's just say if it were not for the curiousty factor I could live with this player for a very long time. Imagine this I have not played a single SACD since I changed my preamp here and yet it gives wonderful music. There is a moral here, if your amp is crap then it will rob your cd player of a lot of it's sound quality. The top end of this player is very good,The bass is there, but a little soft but I think my amp takes part of the blame here because noticed some significant improvments when I changed power amp. In summary this player does most things well, refined top end, good midrange and above average bass (Amp also plays big part in bass quality)

preamp: rotel rha 10
power amp: Exposure Super Stereo 18
Speakers: Kef 35.2
Cables: Shark silver plated
Interconnects: TCI whatever - not sure,entry level

Strengths:
very sweet top end and midrange.

Weaknesses:
May that bass could be better

Similar Products Used:
Sony CDP 570

Price Paid:  $300.00 from Practical Hi-Fi

Summary:
I was looking for a reasonably priced CD player to replace my dieing Marantz CD65II SE (a player that had won the What Hi-Fi Awards best in 1989). I came across the XB940 through these review pages. At £200 I thought I had nothing to lose on what looked liked an audio bargain! I really thought that SONY stated it did not play CDR’s was a piece of marketing garbage - my ageing Marantz plays CDR’s fine and it was made before CDR’s were even invented; however it does not play CDR’s which is a major disapointment. The CD playback on this machine totally blows my Marantz away - there is depth and detail that I had not heard before, I don’t have much to compare it to so it’s difficult to give a fair criticism but I really think as a CD player it really sounds amazing - there’s plenty of punch there and there’s all the bass you need. The build quality of this machine is fantastic, there’s not much going on on the front - I like things simple. The jog dial is really great - you can access tracks super quick. The headphone socket works really well with my Senheisher’s HD600’s. However this machine will probambly me moved to my flat as a I really need a machine that plays CDR’s - I am going to look at the Arcam CD72 - if the reviews are true of this machine I expect to be blown away again. What about SACD playback? I have purchased Tubular Bells and yes it sounds superb - just like they say, warmer more detailed - my biggest probelm with SACD is the availibility and cost of the format - there are classic CD’s I would be preapred to pay £20 for but SONY really need to get the price of this format down if they want it take off. The range of titles will come in time. I would be interested in seeing reviews of the newer low end SONY SACD players. Oh, and by the way it can be custom upgraded by a company called Vacume State!

Strengths:
Refined, dynamic, detail, space.
Î

Weaknesses:
Does not play CDR’s, and at it’s original price of £550 you would expect it to.

Similar Products Used:
Marantz CD 655

Price Paid:  $300.00 from Practical Hi-Fi, Preston

Summary:
I am a college student currently 17. I have a system of Musocal Fidelity X-A2 amp, Monitor Audio Studio 20 speakers, REL Q-150E sub, NAD C520 CD player (which i was going to upgrade next) and a Sony Minidisk Deck.

I had looked at SACD in the past and thought that 550 pounds was a bit of a risk when i could spend it on a dedicated CD player, and i didnt want to buy one of the newer cheaper machines which have compromised on quality. They may be multi-channel but that wouldn't affect me and to be honest i don't want multi channel. A $10000 stereo system will sound better than a $10000 multi channel system. It's simple economics. You buy less of much better quality, and unless u care too much about movies... so what?

Anyway, i wen't to the local hi-fi shop to have a look around and saw this machine for a mere 200 pounds and thought 'why the hell is this so cheap?'.. so i auditioned it for 5 mins in the shop... and thought it's not much money to spend on what is a decent SACD player and a great CD player. Plus the build of the machine was second to none at a 200 pound price and better than most at the origonal price of 550 pounds. I got this home, connected it up and with CD's its much better than my NAD and much better than other CD players we have in the house such as the Marantz mentioned. I was amazed. And with the sample SACD disc i had it was staggering just how detailed it was and how good a soundstage was created. Every note was crystal clear, and it goes very well with the rest of my system. For 200 pounds you can't complain, when a newer and inferior machine in terms of build and sound quality costs twice that. One of the only genuine bargains i have yet seen. Go buy one before they are all sold out.

Strengths:
With SACD's it's amazing for the price, with CD's its as good as a $800 CD player at least. Great build, 'nice and simple' operation :)

Weaknesses:
where are the discs? :/

Similar Products Used:
Marantz CD6000KI, Arcam CD72, NAD C520

Price Paid:  $300.00 from Sony Norway

Summary:
I have never spent so little money and received so much musical joy in return. This player is (especially on SACD) imho the best Ive ever heard, its miles ahead even $10,000 players (sorry folks). I think this proves that technology is a far better music-improver than more $$$ (sorry again). SONY is now dumping these players, I guess two-channel is a little bit out, besides they are a couple of years old. But whats happening with SACDs ? Should be numerous by now and theres only a handful.

Strengths:
The ABSOLUTE best sound Ive EVER heard from a source.

Weaknesses:
Lack of SACD-titles (shouldnt there be a lot of them now 2 years after HW-release ?)

Similar Products Used:
Onkyo DX-706, Pioneer PD-S06, EAD T-1000