Smoothness and ergonomy of operation. Sonic transparency. Built-quality. Sophisticated engineering if that matter to you.

Reported premature failure of the laser block (Note that IMO the the rest of the player more than make worse the money to replace the laser-lens if that failure indeed happen).

Through reading the bottom reviews, it seems that some reviewers actually describe the U.S. multichannel 5-discs SACD changer SCD-C555ES, whereas the name of this topic do very apply to the earlier European and Asian stero-only SACD player SCD-555ES.

Let it be clear that this review is about the 2 channels SCD-555ES, which is wastly diffrent than the U.S.-market only changer.

I own this player from more than three years, now. To say anything but this is an excellent player, for regular CD as well as for SACD, is difficult. Difficult, because after extensive use, I still cannot established a stantard way of this player to reproduce music, nor find any real sonic flaws. I really do believe that this player is such a performer that further upgrade for playing CD or stereo-only SACD would only be for proud of ownership instead of well-thougt necessity. It's sort of useless exercice to describe the sonic of this player, as it actually would be to describe the way each and every specific disc is recorded and produced.

From an user perspective, the tray runs smooth and silent, the remote control is good, as are the layerness of the front panel controls, the analog ouputs are heavy well-machined gold-plated RCAs, and the finish of my (black) unit is beautifully managed. There is hardly something to criticize there.

For RBCD, you can selected one from 5 different types of signal-processing. Enjoy trying to hear a diffrence.

Bear in mind that some reports of difficulties to read CD-R seems to exist, but I cannot tell anything about this, as a do not engraved my own CD. More annoying is the susceptiblity of the mecanics to skip tracking some hybrid SACD. This seems to be linked with the wear of the lens of the powerful dual-wavelength laser over an extensive usage. My unit do have problems to track one or two very specific hybrid SACD, but that make me think that this is disc-related problem rather than the more generic failure laser problem reported elsewhere. This annoying tendency is, as far as I could tell, the only caveat of the SCD-555ES.

If you believe in the skill of little exotic manufacturers to built excellent sonic players with selected componentry, do never pick an eye inside an SCD-555ES or on its schematics: you'll see tons of audio-grade passive components, sophisticated and carefully layered circuitries, mighty proprietary digital chips, various anti-resonance and so on tweaks, as you'll never see elsewhere such huge extensive use. That could, as I once was, shocking you to the point of rethink, first- what is called audiophilia, and second- how objectively lesser built players could be marketing way more expensive than this Sony.

You see the point: perhaps someone could dislike this player, but certainly not for Sony hasn't put inside nothing but the best.

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Rega Planet.

Good price, built like a tank, multiple disk, plays SACD.

Harsh highs with my new B&W 804 speakers when playing redbook CDs.

After 2 days of breaking in my new B&W 804's I put my cheap old Sony DVD/CD player away and connected the new Sony 555ES with the same Redbook CD. The music suddenly became intolerable harsh. You might argue that my B&W speakers which tend to be somewhat forward in the high end (I call it wonderfully spacial, lucid, and revealing) had not broken in yet and the higher fidelity of the new Sony brought that out. However, after 2 days of breaking broken in, I feel they should have mollowed enough in the high frequency range and that the Sony 555ES player has a tendency to be bright and will make speakers like my B&W's which are already slightly forward sound harsh. So, without checking out the full capabilities of this player, I took it back since I wanted to use it heavily with regular CD play. In summary, I feel if your speakers are already plenty lucid and forward in the high frequency range when playing regular CD's, the Sony 555ES may induce listener fatigue rather quickly. Conversely, if they sound a little dull, the Sony 555ES player may pep them up.

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B&W 804, Denon 2805 Receiver

ES ! Gold plated inputs on rear. Gold plated headphone jack in front with volume control. Audio playback. SACD playback. Machine tooled buttons on front panel.

Louder than average tray mechanism. No standby/power on/off from remote; it's either completely on or off all the time.

I'm an audio anthusiast that was looking for an affordable mid-high end/quality cd player, and came across this player. I have it hooked to a Yamaha RX-V3300 and am listening through Energy Veritas speakers so i have the opportunity to listen through some good components. I purchased this player after testing 10-12 other players while working at Good Guys and though it is a lot higher priced than other players, it has terrific performance and the build quality is superb, this Sony ES player definately worthy of the ES branding. ["Elevated Standards"] I hope your receiver/amplifier has a power outlet on the rear because this cd player does not have a remote power button. So you have to push the power button on the front of the unit every time u turn it on or off, this cannot be turned on or off from the remote.

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Tested many other Sony, Denon, and Yamaha cd players.

SACD playback excellent and very good redbook playback

Could be more user-friendly

The Sony has been satisfying playing red book CD,s.Detailed highs without harshness and extended bass reproduction were evident. Midrange is smooth and engaging.Playing SACD,s will spoil you with it's marked increase in realism due to detail,rythm,pace,clarity and extended highs and lows not possible in redbook format.

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Pioneer and Kenwood products

good looks, solid construction

bad redbook quality (sound quality compared to the analog output of outboard DAC)

I just wanted to debunk the hype. Stereophile writes that the CD playback of this player is "good". I would assume that they mean "good" by audiophile standards. The CD playback of this player is terrible. I use it as a transport to an outboard assemblage DAC. Considering the price of multi-channel SACDS, and the fact that I have 200 CDs, I would expect excellent CD playback. But I was disappointed.

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DVD player with outboard DAC

The quality of sound. This is one of the finest sounding CD players I've heard.

Slow and noisey in loading CD's. Not jog control on unit.

I really wasn't in the market for an SACD, just a high quality changer. But, I ended up buying this player due to its great sound. Functionally, I'm not all that impressed. The changer function is quite loud. The really great dial on the player can only be used to select tracks, not move within a track. That function only exists via buttons on the remote. The player also spends quite a bit of time reading the TOC on loading a CD. But when it comes down to it, these things hardly matter. The sound of this player is incredible. Of course, I wired in the multi-channel to my amp and purchased a couple of SACD's. While the sound, depending on the recording, is incredible, the title selection is so limited that SACD really shouldn't be a deciding factor.

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Marantz (sorry, forgot model number) Sony DVP-NS700P