Has anyone used those series of cd player (5 disc changers). I got a really good deal on it and i am questionning if its a good cd player. I think it is cause its SONY ES, but i could be wrong. THANKS!
I thing the ES 5 Disc changers were the best out there back in the day. The 8ES should have a very smooth sound and operate flawlessly. It should still compete with a lot of more expensive single disc platers.
nout
Unregistered guest
Posted on
Sony ES is very well built and in my opinion underrated (in favour of NAD, Rotel and Marantz)...but how it sounds and if you like it is up to you. In general the ES serie excells in "neutrality", I don't know how to describe it, but for some it lacks character...it lacks a specific house sound (as one would say: "that's typically NAD...")
Anonymous
Posted on
While the Sony ES CD players have excellent electronics, I wouldn't make the generalization that they are "very well built." I have the Sony XA1ES which was built defectively and had to be returned to the factory for that defect to be corrected - the CDs would fall into the interior of the player. You have to call a Sony phone number before returning it for service and go through a long song and dance in which Sony pretends to never ever have heard of the problem, even though it had been commonly posted on the internet. Worth mentioning in case you consider buying one used - it may not have been corrected. Same with a Sony ES cassette player - had to be returned under warranty - and one of the two problems was never fixed. And the Sony CD player's headphone jack has come lose, after the warranty was up. So Sony construction can be quite shoddy. The ES line should have been called the EW line for extended warranty. BUT, the ES CD players with the 45 bit processors sound great. I have two, and they still beat anything else I own. Sony got this part right. But you have to do some research to find out if any particular unit has the 45 bit 95 mhz processor. One time about five years ago I e-mailed Sony to find out what sort of DA converter a particular ES receiver used. The young lady who e-mailed me back said that the receiver did not have a DA converter. I responded by asking whether the optical input was perhaps for Christmas lights. Never did find out what they were using. And Sony is mystified why their profits are down.
I own a Sony XA-5ES CD player. I bought one at a reasonable price from Ebay, and the machine is in absolutely mint condition.
I bought the Sony specifically with the intention to get the machine modded.
The "house sound" for Sony ES CD and SACD players is IMHO analytical and detailed. It is very subjective but some might say that the Sony ES machines lack musicality, or that they don't "swing".
But one thing I am sure of is that the build and engineering of most mid to high level ES series components is truly amazing. If my Sony ES XA-5ES was build by a small UK specialist manufacturer I am sure it would have cost a lot more than it originally sold for.
I have looked under the hood of my XA-5ES, and it is truly a thing of beauty. Two bulkheads separate, the power supply from the transport and servo section, and the DAC/analogue PCB.
The machine has 2 R-core torroid xformers, for the digital and analogue sections. The sides of the unit are very solid aluminium extrusions. The base lid and rear panel are made of very solid steel. The underside of the lid has damping material applied. The machine also has an in built passive LC filter to suppress mains interference on the primary side of the 2 transformers.
The entire machine is populated with dedicated Elma Silmic, and Nichicon Muse Kz capacitors. The audio board has copper bus bars for the power rails. The transport section, has a fixed optical pickup, and is truly sublime. I could go on and on......
The material value represented by this machine is amazing, and it is far from stock sony with added ballast.
Having said all the above. I am not wild on the sound of the stock machine. My machine is in fact in the shop for mods at the moment. I hope it will perform significantly better when I get it back.
I don't know if my comments are applicable to the entire ES line, but my XA-5ES is very "well built".