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Great review of SCD-XA3000ES SACD player in Hi-fi Choice Dec 2003

Posted by mark_nz (A) on November 28, 2003 at 14:11:45

Review comments include:
- Better AND cheaper than the previous model XA333ES (£800 vs £1200).
- Betters universal players reviewed in same edition (Denon 2900 tops group test, great value at £850), as one hope for a dedicated SACD player.
- Betters the Marantz SA17S1 (£1400) that was reviewed in Nov 2003. This surprises me because I have generally preferred the Marantz players when I compared them to Sony players. (The Marantz SA-14 is my all time favourite.)
- The most interesting comment is about how this player, like the earliest SACD players results in imaging reminiscent of headphone listening, where the players seem to exist around the listening position - a trait not found on recent universal players! Mmmh, okay, not sure if I fully understand. Anyone else experience this?

The one interesting clue that could explain the good review is astonishing low jitter: 80psec for CD and 15psec for SACD!!!! This has to be some sort of record.

I had a quick look at the player yesterday at the Sony store - the new look with stepped top edge looks good. Seems to be quick to load disks and moving between tracks. Does feel fairly light though, obviously some cost cutting somewhere, but then again the sound quality is the most important criteria.

I intend to get a multi-channel SACD player sometime (currently own the SCD-777ES). Given the new realistic pricing in New Zealand, $2000NZD vs $3500NZD for the previous XA333ES, this will go to the top of my list for an audition.

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