Bought it after reading the positive feedbacks here, and I am not disappointed for the price I paid.

It is a nice, cheap used CD player, well built, but not as well as older " built like a Tank" Sony ES CD players.

The sound is smooth, (it could be a bit more firm and a tiny bit more dynamic for my taste) and close to natural.
Detailed, with even frequency response, and has good soundstage, but not as good as Sony's higher range ES CD players (XA5ES, X303ES, X505ES).

Compare to them, they have better sound, the instruments has richer and fuller bodied presence on the stage, and has more musicality and refinement, but the rest is ( detail, smoothness, tonality, naturalness) basically the same, and the higher category Sony players also lack a bit of crispness and dynamics to me, but I have a feeling, I would only get these lacking things from much-much higher priced "audiophile" CD players that I won't pay for.

Bought this for less than 100ukp delivered in a dusty state and after a good clean including the laser it's a great player.

I'm not a great believer in subjective audiophile terms, but suffice it to say this sounds very good indeed!

SNR 117db & THD 0.0023% are very good specifications.

Grab one while you can, this is a player from when true audio performance still mattered.

Worth noting this is one of the few ES models you can still buy lasers for too.

My Denon DVD 2900 is on a par with this, and my newly acquired Denon DCD S10 now beats it, but not by much!

one of the best kept secrets among CD players world wide,what first of all really matters with CD Players ,is the SOUND, and XA2 is playing in a range even rarely reached nowadays by any brand!

warm sound, great quality

power button

one of the best cdplayers by sony ever

I have had the chance to compare the SONY XA7ES and the XA2ES soundwise it's almost identical, I did a double blind test and I really cannot discern the difference between the two cd player. The $3,000 SONY XA7ES has more additional gizmo than the basic $600 XA2ES thats the only difference I could give so if you are planning to spend $3,000 for a cd player you owe it to yourself to audition SONY XA2ES. My system is made up of Infinity composition prelude speakers, Cary 300SEI with western electric 300B tubes,Kimber Silver hybrid interconnects and wire.

I also did extensive shopping/listening for a sub $1000 CD player and I was suprised to choose the SONY. Suprised since I'm not particularly fond of SONY products. There's very little the SONY adds to or subtracts from the music. I found it too be the most neutral among the Rega, Onkyo 7711, Cal Labs, and others.
I just purchased a Pioneer DVD player and when comparing 96k/24bit Chesky recordings the SONY and Pioneer, the SONY give up very little to the new conversion format. The SONY is a fine player with a really cool transport mechanism and a remote controlled variable out.

My system is composed of:
VTL DeLux 140 Monoblocks
Klyne 6PX Preamp
VPI 19jr/MMT Premier/AT-OC9
KD-KV7000 speakers
Kimber 8TC/PBJ/Cardas Quadlink

sony 222es cd player, i have own my a grat many ccd players, rotel,dennon, pioneer, and the sony 777es,the sony 222es is a great cd player, bass is very good , not as good as 777es . the mids and highs
are great withthis cd player you must use good cables ,oher equip. accupahse amp/pre amp, lexicon-cp-1+, carvertfm-42 amp, adcom-535-mk-2 amp
3bx-, pioneer-rg-1 range expanders, sony dat,sony cassette dk, speakers>> jbl4311 moniters, paradium moniter-5, cerwin vega-dx-9 , bic venturi-4,
i give the sony 222es a 4.50 for it,s analog like

Smooth-sounding but with superb resolving power

For 350UKP, this is a seriously good player. The transport is rock solid and for a budget Japanese player, it is surprisingly free of digital nasties. Though the Sony is probably best matched with a lush-sounding interconnect in a neutral-sounding system.

It easily bettered the "reference" Marantz cd63se with a smoother yet more dynamic sound. Not dynamic in the 63se sense, i.e. compressed and in-your-face, but graduations between soft and loud are more readily apparent.
Perhaps the Sony ES brand does not have the pretend-audiophile appeal of the Marantz (the Marantz ad... watch by cartier, suit by cerruti and cd-player by marantz; how aspirational); however it is a far superior player, tonally and rhythmically. Headphone users will appreciate the sony's headphone output, which will not cause a headache after 5 minutes of use unlike the cd63se.

Comparison with the rotel 971, again showed the sony to be smoother sounding. The rotel offered more in dynamic bite, uncompressed with excellent timing . However, the bass and treble with the rotel can be rather detached and prominent, lacking the easy-going nature of the sony. In the wrong system it'll be rather lumpy-sounding, whereas in the sony the bass, midrange and treble play together. For budget CD replay, best go for the sweeter sound.

The xa-2es will most likely better the current non-ES and probably most other players at what should be now a discounted price.

If you can forgive the sony label, have a listen and enjoy the music.

Similar Products Used:

Marantz cd63se & rotel 971

Apparently this CD player is not available in the US, only in Europe.
I have the bright gold model.

When selecting my setup of CD, pre-amp, amp and speakers I auditioned
a lot of CD's. Marantz, and Rega was the ones I liked.

Then, surprisingly to myself, I choose the Sony XA2ES only because of it's
sound. It's very rich, very detailed and still smooth 'un-digital'.
Features are good, they are not used so much but do not hurt
anyone. The 'SONY' brand does not really have an 'impress' factor,
but it's a classy CD that sound very very good.

The rest of my system is:

Adcom GFP-345 Pre-amp
Adcom GFA-5200 amp
B&W 805V speakers
Cambridge audio and Monstercable cables.

Close your eyes and listen, and ignore the 'Sony Discma^H^H^H^H^H^H' logo :-)