I bought my 'X77' in 1991 and teamed it with a Sumo Polaris amp and KEF 105/2 speakers through a Sony pre-amp, which I later replaced with a Yamaha AV amp (for surround sound) with a pre-out to keep the Sumo fo HiFi. Wtimeth this set up I had many years of audio bliss. The Sony CD player was an absolute joy to use, heavy and stable, smooth mechanism, detailed and true - and a nice piece of furniture as well! Unfortunately - it broke down in 2003 - and Sony was unable to repair due to lack of parts - from memory the drive mechanism and the laser. I haven't had the heart to throw it away, in the hope that one day a miracle will happen and I'll get it repaired! In the meantime I've replaced it with an adequate NAD transport - but it's simply not the same!! For mine the X77 is a superior CD player which outperformed many sources valued at more than twice the price.

Have had this player since 1991 and it stills works flawlessly. Its ability to move from track-to-track quickly and precisely is second to none. In it of itself, it is not a useful feature, but speaks to the design/quality/workmanship of these vintage players. Many of the older systems have had problems playing CD-Rs and CD-RWs, but this unit plays thems all despite the "old laser". Not sure about the "useless material usage" comment from the previous reviewer, but all the shielding, thick gauge metal, and ceramic feet (which all adds to the weight, by the way) help isolate the vibration and electric field. It is all meant to keep all interferences, mechanical or electrical, away. Given the quality parts usage, a new unit of this caliber would cost >$4,000 today.

Finally, the sound "tested" neutral by one of those audiophile magazines. It was touted as a neutral player that neither adds or takes away from the orginal recording, which is a highly desirable characteristic. The unit sounds good to me, but I personally, cannot comment on how well it sounds on any CDs. I don't know how the artists intended their recordings sound nor was I at the studio during the recording sessions. I can only trust that its playing back the recordings as precisely as possible.
Hey, if you want extra bass, midrange, or treble, have your processor/receiver take care of that for you.

Nice case , high quality parts, Very expensive power supply
i still give 5 stars for being a prised cd player with nearly no laser
kss 272 a available, but still i found one supplier LOL ahah,
Its a huge machine and nice useless material usage , a nice BS hifi gear :)
just for look i give it 5 starrs, if you want better music ? buy the best DAC possible
driven by hard drive with cd's stored with special laser pick up from best available
and use a NICE program with ultra fast clock to get it converted. WATEVER
DONT BUY THIS.

Why all this parts ? no idea

I may be crucified but here is my humble opinion

The transport :
it sucks, maybe its just old laser or need lens clean up or just poor digital stuff
Sony precision drive 2 cd transport beats it easy, its obvious after 1 second listening.

The Dac :
It sucks, all the review talking about bass ? No idea what is your definition of bass,
but its very poor, but yes the DAC is clean... its very polite and detailed, relaxed
and involving,

but , there is a lot better decoder , ac, and op-amp to replace it, and i mean LOT BETTER, no comparison,

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too many

Nice case , high quality parts, Very expensive power supply
i still give 5 stars for being a prised cd player with nearly no laser
kss 272 a available, but still i found one supplier LOL ahah,
Its a huge machine and nice useless material usage , a nice BS hifi gear :)
just for look i give it 5 starrs, if you want better music ? buy the best DAC possible
driven by hard drive with cd's stored with special laser pick up from best available
and use a NICE program with ultra fast clock to get it converted. WATEVER
DONT BUY THIS.

Why all this parts ? no idea

I may be crucified but here is my humble opinion

The transport :
it sucks, maybe its just old laser or need lens clean up or just poor digital stuff
Sony precision drive 2 cd transport beats it easy, its obvious after 1 second listening.

The Dac :
It sucks, all the review talking about bass ? No idea what is your definition of bass,
but its very poor, but yes the DAC is clean... its very polite and detailed, relaxed
and involving,

but , there is a lot better decoder , ac, and op-amp to replace it, and i mean LOT BETTER, no comparison,

Similar Products Used:

too many

Superb parts and build quality with Sony ergonomics

Price

The Sony CDP-707ESD was built as a statement piece for U.S. sales. I uses a unique transport designed specifically for it and not sold from the Sony parts catalog to other cd player manufacturers. Its complete copper shielding prevents emf and the build quality is second to none. It is unique among the top of the line ES cd players because it uses dual, matched Burr Brown 18 bit converters. The variable output, motorized volume control is one of the finest made in the world and allows plugging into a power amplifier with no preamp. Peter Brady, the head of ES division for Sony at the time, told me that nothing was held back in the design of this $1800 cd player. The Nextel synthetic rubber pad around the tray is designed to seal the tray when closed so subwoofer produced low frequencies will not cause low resonance to affect the laser reader. As the original owner I have never had any problem of any kind from this very high end component, and because it is matched and integrated into my audio system, I have never had a reason to part with it.

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Sony CDP-620ES II

Great sound!!

Heavy beast!

I was looking for info on my CDP-X77es and didn't think I'd find any! I am about to upgrade into true audiophile territory and new my player was good, but didn't realize I should probably keep it. I teamed this with the Sony GX90es Receiver and Mirage SM2.5's in 1990 and loved the sound. I guess I'll be keeping it, thanks to all the reviewers!!

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None this good.

My particular model is the X707ES, the last of the "gold" ES players, discontinued in 1995 when the XA7ES was introduced. I wish to discuss a little known fact which goes far to eplain the build quality and sound of this player. These "gold" ES players from the late 80's thru 1995 were essentially units designed and built for the home Japanese market. Their sound was voiced for Japanese preferences, i.e., harmony and tone rather than American high-end preferences, i.e., analytical detail often accompanied by tonal sterility. It's no accident that so much old McIntosh and Marantz tube gear has been exported to Japan. In any case, because of the small volume of sales to the US, Sony simply took their domestic units, changed printing to english, adjusted the AC line voltage, and gave us the "gold" ES players. In direct comparison the the best domestic and English players, these ES players have an unmatched full tonal quality and "naturalness". Just like tube equipment, however, they lack the pin point detail of top end transistor equipment. So if you're an engineer conducting scientific measurements these units are not for you; but, if you're a music lover, who simply wants to experience the full emotional involvement with the music, these units are unsurpassed. In addition, considering their build quality, at their current used prices, they must rank as one of the great buys of the music equipment world. And no, I'm not getting ready to sell my unit! I simply wish to share my opinion with other music lovers on a budget.

Very nice .

If it's can play SACD,that's .....

I pay for this CD player about $850 .I love it very much . It's a pretty nice CD player for home use . As I know ,Sony stopped it's product line about 1998, I can't find the date of production,the seller told me was produced in 97,I don't think it's a problem ,because I love it ,warmly ,smoothly and friendliness . It's better than the other ES product of Sony's , and now the sound quality and long-term reliability is not as good as it was 10 years ago ,such as X777 also .

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Sony X777ES

Bass,Clarity,Midrange.

Heavy as hell

I have had this cd player for a couple of years now and I have am extremely happy with the performance. However I have not always been happy. On the back of the player are two sets of inputs, Variable and Fixed. When I installed this in my stereo system 2 years ago the Stereo shop told me that it made no difference whether I hook up to Fixed or Variable. BOY WAS HE WRONG. For the past 6 months I have had my Copland Integrated and the Sony CD Player out of the wall unit to take down the my favorite audio store in Windsor and listened to different speakers and cables etc.etc. When reinstalling sometimes I would hook up to variable and sometimes I would hook up to fixed.
Being told that there was NO difference in the two I never suspected that the reason I was SOMETIMES extremely happy and SOMETIMES I was NOT IMPRESSED AT ALL. After about 6 months of messing around and buying better cable and tweeks I finally found the reason why the difference.
With my MIT interconnects and MIT speaker wire and my Totem Tabu speakers and Copland Integrated Amp this player is astounding. For a 10 year old cd player I will put it up against ( and I have ) any other player up to 5-6000 dollars.

This is an excellent sounding cd player.

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Copland 289,Linn karik,Arcam,YBA,(just about everything out there)

PRICE $400 CPD-X77ES

NONE

I,LOVE THIS UNIT.SMOOTH,WARM,ALL AROUND CD PLAYER. ON ALL CD'S . BEST OF ALL I PAID $400.IF YOU HAVE A CHANCE TO BUY ONE, DO IT. I HAD A LCAUDIO XO CLOCK AND 4 AD825 OPAMPS IN STALLED.GOT IN THE MOOD TO TWEAK. BUT IT REALLY DOESN'T NEED IT, IN STOCK FORM IT'S A GREAT DEAL.10 YEAR'S OLD ,WOW.THANK'S TO ED ABOVE... IT WAS MADE IN 1990..

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NOT VERY MANY.....