The Sony A7ES is a superb player. As the Stereophile review said, finding fault is a lot of work with little return. The mids and highs are very natural. The bass may be a little soft sounding, but it goes very deep with terrific impact, and there is good detail.
As with other top Sony ES players, built quality is as good as any other product on the market. I owned a CDP-X707ES - the previous top-of-the-line model - and found its ergonomics better. I also liked the ability to completely turn off the display in the X707. But the sound of the XA7 simply blows it away.

Unless one is a transistor detail freak, I can't imagine anyone not appreciating how well this player reproduces MUSIC.

It is a beautiful CD player!
This review is from only the first nights listening session and
was originally a direct response to the person who sold it to me.

System:

Sony XA7ES(SP-A)(Using variable outputs bypassing preamp)
Sonic Frontiers SFS-80(SP-B) - 80watt tube (6550C) amp
PBN Montana Series 1(SP-B)

Here are the listening results:

The "sound" is far and away different than my Denon DCD-2700 ($1200 retail).

Eagles - Hell Freezes Over
The Sony took away the tension and edge and replaced it with a smoothness and warmth. The Sony maintained the music's pace and sounded more natural. Not really a desired effect on this R&R CD.

Analogue/FI mag - Blues/Jazz Sampler
Sonny Boy Williamson (Tracks 1&2) - The Sony's smoothness and warmth came across excellently. Pinpoint imaging. HI-FI demonstration track (Track 10) - More of the music presented, greater harmonic/instrumental detail.
I will purchase the SBW CD. Best imaging to date except lots of background noise due to age of recording.

Mighty Sam McClain (XRCD) - Keep on Movin
Give it up to Love is the better CD. The Sony brings me closer to the music. XRCD qualities are easier to ascertain with the Sony.

Overall, Sony is easily SP-A for a musical naturalness, yet accuracy.

Along with tube amp it provided to much warmth/smoothness on Eagles R&R CD, although the PBN's are reviewed as somewhat analytical.

On jazz/blues CD's the Sony is a hit for the reasons described above.

Will continue to listen on other material. Will substitute other speakers/amps, which I have in-house, into the system to get best overall system balance: B&W CDM1SE's speakers(SP-B), ADCOM 5800 amp (SP-B), Carver ALIII speakers.

Let's get serious, what is the reason for a fixed laser and a puck? It's quite simply a marketing gimmick. Fixing the laser instead of the spindle motor has no advantages. It's slower to respond to track search requests and there's extra vibrating motor mass to move. As for the puck- think about it, the disc does not need any extra inertia as its rotational speed is on a constant decrease from disc start to end- why attempt the flywheel effect? Congratulations to Sony however, on fooling another bunch of people into wasting money on a new machine. I have a X7es, the last of the true multibit machines before the dreaded pulse D/A converters. Don't kid yourselves, the only reason one bit converters were made was to save money, not to improve sound quality. Laser trimming the resistor r2r networks in D/A chips cost a lot of money. A good machine no doubt, but worth $3000?

First of all let me state that the xa7es can be bought for 2000$ and under. J&R in NY sells them at that price, NEW. No Cd player in the world is worth more than 2000$, even that price seems to much for me sometimes.It seems that John knows how to built cd players better than one of the worlds leading company called SONY. Please enough with the remarks on this machine. Ive heard all the expencive CD players out there and nothing sounds better than the xa7es. Im not saying the xa7es sounds better than a 5000$ CD player but Ill put it this way, Once you hit 1500$ and up I dont think theres going to be a difference between one cd player from another. If there is a difference then it wont be very noticeable. The built quality of the xa7es is one of a kind and the sound is the best you can get from a cd player in todays world. Anything better than that would be the real thing or maybe the new high defenition CDs that are being recorded today. Thank You

Solid buid transport system, tracking a terribly scratched cd with ease.

none

Very musical cd player, has a similar sound characteristic as the Accuphase cd player. Very good bass production.

Equipments:
Sony cdp XA7ES
Sony preamp TAE90ES
Sony amp TAN90ES
Paradigm Studio 60
Tara Labs speaker cable RSC Prime 1000
Tara Labs Decade IC (XLR between preamp to amp)
Audioquest Diamond IC (XLR between cd player to preamp)

Digital Toslink & Coaxial Outputs, Analog Balanced & RCA Outputs, Analog RCA volume controlled Output

Digital Output button is hard to see. Analog Balance Only switch is in the back. 12 direct skips to on CD unit verus 15 on remote. Balance Output is not US standard

When I bought my Martin Logan speaker system with Aragon Amp, the other componets started revealing their weakness. My older Sony ES CD player tray was sticking, & fading out. It turned out to be a short in the RCA output. It was time to but a new or good used CD player. I went to my local High End store, Digital Ear in Tustin CA, & looked at the Audio Research CD2 for $3500.00 & a few Krells for a arm & a leg. Then while I was driving by the Good Guys, I noticed they were having a sale, & I found a 1995 floor model XA7ES for $2400.00 with a year to pay it off. I bought it & when I got it home, I discovered that the Balance Outputs were reversed from the US standard. I was so upset, went back to the Good Guys & they said I could get my money back. Then I went to Digital Ear & they sold me a special ordered reversed Balanced Output from Harmonic Techonolgy. Pluged the whole thing up & I was very pleased with the sound, thou I have heard that it does play dark, what ever that means. A few things I dont like, you have to push in a small button that is hard to see to make the unit play Digital out, & the Balance only switch is in the back, where I have to walk behide my stereo system to get to. It has 12 skips on the unit & 15 skips on the remote, while my older Sony ES had 20 skips. Why couldn't Sony just leave it at 20 skips, I have to push 10 plus button too much with this unit. The real bad news is that 6 months after I bought this unit, Sony came out with their new media. Well, let me see if this media will make it, then I will worry about being rip off from a big company. The XA7ES is no longer the flag ship of Sony, it's out of production. I suggest not buying this unit & waiting for either a DVD verus Sony's new media to be sorted out.

Similar Products Used:

Older 1988 Sony top of the line ES series

I feel the build quality of this model is very good. The fact that the display comes out with the drawer is new to me, but I am sure I'll get usedto it. as far as sound....exellent! I'm not to thrilled that Sony does not offer side panels anymore. The fixed laser pick up idea is also new from
Sony, I was a little skeptical at first but after reading some reviews on this model, I think it has it's advantages. The transport is as smooth as
glass. With all things considered, I must give the XA7ES at the very least 4 STARS

SONY XA7ES CD playerEven after 2-3 years since SONY has launch the XA7ES player, it is still a very good player. I have listened to the REGA, ARCAM 9 and PROCEED, perhaps only the ARCAM 9 matches or slightly better the SONY. But because of its built qualities and the fact that is a SONY (meaning that I have no Worries about any servicing in future ) I decided to go for the XA7ES.

This is, without a doubt, the best compact disc player I have ever heard. I do not have expensive equipment, but over the years I have built a decent system with some N.A.D. and (older) Snell speakers. Then the local stereo store was selling this (discontinued) demo unit for only $500, so I had to take a chance. Let me tell you my system has come alive! I previously had the top of the line Harmon Kardon 1-bit player in my system (another "good deal"), but I can not get over the space between the instruments, the detail in acoustic guitars, and the solid bass in all the recordings I thought I knew by heart. I never thought I would praise a Sony product, but this is a definitive product. The XA7Es must be the culmination of the current digital design.

solid,heavy,good remote,error free tracking

single player, expensive,

This cd player is built like a tank. It is heavy and solid. The cd drawer slides out smoothly, and the drawer itself is wide and stabile. I have never encountered a problem with tracking and skipping. The sound is what one would expect from a good cd player. In the past i have had exotic dac and transport setups which did not sound any better than this single unit. The Parasound transport in fact was a nightmare to own. It could not track properly and it could not read half of my cd collection. I have never encountered this with the sony. If you are looking for a cd player that will last for years, and one that will hold it's own against DAC and transport set-ups, then opt for this expensive sony.

Similar Products Used:

parasound seperate DAC and transport setup.