Sony SCD-XA777ES CD Player
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The Best Used SACD player you can buy!
Pros
Good Value, Soundstaging, Rock Solid Build Quality, Stereophile A+ rating
Cons
Heavy, Slow loading, Expensive for Middle Hi Fi system, No Balanced Output, Discontinued
Recommended it?
Yes
The Bottom Line:
Buy a used one and save $$$. Built to last. The pleasure will be all yours.
If you are looking to buy a used SACD player, the buck ends here. Why you ask? Well, there are many reasons. If you are not interested in a bit of a history lesson please skip to the end of this epinion. By the way,as of this date, the SCD-777 ES has been discontinued. There is a newer front loading 777 series model coming out later this year. Otherwise read on...
History of SACD
First of Sony, in general, is not looked upon by many audiophiles as being a company that produces audiophile quality components. But for SACD listening systems, they have produced two exceptional products, the Sony SCD-1 and the Sony SCD-777 ES SACD/CD player. Yes they have other SACD players but they are not in the same league in terms of sound quality. Sony's strategy for the US market was to target the SACD initially at the audiophile market niche which they have done successfully over the past 2 years. Now Sony is aggressively lowering prices of both SACD disks and players in order to win market share from another rival format, DVD audio. I have read that there will be 2000 SACD titles available by the end of next year.
The Sony SCD-777 ES has become the audiophile reference SACD player of choice. When Sony first launched this the retail price was $3500. Then they dropped the price to $2500 to boost sales. This is good value compared to the Sony SCD-1 which retails at $5000 (Street price $3600) and is essentially the same machine with balanced outputs. The SCD-777 has RCA outputs. How do the 2 machines sound? Well, although they are comparable the SCD-1 sounds darker and the SCD-777 sounds brighter. Also I think that the soundstaging of the SCD-1 is better.
Both machines take a long time to break in, at least 200 hours for both SACD and CD playback areas. So you can put the player on repeat for a while before you listen to it out of the box. And yes, I do own both the SCD-1 and SCD-777 ES. I play the piano and have 2 different listening systems in my house. My goal is to have a musical listening system which brings me closer to the recording artist's original intention.
Competition
Ah, here is where things get interesting. Marantz has 2 SACD models which are the SA-1 (retail price $7500 and street price $4700) which may be discontinued. I haven't heard this, but according to users, it sounds smooth and musical but is overpriced. And then there's the new SA-14 (retail price $2800 street price $2400) which is just being released as I write this. This appears to be real competition because it loads faster than the 777 and from advanced reports is very musical since it uses newer digital audio converters than the SA-1.
Also there are a slew of other manufacturers coming out with SACD products. Some of them like Philips, which owns Marantz, are betting on the multi-channel aspect of SACD to make it a hit with the mass market.
Sony itself plans to release 14 new SACD players in the future. So a big push is on the way. Most of these newer player do not use Class A components and are geared towards the mass market which means lower prices for you but also compromised sound quality. This will be great for the average consumer.
So why get a used Sony SCD-777?
1. Audiophiles love it and believe it or not a whole cottage industry has even cropped modifying the capacitors and various parts of the thing. Go figure for some audiophiles enough is never enough. Now you know a product is a hit when that happens.
2. Since it's been discontinued, the used prices have been going up. Again another sign of a classic product is one where prices go up when it has been discontinued. People know that Sony is not ever going to sell a loss leader like this again with this kind of build quality.
3. Because this is a popular SACD classic people have a good idea what components work well with. Good examples include Van Den Hul carbon fiber interconnects, Symposium Rollerblocks etc. For those of you who don't know what I was just mentioning, don't worry it's useful info for owners who are trying to tweak their sound systems.
4. Soundstaging is outstanding, and you are able to achieve pinpoint imaging with revealing speakers. Also there is a first rate top loading transport which although slow to load is rock solid. Don't forget that Stereophile created a whole new category (A+) to accomodate SACD players like the Sony SACD-1, 777-ES, and Marantz SA-1.
I won't go deeply into the technical side of this product as you can go to Sony's site for that. Sony has a 5 year warranty on this. All you need to know is that buying this you won't go wrong. OK, I paid too much for it, but I just had to have it. Yes it is expensive but this SACD player is meant for a Class A systems which are very revealing and cannot use lesser quality components. If you can buy a used unit at about 50% of original retail, I urge you to do so.
History of SACD
First of Sony, in general, is not looked upon by many audiophiles as being a company that produces audiophile quality components. But for SACD listening systems, they have produced two exceptional products, the Sony SCD-1 and the Sony SCD-777 ES SACD/CD player. Yes they have other SACD players but they are not in the same league in terms of sound quality. Sony's strategy for the US market was to target the SACD initially at the audiophile market niche which they have done successfully over the past 2 years. Now Sony is aggressively lowering prices of both SACD disks and players in order to win market share from another rival format, DVD audio. I have read that there will be 2000 SACD titles available by the end of next year.
The Sony SCD-777 ES has become the audiophile reference SACD player of choice. When Sony first launched this the retail price was $3500. Then they dropped the price to $2500 to boost sales. This is good value compared to the Sony SCD-1 which retails at $5000 (Street price $3600) and is essentially the same machine with balanced outputs. The SCD-777 has RCA outputs. How do the 2 machines sound? Well, although they are comparable the SCD-1 sounds darker and the SCD-777 sounds brighter. Also I think that the soundstaging of the SCD-1 is better.
Both machines take a long time to break in, at least 200 hours for both SACD and CD playback areas. So you can put the player on repeat for a while before you listen to it out of the box. And yes, I do own both the SCD-1 and SCD-777 ES. I play the piano and have 2 different listening systems in my house. My goal is to have a musical listening system which brings me closer to the recording artist's original intention.
Competition
Ah, here is where things get interesting. Marantz has 2 SACD models which are the SA-1 (retail price $7500 and street price $4700) which may be discontinued. I haven't heard this, but according to users, it sounds smooth and musical but is overpriced. And then there's the new SA-14 (retail price $2800 street price $2400) which is just being released as I write this. This appears to be real competition because it loads faster than the 777 and from advanced reports is very musical since it uses newer digital audio converters than the SA-1.
Also there are a slew of other manufacturers coming out with SACD products. Some of them like Philips, which owns Marantz, are betting on the multi-channel aspect of SACD to make it a hit with the mass market.
Sony itself plans to release 14 new SACD players in the future. So a big push is on the way. Most of these newer player do not use Class A components and are geared towards the mass market which means lower prices for you but also compromised sound quality. This will be great for the average consumer.
So why get a used Sony SCD-777?
1. Audiophiles love it and believe it or not a whole cottage industry has even cropped modifying the capacitors and various parts of the thing. Go figure for some audiophiles enough is never enough. Now you know a product is a hit when that happens.
2. Since it's been discontinued, the used prices have been going up. Again another sign of a classic product is one where prices go up when it has been discontinued. People know that Sony is not ever going to sell a loss leader like this again with this kind of build quality.
3. Because this is a popular SACD classic people have a good idea what components work well with. Good examples include Van Den Hul carbon fiber interconnects, Symposium Rollerblocks etc. For those of you who don't know what I was just mentioning, don't worry it's useful info for owners who are trying to tweak their sound systems.
4. Soundstaging is outstanding, and you are able to achieve pinpoint imaging with revealing speakers. Also there is a first rate top loading transport which although slow to load is rock solid. Don't forget that Stereophile created a whole new category (A+) to accomodate SACD players like the Sony SACD-1, 777-ES, and Marantz SA-1.
I won't go deeply into the technical side of this product as you can go to Sony's site for that. Sony has a 5 year warranty on this. All you need to know is that buying this you won't go wrong. OK, I paid too much for it, but I just had to have it. Yes it is expensive but this SACD player is meant for a Class A systems which are very revealing and cannot use lesser quality components. If you can buy a used unit at about 50% of original retail, I urge you to do so.
