Hi, a friend is offering a Sony CDP X777ES in good condition. Would appreciate any advices/comments on its sonic quality as a stand-alone player and as a transport. Browsing through the 'net, most comments have been positive, although the laser mechanism is hard to find and expensive? 😕
If you get one that works, it's one of the best players you can get at the price, period - if not the best. The laser is almost unobtainable now as Sony stock spare parts for 15 years, and this has long passed with htis player. Some players from the same series use the same laser, and there are some who still have it but the price is very high. On the other hand, the mechanism is near indestructible. The only moving parts are the spindle motor rotor and bearings (brushless), and the sliding laser support - it uses a voice coil for laser sled movement so no gears or enithing like that.
Possible weak points - old electrolytics on control boards, spindle motor back bearing. On the whole it's built like a tank, and the laser lasts very very long.
It's sucessor is similar with a centrally mounted mechanism, and is probably one of the best CD players ever made - this would be the X779/X707, essentially the same machine. The DAC is better in this machine but as transports the performance is similar. The XA series ones that followed had slightly better digital filters but the rest of the electronics was already affected by slim profit margins - instead of discrete regulators with FETs you get standard LM317 and 7805 chips... not to say these are bad, quite the oposite, but compared to the previous models, this is a downgrade.
Possible weak points - old electrolytics on control boards, spindle motor back bearing. On the whole it's built like a tank, and the laser lasts very very long.
It's sucessor is similar with a centrally mounted mechanism, and is probably one of the best CD players ever made - this would be the X779/X707, essentially the same machine. The DAC is better in this machine but as transports the performance is similar. The XA series ones that followed had slightly better digital filters but the rest of the electronics was already affected by slim profit margins - instead of discrete regulators with FETs you get standard LM317 and 7805 chips... not to say these are bad, quite the oposite, but compared to the previous models, this is a downgrade.
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