Sony CDP-XA7ES
(1995 - 1997)

An excellent unit, no doubt.
Slightly less exciting however : no matter what the hifi mags might say, this is the point where audible upgrades become very slight.

Slightly less exciting also because the FPM mechanism wasn't all that new. Sony launched it in... 1982 : first in its original professional player (CDP-5000) and later in its studio remote/player combo (CDP/CDS-3000).

Structure-wise, the XA-7ES is an CDP-X-779ES / CDP-X707ES with a different mechanism : same basic chassis structure (sans sideburns), same Twin Core "R" transformer, same caps and barely different boards...

The analogue board is of course different : if the VC24 scheme hadn't yet filtered down from 1992's R10 combo, the XA-7ES still held the updated Current Pulse d/a chips.

Drive-wise, the FPM system is quite efficient although differences between it and the old aluminium BU-10 are finally slight indeed.
But the old one proved to be much longer lasting than the new one. An excellent marketing coup which, retrospectively, started Sony's seemingly unending downhill ride.

All about the chips inside the XA7ES, right here.
I do have an extensive 1996 test of the XA7ES which I'll bring online at a later dat - stay tuned !