Is Sony XA9000es superior to Esoteric DV 50s?

A friend has the Sony, my dad the Esoteric, I think Esoteric is superior but they are in dif systems.

>>I don't understand why Stereophile rated it A+.<<

Isn't everything in Stereophile Class A?

Maybe they should have degrees of Class A such as A++, A+, A-, and A--

It would be much easier for the consumer to make decisions.

The Stereophile A+ rating for digital devices is based on the device's SACD or DVD-A (or both) playback. It does not apply to its CD playback. Look at their A, B, C, etc categories for relative CD ratings.

Stereophile specifically rates SACD players on the high-res performance (read the intro), so the ratings can be consistent with the Esoteric having the best CD playback.

That said, I don't put much value in their ratings. Treat the list as a list of components that they have tested (or tried) which doesn't completely suck.

Chadnliz, appreciate your response. Any chance you've had an opportunity to swap the players within one system to better identify sound differencs?