My XA5400ES has been a great SACD player for almost 3 years. However, now it makes a fluttering noise as it spins discs. Some are almost silent. Others are very obvious in quiet passages. After searching the Internet, others are also having this problem. Even more interesting is Sony Laredo service center is blowing them off, and not fixing the issue. This is deja vu for me since around 5-7 years ago I had the same issue with Laredo not fixing my 3100ES DVD/SACD player. As one person also noted, they shipped the unit to Laredo in the original packaging, and received it back in a flimsy box, with no problem found. That is the same thing they did to me. At least they could return the gear in the original packaging.
Just a heads up to XA5400ES owners in the states. Watch out.
While I love SACD, I am now putting my CDs on a music server. That fixes the transport noise for CDs. However, now I need to get high-res files to complement the SACDs.