i agree that esoteric makes excellent cd players, well, from a technical point of view. I was once a fan of the X-series players when i started this hobby. the best part about esoteric is its transport and pick up system, that's all about this company could do: outstanding detail, powerful dynamics, solid and well defined images(high density) that no other cd players in its class could compete. i had an X-01 LTD for a short while and i tried x-03se, K-03, K-01(with high anticipation). Neither X-01 LTD nor K-01 sounded clinical or like mechanics, but i can tell you, all these Esoteric players that i had play around are "Soulless", they just dont know how to transform details into music. For the same price, i would pick some players with inferior hifi quality but better sounding.
