Esoteric DV-50 vs. Accuphase DP-75V

About the DV-50- in audio- it is all about the driver that is controlling the hardware. A skilled driver will achieve A+ performance with the DV-50. An average driver will dismiss the player as "decent".

Agree with Reb1208.

I brought a DV-50 with the intention that it will be only used for SACD, DVD-A and DVD-V. For the red book CD, I had a Wadia 270 + 27ix system.

In the first week of usage, the DV-50 is just so so. However, after a week of intense running-in, the sound improved tremendously. Then I started to take the DV-50 serious.

I enabled the CD-direction option, turned off the video circuit and display, added a grounding wire to the pre-amp, put the DV-50 on a proper auido platform. Then the sound improved to another level.

SCAD play back from the DV-50 was already better than the Wadia playing the CD layer. The CD play back of DV-50 was still behind that of the Wadia. Basically, the DV-50 CD play back is too bright and the low frequency lack enough control and was misty. At that point, I also noticed that I have to use a rather low volume setting in my pre-amp for the DV-50. It seemed to suggested that the voltage of the output of DV-50 is too high.

I immediately changed to use the RCA instead of the XLR output of my DV-50. Bingo! It solved most of the problems. After a few more days of running in, the CD play back from DV-50 is still behind that of the Wadia, but by not much.

I was surprised, excited and considered that it might not be worthwire for keeping the wadia combo. So I sold the Wadia combo together with my ML 380S pre-amp and brought a ML 32 pre-amp. I can tell u that the preformance of DV-50 + ML32 is way better than that of 270+27ix+380s.

I forgot to mention that I acheived the best result by using the XLR out of the DV-50 and setting the ML 32 to have a zero grain for that XLR input.

Very interesting, you seam to have perhaps followed my posts over at AA about my experience. Teac should allow for a voltage trim for the two channel outputs in cd direct mode. The voltage trim thru the main menu will not keep it's setting when switched to cd direct. However, I bet there is some "secret" code that could overide this. Maybe someone could investigate this.

Oldlee- I have made a change that I now use full gain from my pre-amp. I use dynamic speakers- bi-wired. Use copper interconnects. Multi-solid core to mids-highs. But now use a copper/silver hybrid to woofers---- wooahhh!!! Perfect match for the DV-50 bass. Bass plays higher up in freq response- is musical- and I'm absolutely thrilled.