Esoteric F-05 Integrated - any opinions?

Hello greginnh,

Just to ask further on why you got the Esoteric F-05.....

You said you purchased the F-05 to replace the Accuphase E-470 and I was wondering what made you change? Did you do a direct comparison between the two? You also mentioned in your earlier response about some of the virtues/sonic qualities you noticed ... has this continued to evolve and settle down (I presume you've put a few more hours onto the F-05 since our last exchange? Can you elaborate further on the sonic differences you experienced between the two brands ie is one warmer/cleaner (read overly clean/too clean bordering on hi-fi sounding rather than musical sounding) than the other? 

Having read your initial impression plus the review from 'Positive-feedback', it has 'tickled' my interest again in Intergrated amps again and dealers unfortunately from my end I will never be able to do a side by side comparison ... (different dealers with different brands of speakers).

Hi greginnh,

Your overall summation basically describes the 'road' I wish to take my system to. Since I last posted, I decided to part company with my Evolution Acoustics MicroOne speakers and have gone back to ProAc (D2) (still a couple of weeks away due to the wood finish I ordered). Apart from the last three years with the MicroOnes, I basically had ProAc for the last 20+ years (Response 2 for about 4yrs and then the Response 2S for about 17yrs) and had always found them revealing (for their time) yet musically satisfying. Having been off work for the last few months recovering from surgery to both hands, I've had a lot of time to sit down and listen (while recovering and now drawing to a close......'Dammit'), I felt that a certain musicality was missing especially with prolonged listening; ..l wouldn't say clinical, but, a 'bit cool' in delivery (...ceramic drivers?). So I decided to change.

As for Accuphase, I did a brief listen (with some of my music) whilst at the retailer for ProAc, Accuphase et al, to a system comprising of Accuphase pre/power, Tannoy speakers, that was out of my league, although quite impressive, the manner it revealed the 'whole' reminded me of similar attributes in my system that I was trying to get away from. The retailer in question does not have an E-470 in stock so I would need to wait until he gets one in to replace one of the lower E series intergrated amps. On the other hand another retailer is expecting an Esoteric F-05 to be coming in for demo purposes so I'll get an opportunity to garner a listen there; but, will not be able to directly compare the  E-470 against the F-05,..... thus the reason for asking for a little bit more info from you.

Judging from your answer, I am looking forward to auditioning the F-05 and if I like will not worry about trying out the Accuphase at all.