Esoteric F-07, F-05, Levinson 585

Tralmusic you may want to upgrade your Star for a bigger Naim rig.

Right now Naim is running a promotion of the NAC 272/preamp dac and a Nap 250, this combination is dramatically better than the Star.

In our shop we have the Naim Atom, Star, Nova, Nac 272/250 combo, 

as you go up the models you get far better sound. 

Naim can sound very addictative in what it does vs other components.

The Naim sound is warm, punchy, very dynamic and musical. 

With certain speakers the Naim sound can be very hard to beat.

Then you also have the additonal cost of adding a dac and or a streamer with the Esoteric which are analog only devices. 

Also you may want to open up your choices to some of the other high quality integrated amplifiers.

Other units we would recommend the new Krell K300i is awesome and comes with a great dac and streamer, $8k 150 watts class A sound very open and very smooth and musical.  

The new Anthem STR amp and preamp has more power than you need, but the combo sounds really good and comes with a great built in dac and room correction. 

The room correction feature is a huge improvement for a 12 by 12 room as you have the perfect disaster a square room, so room correction can really help with less than perfect rooms. 

We would highly recommend that you consider units with room correction, this would include the Micromega M150 at $7,500.00 
and the Anthem Separates which are very impressive for a $10k package. 

Heard the Levinson gear at Axpona it was a very clean but boring presentation standard Levinson. 

The Esoteric gear is excellent we haven't heard the new intergrateds.

Dave and Troy
Audio Doctor NJ, Anthem, Naim, Micromega, Krell dealers

Thanks so much for your comments.
What is the promo price for the NAC -N 272 and the 250 DR combo?
I do need a pre with a streamer.
How long is this promo on?
I think I read somewhere that a new pre was coming out......NAC282.

The combo price is around $11k which drops off about $2,500.00 from the price. 

There will be a new one out but not this year, so they are probably drawing down stock. 

There is a gigantic difference between the Star and the Nac 272/250 combo, in our shop we have the Atom, Star and Nova and then we also have the NAC 272/250/XPS 2 and the NAC 282, NAP 300dr, NDX 2 combo.

Even though the NDX 2 is much newer there is not as much difference as you would think from the NAC 272/NAP 250dr combo which just sounds so amazing for the money.

Dave and Troy
Audio Doctor NJ Naim dealers

Mark Levinson No 585 is superior to anything listed here including the Naim and Esoterics. I own the Mark Levinson 585 and the Esoteric I-03 Integrated, the predecessor to the F-05 and F-07.

Go with the 585 and get a great integrated you will keep!

Sfseay.
I appreciate the suggestions.
Since you own both brands of integrateds......what is the sound difference between the 585 and F-03?
My speakers are Sonus Faber’s Sonetto VIII and I use Nordost Frey 2 cabling.
 Thanks.

You might check out the Accuphase E-480.

Agree with previous post about the 585 being the best on the list. It’s anything but boring. Try to give each a listen and trust your ears. 

George

I understand everyone has his own views on system components, but this is the first time i I saw a $6000 speakers paired a $4000 speaker cables. I bet you can get more gain on sound quality by buying a $10,000 with a $1000 cable. The absolute most important component in your system are: Speakers.Just my 2 cents

Ktz there are different possible scenarios here, one the OP got a great deal or got the cables used.

Two the OP feels that he is going to upgrade the electronics or the speakers sometime in the future and didn't want to purchase the cables twice.

Three a $1,000.00 pair of cables hooking up to a $10k amp is not really sufficient to get the best out of that $10k amp.

We sell the Wireworld cabling, and in most of our demos we use a $3.5k pair of Silver Eclipse when you compare the same amplifier with a $500-1,000k pair of cables from the same manufacturer the sound quality definatetly isn't as good.

Dave and Troy
Audio Doctor NJ Wireworld dealers

KTZ,
I compared a pair of $1500 speaker cables and then better ones on $6000 speakers and BW’s 804 speakers that are $9000.
The cabling made such a huge difference in sound quality and detail.
I heard notes that weren’t in the less expensive cables.
Since I don’t want to keep losing money trading cables in.....I decides to buy the better cables to use on whatever speakers I have.
The Wireworld cables are good and I use their Ethernet cables in my system.
Happy listening.
Trailmusic

trailmusic
Welcome! to the Club. Cabling, makes a difference -enjoy the music.
Happy Listening!