ESOTERIC K-07X VS Mcintosh MCD 550 Which is better ?

Im deciding on one of these players to purchase .

Which player is better ?
Thank You ..

zoraduntov12303-15-2018 10:48am

stereo5 Details Discussions Posts This discussion Message User 6,535 posts 03-16-2018 at 12:58am Copy Comment URL Report Comment Edit Delete I have an Esoteric UX-3 in one system and a McIntosh MCD301 in another system. I much prefer the Esoteric as it seems truer to the music, but the McIntosh is very smooth sounding and even poor recorded cd's sound listenable. It's a toss up and either player you mentioned will be a big step up from the Oppo.
stereo5 Details Discussions Posts This discussion Message User 6,535 posts 03-22-2018 at 01:54am Copy Comment URL Report Comment Edit Delete @mattmiller I beg to differ with you. The MCD301 replaced an Esoteric DV50 and it blows it away. It isn’t nearly as good as my Esoteric UX-3 but the UX-3 was 8500.00 The MCD301 was the second model up in the line with the 201 being the entry level. To be honest with you, I do not like ESS dacs, they are certainly not the end all. I had one in my Wyred4Sound dac2 dsd se with Femto clock. It is a forward sounding dac just like the Wyred dac 1 I used before it. That was the main reason I went with the MCD301 because of not having the ESS chips.
stereo5 Details Discussions Posts This discussion Message User 6,535 posts 03-26-2018 at 11:59pm Copy Comment URL Report Comment Edit Delete @bultaco Thank you very much. Enjoy them.