Esoteric owners - SA-50 to ?

Esoteric players have always sounded great.

Unless of course you're using to forums to push the latest models.

Dealer disclaimer.

The Esoteric sound is wonderful and the SA-50 has been great. I have owned Audio Aero and EMM Labs prior to and was looking for suggestions on whether to hold the line with Esoteric or shy away to another product. Thank you for your input!

I recently started shopping for a replacement for my DV-50, and had a chance to compare an Esoteric X-05 and Marantz SA-7S1. (I figured they were proxies for the newer models coming out.) To my surprise, as I always enjoyed my DV-50, I liked the Marantz much more. It was substantially better at all the little things that make music more engaging: better reproduction of instrument timber, better microdynamics, better disentangling of instrumental lines, especially in complex passages, and so forth. The X-05 sounded very nice, closer to what I was used to (no doubt better than the DV-50 but hard to compare since it was an entirely different system) - but the music just didn't hold my attention in the same way. I got a good deal on the 7S1 as a demo, with warranty, and I bought it. No regrets at all. YMMV, but I'd say it is worth listening to alternatives to Esoteric to see what you think.

Do you folks know if the Esoteric X-05 has a discrete component analog output stage (or is it integrated circuits)?

I believe that all Esoteric players use discrete output, no op amps.