Tboooe, if you go to my thread entitled, Reference DACS: An overall perspective, you will get alot of information on the Esoteric gear's sonic signature.
Everytime I have auditioned an Esoteric piece, I have admired their details, trasparency, slam, etc., but found them somewhat not as "musical/organic" as other digital gear. All my auditions were only with redbook CD, since that's all I care about.
I would recommend, if your budget is around $5000.00 to $7000.00, and your after a CDP not seperates, to put on your audition list the Accustic Arts CDP-1 MK2. In the recent edition of HIFI>plus, it was given a great thumbs up and was compared with CDP's that sell for over $10000.00. Accustic Arts build quality is first rate, it also is very attractive "eye candy". After a lenghty audition period, that included Esoteric pieces, I chose the Accustic Arts dac/transport reference pieces that are a pleasure to listen to and were as good as anything I tried up to $30000.00 in price. As you know I have Pass Labs XA-100's driving my system, so I know the Accustic Arts digital gear would be a great match with your Pass Labs XA-160's.
By the way, when are you going to stop messing around with tube preamps and audition either a Placette active or Bent Tap transformer based passive in your system? Just kidding you, somewhat, reading about all the hassles with the BAT that you are going through. I still think you ought to try one of these out in your system, before you make a final choice.
Everytime I have auditioned an Esoteric piece, I have admired their details, trasparency, slam, etc., but found them somewhat not as "musical/organic" as other digital gear. All my auditions were only with redbook CD, since that's all I care about.
I would recommend, if your budget is around $5000.00 to $7000.00, and your after a CDP not seperates, to put on your audition list the Accustic Arts CDP-1 MK2. In the recent edition of HIFI>plus, it was given a great thumbs up and was compared with CDP's that sell for over $10000.00. Accustic Arts build quality is first rate, it also is very attractive "eye candy". After a lenghty audition period, that included Esoteric pieces, I chose the Accustic Arts dac/transport reference pieces that are a pleasure to listen to and were as good as anything I tried up to $30000.00 in price. As you know I have Pass Labs XA-100's driving my system, so I know the Accustic Arts digital gear would be a great match with your Pass Labs XA-160's.
By the way, when are you going to stop messing around with tube preamps and audition either a Placette active or Bent Tap transformer based passive in your system? Just kidding you, somewhat, reading about all the hassles with the BAT that you are going through. I still think you ought to try one of these out in your system, before you make a final choice.