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Esoteric . . . your thoughts please

Does anyone have any experience with the Esoteric P-05/D-05 combination?

I was also wondering about others' experience with different Esoteric products. I am considering trading a McIntosh Mcd301 for an Esoteric unit, in an effort to obtain better build quality and superior sound reproduction. Any insights would be appreciated. I am aware that Esoteric has a newly released D-07, which has more digital inputs than the D-05. Eventually, I want to include a computer server into my two channel system. But my primary interest is in having the best sounding two channel system playing cds. The P-05/D-05 combination is priced at the maximum dollar amount I would be willing to spend.

Thanks for your thoughts.
thefirstchorus

Showing 2 responses by cerrot

cerrot's avatar
cerrot
1,700 posts
 
I have the X03SE and absolutely love it. TOTALLY agree with Guido-1200 hours before this baby sings its lovely song. Buconero117, if an Oppo came close to the Esoteric in your audition, it (the esoteric) could not have been broken in. The Oppo isn't even close to the Esoteric in sound (or build) quality. The transport mechanism is the best out there (no being outfitted to the other top flight CD mfg). I actually think the Esoterics are great values. Not cheap, mind you, any maybe not affordable to many but digital very difficult to reprorduce correctly and I feel Esoterics ability to render digital as it does is well worth the price of admission. Esoterics sound best with the balanced out, like good cables and responds well to power cord and line conditioner upgrades. The owner of Esoteric is an audiophile and he really wanted to do something special-and, IMHO, boy, has he.
cerrot's avatar
cerrot
1,700 posts
 
Guido, not to go off topic but in the past, you mentioned that the Shunyata digital cables (power cables with digital filtering) restricted the sound on the esoteric as it (the esoteric) already had great digital filtering. I replaced my digital PC to a non-digital and you were 100% correct. Also, to take it one step further, I am not using the digital input on my hydra, and now using the analogue. My Esoteric does sound better (more detail, soundstage oozes off the wall, more front to back but more musical and dynamic. I just wanted to let you know. I also mentioned it to my dealer (an MIT grad) and he hadn't thought of it before but felt your theory made perfect sense.

Thanks, Guido. You are a big help with your posts.

Dennis
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