Esound E5 CD Player

I had one for about a year. I liked the sound of the player for the money. I can't say that it sounds like a $2k player, because all $2k players don't sound the same. It is a smooth detailed player. I have jumped on the TDA1541A dac boat and sold the E5. The main issue people are having with the E5 is the transport failing prematurely. There are better used players for the same money as a new E5.

The transport did not fail, but it had a hard time playing some cd's that my other player had no problem with. Mostly the older ones that I had for a while.

Reference Audio Mods is correct that I had the original not the newer reference model.

I am a big diyer and that is the reason for the sale of the E5.

Before the E5 I was using a Proceed CDD transport and a Audio Note DAC1.1x. I am now using a Cal lab CL-2500DVD player as a transport and a TD1541a DIY dac. This combo killed the E5. I am now building a new dac with a TD1541A/s2 chip. The Philips TDA1541A is a highly regarded discontinued 16 bit dac chip. The S2 is a higher quality of that dac. There are many older cd players that use this dac and some highly modified. Do a search for TDA1541.

I am not saying don't buy the E5. It is a good cd player for $850.00. It all comes down to a matter of taste. I just prefer TDA1541A dac chips (for now anyway).

It is not all that short and not discrete. The DIY one I purchased from China off DIY Audio site uses AD797 or OPA627BP. I know the E5 uses a discrete output for the single ended out only. My new TDA1541A/S2 dac uses 2 AD844ANs on it's output.

This is the new dac I am building

I also built a TDA1545A dac that used a resistor for it's I/V and I didn't like it. I never went for the stacked TDA1543 dac, but there are some that love it.

I have nothing against delta sigma dacs. The CS4390 is a good dac. One of my favorites is the CS4328. Timbre built some great dacs with this chip. I have a studio dac (Sonic Solutions) that uses this dac chip with my favorite receiver chip the CS8412. It sounds very good, but I like the TDA1541A based dac better.

I saw once or twice on EBay a new Chinese cd player that used the TDA1541A dac chip. I think is was less then the E5 (about $600.00). That would be (IMHO) a great cd player to mod. I looked recently and didn't see it. The seller was from China. I'm sure it will pop up again.