I heard a costly system from Esoteric.

Thank you for your impressions about that Luxman amp driving the HD-650s. They’re great headphones! Esoteric is the higher-end of TEAC. The CD player track-seeking function, like I said, was a huge disappointment. This is a component that can be hooked up to a "master clock" with near-atomic levels of accuracy. Perhaps it needs that clock attached to it to have faster seek times? I don’t know, but still, for 13k you can do a lot better I’m sure.

To all, regarding the headphone out and the sound quality from it.

If Accuphase, a company who is apparently at the same caliber as Esoteric and has an optimized headphone out on their integrated amps, then why can’t the F-05 have it too?

Why include a useful feature on an audio component as an afterthought? Especially at this price...it just seems illogical. For instance, let us assume that one or more of their customers [Esoteric] wanted to use the amp for headphone listening after work, and speaker listening late at night?

Esoteric product descriptions and marketing material in general likes to use a lot of flowery language: lavish, luxurious, and 36 bits of dynamic range processing on their D/A convertors. And the K-03 appartenly has 4 DAC chips for each channel (L/R) so 8 in total! is all that really necessary to achieve great sound quality?

The other thing I don’t get is the weight of their CD players and amplifiers. I mean, for an integrated amp, or even a CD player, does it really need to weigh 70 pounds or more?

If we have it on an audio stand, a shatterproof, tempered glass desk, a workbench with a cold-rolled steel surface/heavy duty wood, or any other ideal place for audio components, how does such heavy casework on its own improve sound quality? Just seems excessive to me.

Strangely, the F-05 literature mentions "dual mono at every stage" but it only has one 1 EI power transformer. I guess they simply wired it differently. Another strange thing. in some songs I’m very familiar with, when the stereo image (vocals or instruments) would confidently pan to the right side, the F-05 changed it so the pan was on the opposite side. This in my opinion messed up the stereo image during these parts of a song.

@big_greg

Yes, dedicated headphone amps can sound great.

Better if they don’t include it then, for integrated amps that don’t also prioritize sound quality for headphone outs. The expectation remains because of the cost. If it were a $100 receiver or some no-name brand, it wouldn’t matter. The same money they spent on the headphone port and whatever required it work could be used on slightly better heatsinks, capacitors, etc.

Based on all the flowery and over-the-top language on the Esoteric site, I was expecting better. However, one man’s trash is another man’s treasure. In essence, please take this the right way. I am not trying to deter anyone from trying the F-05 or other units from Esoteric. I have no real say because this is the internet and people do as they please. And on top of that, you guys know a lot more than i do.

@ghdprentice 

I personally would never assume the headphone output would be at the same level as the speaker output… but if I tried it and it was not up to par, I would be disappointed.

Finally, someone understands what I was saying. I have nothing personal against them. Stereo pan issue on the F-05 was just plain weird. Vocals that I've always only heard on the right channel suddenly appeared on the left channel when using headphones.

@yoyoyaya 

I didn't say primarily for headphone listening. I said for both speakers and headphones. Yet again, it makes no sense to include a feature on a costly audio component if it isn't optimized for performance. As I said before, that same money could be used for EVEN more casework.

@fatdaddy2 

You should try it yourself with a pair of headphones. The F-05. Perhaps the unit I tried was defective or something. But for this kind of money, it should not have been.

@kingdeezie 

The tone controls were set to OFF and ON - with the knobs exactly in the middle. I didn't move them. And yes, I was wearing the headphones correctly, not backwards. Left for my left ear. Right for my right ear.

The store associate also double-checked the cables and made sure they were plugged in properly before I started listening at all.

Are you suggesting that their previous offerings are inferior?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

That is very much like saying a Ferrari from the year 2010 will lose 300 horsepower because we are in the year 2022 now. If you are paying this much money, the expectation is a world-class performance.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

May I ask what Esoteric uses now, rather than DAC chips?