I heard a costly system from Esoteric.

Vitus....The K-03 is over a decade old. The 3XD is not the one that replaced it. Your forgetting the K-03X, K-03XS and maybe another one that my old brain cant remember. Esoterics UPGRADE cycle is like every 2-3 years when they spin out the replacement models.

Yea its better to have a High End OPPO 103 Clone that Ayre has no parts for at all should anything go wrong. (And they havent had parts for it going back to 2016 when I first inquired).  Get the most out of your 50 Pound Doorstop while you can. LOL   Instead of posting on Audiogon endlessly all day every day get a 2nd Job so you can buy some modern day gear instead of that using that Fossilized mediocrity from the stone age.  At the very least get a GEER BOX so that you can hook that Ayre/Oppo Clone up to a better Dac.

Why are we talking about the performance of gear from 2009/2010?? Esoteric players now dont even use DAC Chips. The new ones sound absolutely phenomenal. Build quality and DAC are incredible....get up to speed OP!!

Esoteric has never been known as being one of the top performing Amp companies.  The CD player you mentioned wasnt anywhere near TOTL well over a decade ago. The "3" is the middle of the road with only 2 lower models and that series is like 5 or 6 generations ago.  Its like comparing a 3DO gaming system to an X-Box!!  You couldnt sell that model player for probably much more than 2K these days. For the 13K you could get the current "3" model and have plenty of spare change left over.

Are you so lazy that you cant do your own homework?? Go to the Esoteric sight and do some reading. Whats it gonna take 5 minutes to educate yourself???  If you are in the market for a New CD Player and you see a DAC Chip listed I suggest you look elsewhere unless your happy with mediocrity.  The TOTL CD Players like Esoteric, MSB etc have graduated away from Chips several years ago.

If somebody paid 2K to send ANYTHING to Japan other than a Car they are a MORON. All they had to do is setup a FEDEX Account and it would have cost them probably 1/3 that amount or less if they did their homework and used the FEDEX "great rates" program. UPS probably has a similar option.

Pretty funny a guy who's gear is made up entirely of no-name brands that has no re-sale value is always trashing the upper tier brands at any opportunity. 20+ Years on Audiogon and THATS your system? REALLY Sad

Depends what you consider old. Since youve been on A-Gon for 20+ Years I would say you cant be much younger than me as Im in my 50's.  Still havent taken the Pass out of the box and Half my gear (or more) is still Brand New in Box.

You think I cant find any of your past posts where you bash certain brands?? Seriously??  Since you have so much money to throw around (Somewhere other than on Audio gear apparently) care to make a wager?  I retired at 44 but can always use some more spare change for new toys.

 No idea what to make of your Chinese Fortune cookie nonsense. You bashed Esoteric and I and others responded.  You use other people's "stories" as if they were gospel and factual without any evidence. GUILTY until proven innocent huh?. Your claim that it costs 2K+ to send a piece of gear to Japan is not only ludicrous but completely ignorant. Keep spreading the lies and disinformation. What kind of an impression does THAT make??

That post you linked is a Joke. The guys complaining that the CD player made in Japan in 2005 has a problem and that nobody in the USA has parts for or can fix it 15 years later?  Most companies wouldnt even have the parts left laying around after 15 years had passed especially for a CD Player which change parts frequently....YOUR AYRE player they stopped carrying parts for 5 years after it was released. Dont hear any complaints about that from you.  Did you even bother to look into ANY of this or you just felt like re-posting a 3+ Year Old nonsensical thread to try and prove your point of view.  Some clown complains that his 15 year old CD player doesnt work so you trash Esoteric's brand name for all eternity based on THIS??

13K doesnt even get you anywhere near a TOTL CD/DAC Player. MSRP for those is around 35K for Esoteric All in one solution and MUCH more for MSB. If you go for the separates (Spinner and Dac) you'll probably be near the 100K Range

Your completely wrong about your Music Server vs Spinning CD’s. All one needs to do is compare the DR Database of CD Pressings to the crap that is now supplied by the Record Companies for download etc....Your stuff is HIGHLY compressed/Brickwalled and you get nowhere near the resolution that one gets in the majority of cases from original pressing CD’s that were made in the 80s. Obviously you havent heard a High End Spinner/DAC before or you wouldnt make such ludicrous statements. You have no idea what your missing out on.

Nope no disability here. Became a full time caregiver cause I refused to put a parent in a nursing home.

Again...the cost of mailing is ludicrous. Anybody buying a 15 year old CD player is already a fool to begin with. How could ESOTERIC charge him for shipping those 2 amounts.  If he had shipped it directly to them via FEDEX/UPS/DHL esoteric would have NOTHING to do with the shipping charge incurred.   That shipping charge that he stated is more than that CD Player is worth. Wny bother getting it fixed at all??  LASERS dont last 15 years which he should have known before he purchased it.

As for being a "Pretend" human being...again dont know what that means. I have worked with Hundreds of people in the music industry since the 1980's. I have acquired almost 10,000 Gold and Platinum Record awards in that time period. About 4000 of them are featured on my Facebook Page RIAA AWARD COLLECTORS for anybody to see. Value of those 4000 awards alone is at least 2-3 Million.  Feel free to check out part of my "pretend" life. :)