Looking for a CD / SACD player. Also, tell me about Esoteric

Both esoteric and marantz are excellent, But if you need service you might not get it. Esoteric use Sal from California. Marantz is terrible on service after warranty, my SA 10 laser gave up and no help. I agree OP buy player with good tech service.

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I have a Luxman D-05u from the previous generation. Amazing player, sound and build. Balanced out, great internal DAC. Uses Luxman's proprietary transport, one of the best available.  Plays SACD's/hybrids as well as CD's. The Luxman D-03x listed above is a CD only player.

Not to forget the Marantz SA-10 SACD is an upsampling player and DAC that can be used via coax.  The circuitry is unique and does not use an off the shelf chip.  The circuitry is so unique it is hard to compare but a did a very deep internet dive and thought it was the closest thing to the PS Audio approach which at the time had just been discontinued.  The SA-10 is kind of like an alternative to a FPGA DAC without the resistor approach or the ability to program and I only say that because it does not use a chip. Neither Absolute Sound nor Stereophile reviewed the SA-10 nor did any of the world's major publications that I could find.  I got mine open box for a good price a few years ago after looking at what was available for not crazy money.  One of the attractions was that if I got into streaming I could use the DAC without buying one, so I got the ifi Zen Stream and it sounds great; not SACD quality when I compare the same music, but close.  I have not been able to compare it to a different DAC and I haven't read about anyone else doing that either.  I had a Sony XA-5400ES before the SA-10 but never compared them.  Now, with something like the Eversolo A8 I am considering I could hook my amp up to two balanced or unbalanced sources and to coax and route the streamer and SACD's in various ways to compare the Eversolo A8 chip DAC to the Marantz approach as well as compare the streamers.  That might tell me how good the Marantz approach is to a decent AKM chip DAC without breaking the bank.

Like restaurants, I like a great cheap eats place that's BYOB and the same with higher priced offerings, where the food and presentation are more refined, I like to find that really special (at least to me) audio component that is both reasonable, dirt cheap if I'm lucky and those products that at this stage of my life I simply want.  I have three very different CD, CD/SACD players as I write this, one  I paid $80.00 for recently and am enjoying quite a bit.  It's an unmodified version of the first CD player I owned and was a modified from a long defunct company, "The Mod Squad" at Music by the Sea, a Steve McCormak and partner business.  The CD player was stored away well for decades and looks and operates like the day it was built in 1986.  I just never seen one in this condition and working. In a lot of ways, I enjoy it almost as much as anything I have owned.  Like when I found an unopened complete Wagner Ring of the Solti/Vienna 58-65 recordings.  I mean, what's the odds?

   I'll say this though about the Esoteric Audio machines;  They're simply in a different league.  They sound like a master tape.  And every step up in the line I can hear the differences. So if I had the "scratch" for their top tier stuff, if you ask me if I think it's worth it, I would say yes.  I also think the Spectral SDR-4000 whatever iteration it's at now is an incredible machine. I don't know if SACD is necessary with these top tier devices, recently compared Dire Straits "On Every Street"(a great disc in every way) from a CD I paid four bucks for to the Mofi recent SACD issue, and I prefer the CD more.  And I'm finding I like many standard issue CDs more or the differences are not enough to spring for the SACD counterparts.  Also an acquaintance who is much more audiophile than I am just took delivery on a Ypsilon CDT-100 CD player that are built to order (eight months).  I've heard great things about this machine and can't wait to hear it. 

Marantz and Esoteric players aren’t in the same league. Marantz is great at their asking price or is great for the money and most of Marantz CD/SACD players can be had for $3k and under with the exception of their Reference series SA-10 player.

Esoteric players are in completely different league and completely different price points. Esoteric’s entry level CD/SACD player one box machine starts at least around $10k ++ or more. Their flagship models are well into six digit figure $$ such as the Esotetic Grandioso stacks : CD/SACD transport, master clock, mono DACs.

So no comparison between Marantz and Esotetic. Esoteric units are comparable to those offerings from DCS, MSB, EMM Labs, Ypsilon and other ultra high end brands. Even Luxman and Accuphase players are way superior compared to those of Marantz players. They are also not in the same leagues. Higher end Luxman and Accuphase models are comparable to Esoteric, EMM Labs, Bricasti, DCS.

Also highly consider the latest PS Audio DirectStream Mkii DAC (new model) and its CD/SACD transport combo. They are phenomenal. PS Audio also has the Airlens, which is a streamer or sort of network bridge that is meant to be connected to Roon to stream Tidal and Qobuz because the Airlens itself doesn’t have built-in streaming apps. You can also connect the Airlens to their DirectStream Mkii DAC for streaming. They are all awesome sounding combos.