….....this concerns me as well as an owner of a K-01x CD player. I find it very surprising as well as very unsettling that a company as big as Esoteric / TEAC does not have the technical capabilities to repair their products here in the US. Something does not sound right or as I have head but unsubstantiated ; that Esoteric / TEAC has not faired very well since the Gibson buy-out. I would like to see if this decline in US technical support including repairs coincides with the Gibson buy-out. I hope the OP as well as that other gentlemen here on Auduogon who had an Esoteric T-100 tube amp got that finally straightened around. This stuff is not cheap and Esoteric needs to get this situation '' fixed'' real soon.
MORE Esoteric problems
Hi all, I posted an issue with Esoteric CD players a couple of years ago. I bought a UX-3SE from an eBay seller. It skipped all CD's. I called Esoteric. ALL SACD players with the "U" model numbers need to go to Japan because that's where the alignment jig is. $2500.00 at that time JUST for the shipping back and forth. I returned the player to the seller naturally. An Asian gentleman working at TAP electronics told me at that time that the models with the "X" can all be repaired in California. Great I said. I bought an Esoteric X-01. A great player! Now it doesn't read SACD's. I sent it to TAP last week. A follow up call from TAP gave me the dreaded news that NOW the X-01 needs to go to Japan for the jig alignment procedure. WHAT! They did reduce the transportation cost to $1600.00. And this is for shipping only. I think that the audio community needs to send Esoteric a message and boycott ALL Esoteric products. BTW, it's not just their CD players that are required to make the trip to Japan if repairs are needed. I understand that certain models of preamp and integrated amps fall under this requirement as well. How can a company such as Esoteric not do better for the consumer?