Hey everyone, Where have you all been. I just set up my new Ypsilon Aleius Amps. They are Hybrid tube input stage, solid state output stage, zero negitive feedback. The D-02/P-02 is already more relaxed and these amps have only hours on them.
Do any of you have any experience with the Esoterics with tubes in the chain. Hope to get this thread fired up again. Hope all is well
Tom |
Hey Pharma, How's everything, well I hope! Just wondering if you have any news on the sounds of the new Grandioso's. I'm not sure they can even be purchased in the States, but if so, I hoping you got your hands on them and have a few words on there performance. Anyhow, hope this gets this thread fired up again. |
Hey Zephyr, Congrats on the D-02/P-02 combo, you are in for treat, but you know that already. I was thinking of you this week, I sold my Dynaudio Temptations and set my Legacy Focus 20/20's with the main system until I make a decision on what my new speakers will be. Must say the Legacy's sound terrific with the Esoterics!
Anyway, hope this thread grows some legs again, look forward to hearing about your impressions of the D-02/P-02's.
And great to see Eelii again, talk to you guys later... Go Patriots, time for some football. |
It's hard to believe these components are entering there fourth year. With Esoteric releasing the K-01X the D-02/P-02 combo may become somewhat scarce, with everyone opting for the K-01x. Esoteric has told me that there is no upgrade planned for the D-02 for DSD over USB, however, it is not ruled out. I think that will make the D-02 a bit of a novelty, although still a better sounding set up than all but perhaps the new D-1/P-1 Grandioso. The D-02 owners hopefully can stick together and help each other get the most out of this awesome combo... settings, preferences, cables, footers, etc. We are probably disc spinners, mostly SACDs, although the D-02 is great with computer and servers too, but without DSD, everyone is over looking these babies. Anyway hope to hear a lot of sharing info and swapping experiences, let's keep this thread rockin'. |
Hey Zephyr, are you still using Legacy Focus SE's ? I have my Legacy's set-up with the main system and they sound great. No better bass for the money, smooth, coherent, powerful and forceful! I can feel the thump right in the center of my chest. The D-02/P-02 brings out the best in everything I set them up with. Just wondering, and if you are, I'm sure you are presently surprised. |
Hey Zephyr, I hear you, my wife was glad to see me sell some of the old stuff off. Need to be quick with resale, but the D-02/ P-02 are not coming down in value, still pretty strong, and like I say, they are still the best alternative to the D-1/P-1 Grandioso.
As for the Legacy Aeris, I am thinking of auditioning them, I have heard a lot of good things about them.... Great mid-bass and midrange, and of course the signature deep bass. Glad to hear you like your set up, since it would be similar to me if I go that way. |
Zephyr, Scott Sefton is the contact guy for Esoteric info. I have his e-mail and will pm it to you if you want, let me know!
Tom |
Scott Seftons official title at the time was marketing specialist, and his boss and truly the force that makes things move is Paul Wasek, national marketing manager. There emails are scott.sefton@us.onkyo.com and paul.wasek@us.onkyo.com, they were both very helpful with all things Esoteric back in August. |
Guido, your welcome, they are good guys ! Tom |
Hi Guys, I've been following all the talk about "settings", and it's been so long, I had to check the DAC. As for the transport, I have always favored 24/356.8, or 8x's, and the DAC at 4x's. Filters are "FIR" and S Dly 2.
But, that was with the Dynaudio Temptations, and now I have the Legacy's in place, much more bottom end and ribbon tweeter, the sound may benefit from a different set-up. So, time for some changes? We shall see. |
Zephyr, I am strongly leaning to an audition of those speakers, you make them sound good all the way from your house! |
Hey Guys, Just a point to look at. Howard is an Esoteric guy .... Look at the associated accessories. Now, he's a good guy and a good reviewer, but, I'm still waiting for a review from someone who is not so Esotreric bias. I would like to here from someone who is switching from EMM, or Rieymo, or a direct comparison to the Vivaldi. Isn't that the direct competition to the Grandioso. There is an audiophile on another forum with both set-ups in his system right now, I'm anxious to hear his opinion! Or better yet, from someone comparing the D-02 stack to the Grandioso stack, how difference are we talking, I find it hard to believe it is a huge difference, based on the technology is so similar, how much better are we talking here. |
Hey Dr joe, What are you using for cables? Are you using the balanced outputs? Something doesn't sound right, the C-03x should be a perfect match for that combo! |
Hi Guys, I am debating making a change and upgrading to the P1/D1 combo. I am very satisfied with the D-02/P-02 but always looking to move upward. I feel there are gains to be made with the separation of channels, separate power supplies in the DACs and isolation allowed by separate chassis. As for all the crazy processing bullshit they hype, I doubt any of that stuff adds any significant audible improvement, espiecally with the media being limited. Would be great to compare them to the Vivladi Stack, too!
Although, I am more than a little troubled by the steep drop off in value of these Esoteric and other high end digital components, I am going to list
them. My combo is of course absolutely mint, but I'm not sure I can get half
of retail. If I can't get a decent $, I will keep them. I haven't heard the new Esoterics, and I am hoping that the new P1/D1 is going to be the top of the line for more than a year or two, like the D-02/P-02 was. And, there is such a buzz about DSD, I believe that hurts the D-02, which sucks too. If your a disc spinner like me, it won't matter!
Any thoughts guys? Let me know what you all think!
Tom |
Hey Guys, This is a real dilemma, of course you need a full system at the level of the D-02/P-02 to hear what fuss is about, and hear lies the problem. With all the new gear out there spouting all these new spec's and claims at a tenth the price, DSD being the main problem, it is easy to put us in a category of over spenders, and trophy system fools! Unless you can justify and afford these components, your probably not going to hear the difference. So, I would like to think that there is many audio people out there that would jump at a chance to own these babies, I will probably be happily listening to them for awhile longer. And as Eliseo has said, I just can't justify having two super high end digital sources !! Or afford it!
I will continue to look for improvements that I can use with any future change or upgrade. As good as the combo is out of the box, Stillpoints, cables, racks, orientation, clock addition, power cords, have all helped to elevate the sound to a pretty damn remarkable playback. |
Guys, If I go ahead and trade up for the new Esoterics, do I need to start a new thread. One thing about the D-02/P-02, the people who own them and share on this forum, are far and away the best audio people I've shared with, espiecally on this forum. I have two different offers on the table, one includes moving the D-02/P-02 in trade, the offer calculated out is 20K to the dealer, which is pretty encouraging, considering he will relist them at a profit, usually they try for 20 to 30 percent. The other offer, which I believe is a much better offer, would need me to list the combo myself. Like I said though, I would only need to net 20K to equal the other offer.
Zephyr, I wish I knew you were looking for the D-02/P-02, I would much prefer to sell them to someone who shares here. Low hours, mint condition... What should I do guys? |
Hey Guys, I would never abandon this thread. This has been the most truthful banter of audio opinions that I have read. I have learned much not only about the Esoterics, but of the many ancillary likes and dislikes of the D-02/P-02. There has been almost no drift into egos and short cited opinions about right and wrong choices, and of course the long rants of justification of why my rig is the best.
With all the choices at present, finding the chemistry between all these components to produce the harmony we quest, is a lot easier when others share there experiences, and there mistakes. I have found that to be the case here, and have a better music system because of it.
As for the P1/D1, I'm sure there is upgrade potential, but I am pretty happy with the current player I have and maybe just need to take a breath and enjoy what I have. Under the right circumstances I would make the move, but not at the cost of another expensive box in the corner of my music room.Or in this case, two boxes! |
Well, I have decided to go ahead and move on from the D-02/P-02. I have them listed, and at my asking price, it's hard to imagine that there are many rigs that sound like these. I really had trouble with this decision. When I moved through the Esoterics to the D-02/P-02, I've had little remorse for the rig I was moving from, other than the financial depreciation. Although, all considered, the only real hit I took was the X-01/D2, which I just waited too long to move from. I had this idea that I was going to use it for multi channel listening. Well that didn't work out to well. Truth is, once I got the D-02/P-02 set up for my listening taste, I've had a hard time listening to anything else.
I ordered the P1/D1 this morning, and have high hopes. It's always hard to imagine there is something better when I get the sound right, but, Esoteric has been better each time for me. This will be my fourth upgrade, fifth if I include the clock, which is easily considered an upgrade by me.
It appears there is some cable differences to sort out. The new rig I'm told is best with the HDMI utilizing the E-Link 4. It is very difficult to believe HDMI would be the best interface with anything audio, but that is straight from Esoteric.
We will see, and I will keep you all posted! |
Hi guys, Picked my new pieces yesterday, very excited. First question my wife asked me, " where are you going to put all that ". Which is valid a question. Imagine having a three or four piece preamp, a five piece Digital source, a couple mono blocks, a two or three piece phono stage, which I would not have, but imagine. Would need a room just to put it all in. And if it was all Esoteric, it would weigh about about 1000 lbs.
that's the other question to answer, how much does your CD player weigh? "Oh, 250 lbs, but that is with the clock! " What a wonderful problem to have. I am so thrilled to be able to even unbox a system of this potential. My whole Artesania will be nothing more than the Esoterics and my preamp. Now I must find he time to get everything in place and begin the process of playing them into shape. Seems I just got the D02/P02 really sounding good, and now need to begin again. According to Esoteric, this is the last upgrade I will ever need! Now that may be true, or maybe not true, but, according to my wife it will be! Sometimes the Universe has a way of bringing us back to reality, in my case, it is my Wife!
I will keep you all posted!
Tom |
Hi Guys, The P1/D1 are in place in the rack and playing a CD in a repeat loop. I have listened to couple of songs, but no real critical listening yet. You know the kind of listening when your 3 1/2 year old son is helping you, buy checking out how the new $80k source components sit in the rack and how they would look better if he can move them around!
First thing I noticed right out of the box is how much more centered they feel. It appears Esoteric wanted the center of gravity closer to the center. Also, the components look much better and appear a bit bigger in person as appossed to the website. The transport is silky smooth, and music comes from an eerie quietness, even more than the D-02/P-02. As always though, all my Esoteric purchases seem flat in the first few days of listening, so I'm trying to just spend a minimum of time listening until I get at least 100 hours on them. I will say, the D-02/P-02 had an edge to the music for awhile, then it all settled in. With the P1/D1, it is a very smooth presentation, very natural right out of the box.
So I will get the breakin disc in tomorrow morning and give it a couple of hours, and try to sit back and really get some listening in. I have the rack fully dampened and the components are all weighted down with dampers, so I will fool around with all that and hear if the speakers may need a nudge here or there, and keep you who are interested in the loop.
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Well, I must say, I liked the styling of the D-02/P-02 better than the P1/D1 are surely growing on me. And I bought them more for listening than I did to look at....but looks are important! I am very impressed with Esoteric's voicing through these machines. The playback of redbook, which I have always thought was of secondary engineering in all the other Esoterics I've owned, is outstanding in my listening room. I have plenty of SACDs, which half are not even as good as the redbook version. But I am loading up old CDs and listening to new music. This is a more complete player than the D-02/P-02, which I still believe is one of the best players out there, especially for more complex music, but the P1/D1 right out of the box, sounds terrific. They have really blossomed into one smile after another. I believe I'm in for a real treat.
Time to start some serious listening and I will try to make some comparisons between the old and the new. |
Hi Tony, With the D-02 I used the balanced outputs, exclusively. Now I have the D1's with the Ypsilon preamp, which is only single ended, so I have used the single ended outputs. I believe the D-02 is much better output through the balanced outputs. I had the C-02 preamp for a short while and very much perferred the balanced output . |
