SACD/CD Drive Mechanism Replacement

@OP. You probably have a better chance of getting a laser replaced in an Esoteric product than most machines, given the size of Teac/Tascam/Esoteric. However, you will probably need to get an official Esoteric service agent to supply and fit it. If you are worried, the best approach would be to get a new laser now and keep the existing one in the machine as a backup. I'm referring to the laser - which is almost always the component that fails. As the VRDS has been replaced by Atlas, you will not necessarily be able to get a complete new transport mechanism. However, the VRDS drive unit is extremely reliable.

@OP Sorry to be pedantic, but the Esoteric mechanism you are referring to is the VRDS not VSOP - which is a cognac designation.

Around the time (or slightly before) when  Esoteric replaced the VRDS with the Atlas, they stopped supplying transports on an OEM basis.

I was looking at your system and you might be surprised at how an Esoteric K03-XD SE sounds compared to your Naim CD player and Linn LP12.

I could suggest what the differences might be but you should listen for yourself.

Hello, Don. I was referring to the Esoteric K series in saying that they use the VRDS mechanism. The VSOP was an older Teac/Esoteric OEM mechanism.

If you are buying secondhand, it will be a non SE version of the K series as the SE has only just been launched.

But any K series Esoteric machine will sound a lot more refined and "analogue" than an older Naim player.

Unfortunately, I haven't heard the Emm labs machine so I can't compare.