SACD Players

I don't think Esoteric players are much more expensive than those options, if you're looking at a K05XD. The discrete DAC on the Esoteric alone will be significantly better than those options.

If you’re open to discontinued products OPPO 205’s are still available both used and occasionally NIB on EBay.  As of Sept 2024.

I am the owner of a PS Audio Directstream DAC MK1 (including output transformer upgrade): it is a great DAC, but I noticed that over time, I could get some listening fatigue. At one point, my old Micromega CDF1 CD player gave out - I was only using it very sparingly with most of my listening being done through the DSD MK1 DAC. After some shopping around for a new CD player, I was intrigue by the Marantz SACD 30n: it was both a CD player and a DAC accepting USB input, and was doing a DSD conversion (which I found much smoother than PCM when properly implemented) using the Marantz Musical Mastering (MMM) digital-to-analog converter as a lesser version than the one available on their Reference SACD and CD Player SA-10. To this day, I have not found one single PCM implementation that did not cause me listening fatigue (be it DAC chips, R2R, Chord pulse-array). To my surprise, after some serious listening, I found that the Marantz SACD 30n provided me with more details, more natural tones, and warmer/richer medium frequencies than the DSD MK1 DAC, so much so that I sold the DSD MK1 DAC and replaced it permanently with the Marantz 30n.

I strongly suggest that you would take time to listen to the Marantz SACD 30n.

Note: I listen almost exclusively to Sacred Choral chants and listening fatigue can come very quickly if the high frequencies (sibilance) are too present. I am now retired, bought my Marantz 30n back in March 2022 (Capitalsound.ca for CAD$3,800), and do not plan to upgrade my sound system any time soon.

@OP The build quality of the Esoteric K-05XD is in a different class to the McIntosh and PS machines and it's much better sounding than the McIntosh. I haven't a/b'd it with the PS, so can't comment there.

rlsammie

Well, I’d say neither McIntosh nor PS Audio. As suggested, Esoteric (better a pair\combination of their SACD transport and SACD DAC like P-0X and D-0X) would be a good solution but price might be a bit out of budget. A Marantz SACD 30n mentioned by brge here highly likely would also be a choice for its ~$3000 and I’d vote for it. Try to listen to one at your local Hi-Fi store if possible; would not buy any component without your own audition.