where to go beyond Esoteric x05

Whats wrong with the dac in your X -05? I doubt any of the dac's mentioned will give you 3,000.00 better sound than what you have now. IMHO, it would be a step sideways

Stereo5...I am guessing Icorem wants his next unit to act as an outboard DAC for PC or music server sources as well disc-based transport. The X-05 does not have digital inputs so can only operate as a stand-alone disc spinner (CD/SACD).

I much preferred the Doge6 to the X-05. I really wanted to like the Esoteric, as it played SACD and was absolutely beautiful. I kept it for over 6 months to try and break it in, but I just couldn't learn to love it. I thought the Doge was much more musically satisfying and harmonically complete. Frankly, this was the first time I've ever preferred a lesser-priced component, and I almost want to believe that my X-05 was somehow malfunctioning. In any case, that was my experience. I also really preferred the Ear Acute to the X-05 and the used price would fit within your preferred range. You don't hear much about the Ear lately, but it's a great player for the money, IMO. BTW, I'm a big Harbeth fan as well, so perhaps our tastes would coincide on the CD player as well. Of course, if you must have the SACD feature, these players won't do it, but frankly, the CD replay was so good on both players, I ended up giving up SACD for better CD.

Charyo

Indeed SACD is important to me as well as having a digital input for future use of a server.
I'm going to audition next week the x05 with the bel canto 3.5 that my dealer told me will take me to digital nirvana.