Best audiophile multichannel SACD player

Esoteric is warm?

More like accurate and border-line clinical. But: trust your ears only, and listen to as many as you can in your room/system

Don't discount the Sony players. Keep in mind that they invented and own the SACD chip technology. I'm still using an older Sony 999ES and it's about as musical on SACD as you can get. I've heard very good things about the newer Sony 5400 and also the Krell SACD standard if you can go a little higher.

if you can find a multi channel tube-based player, audition it. most solid state players suffer by trying to do too many things. i owned a marantz and was somewhat disapooinyted with it. the esoteric i heard was on the clinical side. good luck.

For under $10,000. I've auditioned the Esoteric x03 SE and x06, AR CD7 (not SACD), the Krell, classe, SimAudio super nova, and Accuphase DP78. Of these for my ears, I felt the Accuphase was the best from the standpoint of clarity, soundstage, dynamics, inner detail, and an organic sound that I prefer. It's also built like a tank. I liked it so much that I purchased one.

The best MC SACD player I've heard is the Playback Designs MPS-5