Esoteric P5/D5 Opinions please

henryhk, you are correct. I do not convert to DSD as it did not sound good 176to my ears, though I do upsample. Even at a modest encoding setting of VBR 256 (mp3), it sounds remarkably similar to the cd playing through Esoteric P3/D5 combo. I guess I am lucky dont have golden ears!

After some thought, I have decided to merge my two systems (reasons are complicated but not really driven by sound etc but living habits, space etc) and thus rather buying a new DAC I am gonna take my existing emmlabs gear and use it for the sooloss...so the DCC2 connected to both the CDSD and Sooloos. Thanks for the advice on D05 anyhow...but think marginal expenditure would be best spent on upgrading my speakers...

Smart move and concur on your expenditure priorities. If you're happy with the emmlabs sound then there's no reason to buy a new DAC. I've integrated my two channel a/v setup with my two channel audio system with no ill effects - I run the spdif out of my HD-DVD/Blu-Ray player to my Wadia and it's fantastic; same with the XBox 360 and PS2 into the Toslink input on my Wadia. The key I've found is to isolate the video portions of your system by putting them on a whole different power delivery subsystem with their own power filter to make sure they don't contaminate the audio.

Here’s the pretigious 2008 Stereo Sound list - a Japanese hifi mag.

CD transports:
20pts = Esoteric P05 = 600,000yen
18pts = Accuphase DP800 = 950,000yen
14pts = Esoteric P03 = 1,200,000yen
8pts = Chord Coda = 760,000yen
6pts = Esoteric P01 = 2,200,000yen
5pts = Nagra CDT = 1,650,000yen
5pts = CEC TL0X = 1,800,000yen

DAC:
21pts = Esoteric D05 = 600,000yen
18pts = Chord DAC64mk2 = 530,000yen
8pts = North Star Extremo = 380,000yen
5pts = Goldmund Digin Stereo = 300,000yen
4pts = Soulnote dc1.0 = 240,000yen
3pts = Apogee Mini DAC = 106,000yen
3pts = North Star 192 DAC mk2 = 230,000yen

It's C/P value , not absolute value