I had a Krell SACD Std. Version 3 and upgraded to an Esoteric SA-50 recently. It was not a huge upgrade but I do like the reliability of the Esoteric CD transport and the unit can be used as a 32-bit DAC and also has a minimum-phase filter option.
The sound on the Esoteric is more defined and refined over the Krell SACD. The bass sounds different between to the two. The Krell slams and the Esoteric seems to be more accurate. The build quality of the Esoteric is by a wide margin better and itÂ’s silent. The SACD Std. was very noisy.
