where to go beyond Esoteric x05

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.

Well I think the big problem here is that you don't need a better CD player or a DAC. I am pretty sure you would benefit more from a new preamplifier.

jim@soundsrealaudio.com

Esoteric dealer.

Icoum - Funny you should mention that, because when I had my X-05, I purchased a DAC2 to make it more listenable to my ears. One would think it would cause a ground hum, running ICs from the player directly and the outputs of the DAC, but it didn't.

Jim

Why a new pre ?
I recently purchased the mc601 from Music culture and it is (to my ears) a hell of a pre and an excellent value alltogether. I didn't say i'm not happy with the x05 but rather seek an opinion if I will benefit (having a $3k budget) replacing it to something like a used k03 or adding an outboard dac.

I see the Esoteric K03 and K01 as superb DACs first, which just happen to have a great quality transports built in. When you use them as a pure DAC they act as a pure DAC and sound fantastic. I think this has been said before, and I agree with it completely. If I were looking for an excellent stand alone DAC I would still look at these two from Esoteric.