No the Esoterics and Sony's and Marantz have been fine, not to say they never would have issues. Japanese players I've used have work and worked well even after I sold them one 15 years later and still was going it was Sony CPA 7ES. The 1st player that blurred the Vinyl copy to the CD copy.
The small boutique ones are build from using OEM parts, the 3 I've used all had issues and one had several due to the design and they replaced it with 3 new ones. The last one worked the best. They make good amps and preamps so I will not say the names. But lessoned learned.
One of the best power cords for the Marantz' and others that float the ground, 2 pin IEC inputs does not cost an arm or a leg, it is the Luxman Power Cords JPA 1500 this cord came with my C800F preamp and I never used it due to being a "stock cord" well I did finally try it and my jaw dropped.
The key is plugging it with the right polarity (Pins are both the same so you can flip it), The Luxman as a polarity check on the back on the preamp and lights up if the plug orientation is wrong with the writing facing up the light turns off showing correctly polarity. With the arrows and writing fact up above the ground opening, not facing down towards the ground input. I purchased a 2nd one to try with the Marantz SA-10 and again a home run. I tried it on my Sub Woofer that using floating ground also, 2 pin IEC and the same positive impact. So good I no longer look for a power cord for these units. This same cord is used for their high powered amps also. Even a reviewer said the stock cord was really good. Not that expensive and beat others costing 3-4 times as much, so good design by Luxman.
This lame argument of vinyl vs. CD no longer is an issue, it now more the quality of the production itself. Vinyl sucks and so does CD if the source is badly recorded, compressed, or just processed. I grew up with vinyl.
So the SA-10 is real good, Esoteric K-01 is really good and some others with today's DAC's used and 30 years to understand the format, much like viny improved between the 30's to the 50's the sound quality was night and day better. Digital also had the same growth.
I have 1,300 plus CD's some collectible and no way am I going to start over and rebuy what I already own again, and some will never be on vinyl. I love vinyl but I don't miss it one bit nowadays that how good these new generations of players are. Today your room as more impact on the quality of sound than any current CD player or Turntable or stream file.
The formats are just that good today and in the present, I like the physical so I will keep buying, those who like portable music and buying on tunes they like Streaming downloads work great, but that is not my cup of tea.
