Avguru: Boy, you ask hard questions, which I can't answer with a simple direct comparison. I didn't listen to the Omega in redbook much, and don't listen to the X-01 in redbook much now. They both (for CD listening) functioned and function mainly as transports for the dCS Purcell/Elgar Plus. [And boy, are they both fabulous transports!] The dCS units, especially in DSD, are extremely detailed, clear and spacious, and a bit on the forward side. In redbook, the X-01 sounds very much like them, without the absolute last bit of sparkle--for want of a better word--in the highs, and maybe a bit less detail in the very lowest bass--although perhaps the X-01, which has the best dynamics in SACD I've ever heard, has a tad more bass impact in CD as well. The Omega sounded very different. It was more of an analog sound, especially when its 24/96 upconversion, which I didn't particularly like, was off, with a definite sense you were seated further back in the hall, and perhaps the sound front wasn't quite as wide (which it isn't when you sit further back in a concert hall). You could easily forget whether the Omega or an LP (mine is an SME 20.2/SME V/Koetsu Onyx Platinum/Lamm LP2 set-up) was on--not that they were equivalent, just that they sounded alike in kind. You aren't likely to make that mistake with the X-01--it's a more forward, noticeably detailed sound, you are closer to the plane of the performance, the soundfront is huge, and this mother doesn't take any prisoners. For instance, on the Omega and the DV-50, I thought the JVC transfers of RCA material were superb; through the X-01, somehow some of them at least sound a bit over-engineered, as if somebody has been fooling around with the masters just a bit too much. This is the player if you really want to know what's on the disc; maybe not if you just want everything to sound good. But all of a sudden a CD which you never paid much attention to, sonically at least, really catches your ear like it never did before, and you understand why the X-01 costs $13,000. Hope that helps.
