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Esoteric DV-50: Any cdp's Significantly better?

Is there are anyone out there who has compared the Esoteric DV-50 to a number of dedicated red book only players (or other universal's) and found one that is SIGNIFICANTLY better?

I stress significantly because in my humble opinion the redbook playback (if comparison unit is just a cd cd player only )must be significantly better to justify losing DVD-A, SACD and DVD-Video capability.

I keep hearing there are better one box solutions and being a die hard 2 channel fan I would sell my DV-50 if I found a player in the same price range that sounds significantly better. But every time I do an AB comparision to other well respected units the DV-50 has slayed each and every one.

So far, it has eaten the lunch of the Classe CDP-10, Ayre CX-7, Linn Ikemi, Cairn Fog Vers. 2, Cary 306/300, Arcam DV 27A and CD 33T, Myryad CD 600, etc. It even betters a Sony SCD 777ES/MF Tri-Vista 21 transport/dac combo that I previously owned. I'm only comparing the DV-50 to single box cd or universal players, but I just wanted to mention the Sony/MF combo. I'm sure there are some dac/transport combo's that will handily beat the DV 50.

Some may say that the DV 50 should beat all the above because the of price point ($5,500 vs. average price of $3,000 for the above players). But I disagree since conventional wisdom says that stand alone players (especially with the pedigree of those mentioned above) should produce better redbook than a universal player trying to be a jack of all trades. Only the DV 27A does video plus audio. By the way, I was very impressed with the 27A as just a cd player. Of all the above I would say the Ayre was the best.

Next on my list is the Electrocompaniet EMC 1UP and the Resolution Audio Opus 21. However, I must tell you I am really impressed with the DV 50 and all the great reviews are absolutely true. I've noticed that many people who are using it or comparing to other players are using the RCA analog outs instead of the balanced outs. There is a significant improvement in sound if you use the balanced outs and I'm only interested in hearing comments from people who have compared it against other players using the balanced outs on the DV-50.

My system components are as follows:

B&W N803's speakers & HTM-1 center
Cary Cinema 5 (5 x 200) amp
Anthem D1 Statement pre/pro
Esoteric DV 50
Acoustic Zen Satori Shotgun speaker wire
Nirvana SX balanced interconnects from DV-50 to Anthem
Acoustic Zen Matrix reference II interconnects from D1 to Cary
No after market power cords or isolation equipment

My system sounds great! Those who comment please make sure to specify what specific improvements you heard over the DV 50 and what cdp were you comparing it against.

AVGURU
avguru
dbld
297 posts
 
Have any of you guys experienced problems with Modded Denon units that are not repairable?

I tried a Stock 3910 a while back, and it would not play my 192kHz DVD-A discs. What if something like this happened to a modded unit?

I have also heard of transport issues with Denons, and actually had one issue with the 3910 I was trying for a while. I had a disc that was a little off balance (it played just fine on other players, but with a mild rumble) that when played in the 3910 sounded like it was going to self destruct within the player. It eventually stopped trying to play it, and ejected the disc.

Dave

PS - perhaps after New Years I will write a bit more clearly...sorry all
guidocorona
4,298 posts
 
DBLD, that may be an inherent problem with lower end transport. That is one of the reasons why I am so attracted by machines that use the VRDS transport mechanism. I am excited to see what Alex comes up modifying the UX-3, and hope the other modifiers will follow with full mods on similar units
aplhifi
515 posts
 
Dbld, the Denon 3910 has the same transport as the previous 2900 model. The Servo control is also the same (Sony chips). The only difference is the DVD processor being ESS in the 3910. It takes care of CD and DVD processing and uses large SDRAM memory buffer. In the case the machine was not reading 192K discs, the ESS processor might have been defective. Since the 3910 is a machine like all other Digital players, anything can happen to it at any time, there are no guarantees. If you look at the warranty information on my site, you will see that I offer 1 year parts and labor for the re-design (mod) part. Also, during that year, if something else happens to the player, I will not charge labor but just unmarked parts cost. After the first year, the labor will be symbolic for any repair plus, again, unmarked parts cost. Since I am used to $200K + Sony Broadcast and Pro machines, there is nothing that can happen to 3910 (or any other machine) that I will not be able to fix as it looks like a baby toy to me…:-)

The 3910 spins the media much faster than a CD player because its playback is non-linear. It fills SDRAM memory buffer and the data is being clocked out of it. This results in dramatically reduced jitter coming from the transport, but also vibrations with not perfectly balanced media. Even the best transports in the world are still suspended on rubber or silicon dampers. Although you will not hear or feel the vibrations with these more expensive machines, if you can put your hand on the actual transport inside it still vibrates. Heavy transport is not the solution; the solution is the Audio Desk Systeme from Germany which bevels the edge of the Media. Together with other benefits, the best that I like about this little miracle is that it takes the center hole of the media for a reference and perfectly balances it. This results in NO vibrations whatsoever even if you play your CD on a boombox transport at X16 speed. The sonic improvement is dramatic.

Regards,
Alex
dbld
297 posts
 
Thanks for the info Guido and Alex. Quite interesting.

So Alex, does the 3910 spin the disk much faster than the DV-50?

I was told something similar about Meridian gear, and how it uses a 10x drive and buffers the data. I demoed a G98 for a weekend and was really impressed and I was simply feeding my pre/pro via a cheap Stereovox coax.
aplhifi
515 posts
 
Dbld, the DV-50 does not use memory buffers for CD, so it spins 1x. The 3910 spins at least 6x.

Regards,
Alex
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