Any experience with the Esoteric UX-1

Splaskin,

Please post your thoughts on the new Arye player. I am mostly an analog guy, but am considering a new CD player. The Ayre was one of the few "new format" players I have heard and would be interested in others take on it. The Sony players have left me a little cold in the past.

Chris

The UX-1 takes a very, very long time to break in and will not sound good (or up to its potential) until it is fully broken in.

I wouldn't make a final decision or do any "Critical" listening with less than 500 hours.

Jes45,

I take it that you have a UX-1 based on your post. Have you ever tried to compare it to the Ayre D-1EX and if so, do you feel that the UX-01 is significantly better than the Ayre or would my move to the UX-1 be a lateral move. Any feedback would be helpful as I am still wresting with my decision

Lbsilver:

You seem to enjoy the Ayre player. If SACD and DVD-A interest you, why not just get the new Ayre Universal unit.
You can keep your present unit for video. I have listened to Ayre amps, preamp, and CD player at my local audio shop. I liked what I heard. I am going to speculate here:

The Esoteric unit will have a leaner more analytical sound than the Ayre. The Eosteric is not hard or bright sounding, but probably less warm. This is the type of sound I prefer.

Steve

The Ayre player only has digital audio output. When you say that Ayre is much better than Esoteric, what D/A converter did you run it through? I really doubt it was head and shoulders above the Esoteric X-01.