Esoteric X-01 Limited or new D-03/P-03

I had listened to the X-03LE and the X-10LE for a few hours at a place in NYC. I went into the session preferring the X-03LE but by the time the session was over I was preferring the X-01LE by a noticeable margin. My money does not fall from the sky so this was a serious decision for me.

On delivery the new X-01LE sounded pretty sharp and not pleasing. I had to force myself to remember the demo and endure the break in. At 24 hours it was tolerable but the highs were still annoying me.

I have had my X-01LE for about 2 months. It might have 150 hours on it and from what I have read it is still breaking in. All the sharpness is gone and it sounds really superb. It is pure undistorted music plus the most detail that is between the music that I have ever heard. The X-01 scrapes every last bit off the CD and reproduces it as it was recorded in my opinion. Its not mechanical or cold. Its not warm or sticky either. It’s the music. AND IT IS GOOD.

My ball borings are totally silent. The mechanical build is flawless. The X-01LE was expensive but I have no regrets. I would buy it again. I know at 50 pounds of weight it is solidly built etc. But the value to me is in the sound. Its pure, musical and pleasing with the most detail I have heard on a CD player. I am running a Nick Doshi tube pre amp and a JH50 amp (rebuilt by Nick Doshi). The Esoteric was the perfect match for my hardware and it gave the Jazz punch (when required) that tube systems sometimes lack.

If I had any complaints it would be a nit with the remote. Its overly large and they put a huge area for programming the CD player (which you might use once or twice) and the buttons for actual day to day operation are small with about half of the face space wasted!

It has leather covering that would embarrass the poor cow it came from on the bottom to provide some sort of psychologically luxurious feel for the "status insecure". Its overly large I guess to appeal to the jaded fat bastard audio glutton types… Listen Teac – no need make my ass feel kissed with a 315 gram remote that is festooned with leather You satisfied me with the sound and that is what actually is important with me.

A question please.
For European folks the x01 limited or X01D2 have a universal voltage or not?. I have tried to understand it from Esoteric's web site but with no results. I suppose not.
If not, they can be easily converted to 220-240 volts or this operation has to be done by a Esoteric's technician?
Many thanks
Regards
Piero from Italy

I have had the X-01 Limited for 9 months now and I believe it is finally broken in. It took a long time to trully break in. I had read posts that said the sound would improve up to 700 hours or more of break in. I found that hard to believe - but its true. If I had it to do over - I would stick with the Limited. Saying it sounds great is an understatement!.

TVC, you can expect your X-01 to improve subtly up to 1200 hrs of operation.

Guys, there is much talk about the X-01 and the X-01 Limited Edition. Are we speaking of the X-01 Limited versus the new X-01 D2? I know that Fcrowder has a D2 and suspect this is what most if not all others are speaking about. There was, however, an upgrade program for moving from the X-01 to the X-01 Limited Edition. I have no idea where that stands now.

I also find that the new review of the D-03/P-03 is not really a rave after a rather curious initial summary of its sound is made.

Also, it is indeed curious that the Burr-Brown 1704 is used in the X-01 D2. Burr-Brown's webpage show it is replaced by the 1796 and discourages use of the 1704 in new designs. Either Esoteric has a boat load of these or they think it sounds better or it perhaps it is a single channel design that works best given what they want to do.