Esoteric P70 D70 vs X-01 Limited

Tboooe, I am not surprised you were not fully satisfied by Esoteric players feeding an amp directly. Even TEAC America prefers to use Linestages with these players. They seem to favor the ARC Ref 3 in particular. On the other hand, this is a very common findings with most high end players capable of driving amps directly. I have heard even the big DCS quadruple stack driving CJ mono amps into Wilson Alexandrias. The sound was all together light and lacked some depth, until a CJ ACT 2 linestage was inserted into the system. Best news is though, that in the case of TEAC Esoteric, only the combo players let you dispense from a line stage. All single box players do require one instead.

The original X-01 might have been on the cool side out of the box, but that changed some over time. The upgrade to Limited changes the entire center of gravity of the player from upper midrange to lower. With over a thousand hours on a Limited it is inconceivable that any careful listener could characterize it either as cool or mechanical.

I'm quite sure the posters who characterize Esoteric products as "cool" or "mechanical" or "clinical" have little or no experience with them. Most likely just repeating the opinion of a friend, incompetent reviewer, or hearing the player for let's say 10 minutes in an unfamiliar system. I've heard almost the entire line and I would not use any of those terms to describe the sonic signature. Here are clearly more reasons to listen for yourself, in your surroundings, with your components, and not rely on heresay.
Thank you.