2. digital
  3. 175711-171875

I heard a costly system from Esoteric.

2 days ago I was able to audition an Esoteric audio system. It consisted of the following:

Esoteric F-05 (Class A/B) integrated amplifier

Esoteric K-03 - CD/SACD Player

Over the years, I’ve been a vintage audio guy and I’m also into headphones. Someone told me that listening to an integrated amp with headphones (6.3mm) will give you an idea about how sound quality from the amp translates over speakers. I’ve found this to be very true in practice.

I gave it a go - with the NAD HP50, KEF M500, and some other (more) high-end headphones the store had. Currently, I only have the NAD’s and KEF’s, but I’ve owned dozens of high-end headphones in the past. Unfortunately, I was very disappointed. Please allow me to explain without calling me a liar. It’s nothing personal, just my impressions!

There was considerably less drive/power behind the headphones. For instance, you would literally feel the bouncing air on the cups on closed-back headphones. Literally the same as a headphone dongle with a small amount (in mW of output power). In each song I listened to, I heard familiar details, but it was glossed over by a very sharp and peaky midrange and treble. There was clearly a boost in these frequencies. Bass was anemic. Normally, with high-power headphone amps and even some vintage integrated amps (high-end back in the 90s with 0.09 or less THD etc.), I got the detail with the sonic finesse. In other words, everything the Esoteric amp and CD player did together, I’ve already heard before. It simply pushed mid-treble frequencies to the forefront.

And the cost for this system? 13 Grand for the CD Player. And at least 10 Grand or slightly more for the amp. So 23 grand or slightly more with taxes factored in.

For this kind of money, if they are including a 6.3mm port for headphone listening, shouldn’t it be optimized? Afterall, if you’re going to include that in an amp, make sure it sounds good! I’ve heard headphone systems costing much, much, much, less that sounded better.

My last disappointment was the CD skip - track seeking function. It was very slow. Even some vintage CD players had a skip function where you hold  down the track change/skip button and the numbers move like a stopwatch. On the K-03, it was by the second, or a few seconds at a time. And I had to press the play button again, rather than simply seeking the part of the song I want to listen to.

Source: high-quality CD’s that I burned with .wav files (familiar songs, and original CD’s from my CD collection)

Don’t get upset, Esoteric owners. Feel free to share your impressions without getting mad at me. I know this is a touchy subject; since the object of one’s desire (especially after spending this much money) should be justified!

jackhifiguy
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riaa_award_collectors_on_facebook
981 posts
 

Esoteric has never been known as being one of the top performing Amp companies.  The CD player you mentioned wasnt anywhere near TOTL well over a decade ago. The "3" is the middle of the road with only 2 lower models and that series is like 5 or 6 generations ago.  Its like comparing a 3DO gaming system to an X-Box!!  You couldnt sell that model player for probably much more than 2K these days. For the 13K you could get the current "3" model and have plenty of spare change left over.

Are you so lazy that you cant do your own homework?? Go to the Esoteric sight and do some reading. Whats it gonna take 5 minutes to educate yourself???  If you are in the market for a New CD Player and you see a DAC Chip listed I suggest you look elsewhere unless your happy with mediocrity.  The TOTL CD Players like Esoteric, MSB etc have graduated away from Chips several years ago.

jafant's avatar
jafant
19,578 posts
 

jackhifiguy

 

Go with your Ears. There is plenty of Audio life, left in these older CD/SACD/Universal players.

 

Happy Listening!

milpai's avatar
milpai
2,369 posts
 

@jackhifiguy ,

out of curiosity - what is the budget that you have set for your end-game system? If you give folks here some hint, they might be able to guide you better.

celtic66
1,651 posts
 

13K for a CD player.  Wow!  I'm trying to wrap my head around that.  I've never heard that player, but I left a rather great CD player years ago and moved to a music server which is miles ahead acoustically.  Resolution, sound staging, attack, dynamics and anything else you want to throw in was clearly superior.

I could be wrong, but I feel as if the CD player will someday be relegated to mid-fi. A music server set-up is a bit more complicated and there is the monkey work of hand loading your collection, but is well worth it.  Best of luck finding your sound.

 

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riaa_award_collectors_on_facebook
981 posts
 

13K doesnt even get you anywhere near a TOTL CD/DAC Player. MSRP for those is around 35K for Esoteric All in one solution and MUCH more for MSB. If you go for the separates (Spinner and Dac) you'll probably be near the 100K Range

Your completely wrong about your Music Server vs Spinning CD’s. All one needs to do is compare the DR Database of CD Pressings to the crap that is now supplied by the Record Companies for download etc....Your stuff is HIGHLY compressed/Brickwalled and you get nowhere near the resolution that one gets in the majority of cases from original pressing CD’s that were made in the 80s. Obviously you havent heard a High End Spinner/DAC before or you wouldnt make such ludicrous statements. You have no idea what your missing out on.

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