Is the RAM Modified Esound E5 the REAL THING?

Megasam,

Please don't take this as attacking but look at the price of the super clock 4 with PSU for the following, this is what I get from their website: Esound: $590, Marantz 8001: $700, Marantz SA-11: $750. You are correct, the Esoteric ones are the same.....it just seems the Marantz has the escalating pricing.

Hi Arbuckle,

Thanks for the interest in our products.

The reason why the Superclock 4/PSU are different prices for those machines is the extra time (labor) and extra mounting and wiring that is needed for the different machines. What is not clearly defined in the description is that Audio Consulting Silver wire and Cotton tubing is used for the connections (some have more wiring than others), and we have to develop custom mounting apparatus per the different machine, this takes time and parts cost. The Esound is the easiest of them all, very simple (hence the lowest price of this group), the SA8001 requires special mounting (has to be mounted in a certain location to sound the best) and much more wiring and the SA-11 uses a special Superclock frequency that is special order per project, and there is also some special mounting and prepping done there too.

I hope this answers your questions, and please feel free to contact me privately for more info on this or for some on getting feedback from our Esound customers (with their consent first) on your original question of this thread. Most (if not all) of our Esound customers do not really post here on Audiogon, but they are out there.

Best Regards,
Douglas Jesse
Reference Audio Mods

Thank you for the honest answer! I'll keep looking around.....

It's as if everybody is modding CDP's, even those who are not very knowledgeable in the field of digital processing/electronics (many DIY's among us). It's as if you buy a stock unit with already a modification in mind. Why is this modification madness, this form of compulsory neurosis? It is a fact that some people are a bit disappointed after they got their CDP's modified, so it seems to me that a mod doesn't necessary mean an improvement in sound. So why taking this risk of screwing things up rather then getting some real improvements?

Chris

It's impossible to generalize about the effect of replacing clocks across disparate players.