DCS Scarlati v Esoteric P-01,D-01

Jim,

Since I am not directly knowledgable about Teac's business model, how it operated in the past, and how it now operates, I feel not directly qualified to take this on.

However, my sense is that manufacturers that relied on Teac's OEM transport supply probably got the rug pulled-out from underneath in a major and painful way. I believe in some cases, models went to far stages of development, probably based on these transports, only to see those efforts and monies go to waste.

I'd love for someone to explain what is going on with the VRDS-NEO drive, why are there so many minor versions, and what happened to those manufacturers that thought they'd have this available for their own transports. I think one needs a degree to understand all the models offered over the past 5-10 years.

In any event, I feel very fortunate to have an awesome transport that uses a prior VRDS version 3.2 before they went unavailable. I have no doubt about the quality of the VRDS-NEO, although it may never be obtainable.

Rob

the absolute sound August 2008:

Where, you may be asking, is all of the dCSes’ added density of
information coming from? Bits is bits, ain’t they? Well, apparently
not, at least not until after they’re been retrieved from a CD by
the Scarlatti’s drive (which uses Esoteric’s top-of-the-line VRDS
Neo mechanism with dCS’s own proprietary control board),“randomly distributed throughout the quantizing range… effec-
tively turn[ing] any tolerance errors into random white noise,
which is far more benign than the distortion that would other-
wise have occurred.” I’m not technical enough to say for sure

????

Rob - While neither an engineer nor a Teac employee, the transport issue is pretty simple - COST. For example, the best transport Esoteric makes is in my 2 yr-old upgraded UX-1, but now only offered in the P-01. Teac does not sell its top transports to anyone at any price - if they did, the brands that use them would have to charge lots more than their already high prices. That is a fact.

Their various transports and where they fit in their line are very clearly laid out on their website. If some of you took the time to look instead of just complaining, you might learn a thing or two. Its not rocket science and business is business, as Jim said above.

I too was told by Esoteric's importer that those used in Scarlattis are definitely not their top line VRDS-NEO units, which he claims to be fitted exclusively only in their flagship model - currently.

Earlier this year, Esoteric released NEW upgraded version of their 01 series, designated as VUK-P01 & VUK-DO1 (version upgrade kit). From what I read, older units are up-gradable and are also strongly recommended by the manufacturer. They claim it to be of .."higher musicality that far surpasses the original version" ?

Gvatchna,
Which version did you actually listen to? Can you elaborate a little and share with us here your findings / impression of the two (vs DCS)? Appreciated..

There are three different VRDS-Neo transport mechanisms. They are VK-0 (used in the Esoteric P-01), VK-3 and VK-5 (used in the dCS Scarlatti). The latter is optimized for SACD playback. The VK-0 is not used in any other products than the Esoteric P-01 and is the top model. The new Wadia 971 will apparently include a Wadia modified VK-5 and should including the Series 9 decoding computer be a top contender for the very best alongside the other options mentioned.