Esoteric DV-50 vs the Newer Esoteric players?

Newer Esoteric gear sounds great, but will still be somewhat system dependent. With my tubed amps, preamp and DAC, my Esoteric modded UX-1pi sounds phenomenal. Very detailed but also musical and organic, without a trace of edginess.

Additionally, more often than not, a newer piece with Esoteric will be more advanced and upgradeable than their older pieces. I would try to demo a whatever you are considering and you might even consider calling Esoteric and tell them your system and what pieces you are considering. I have always gotten excellent support along these lines from them. I can give you an excellent contact there if you decide to go that route.

Fplanner2000,

Im interested in the X-05 player,I hear that it is the
warmest sounding of the Esoteric players. I would like to speak to your contact at Esoteric about the X-05.

I prefer a warm sound with good detail.Im more in the
Musical camp than the Truth sound camp.

No problem - send me an e-mail.

Fplanner2000,

Thanks very Much!

I agree with Violin. I've owned a stock Esoteric DV-50S and a DV-60 with $3K worth of RAM mods. I sold them both when I heard my current CDP, a Marantz SA-11S1 with $3K worth of pcX mods. To my ears, the Marantz was more relaxed, and sounded much closer to my analog rig. The Esoteric's were very revealing, but I found that they were too revealing for me. They rendered about 70% of my cd's as unlistenable due to grain and hash in the high's. Well recorded cd's sounded very good, but you'd be surprised at how many cd's are poorly recorded and/or mastered.

Yes, I suppose you could say that the Marantz masks some of the music, but it never has me grinding my teeth and even allows me to enjoy digital. That's just my $0.02.
FWIW, I have not heard the newer Esoteric's such as the X-05, so I cannot comment on them.

Cheers,
John