esoteric x-01, ux-1 etc reliable?

I have a UX-1 upgraded to a UX-1pi by Esoteric - great to work with and no transport problems whatsoever. The Esoteric support has been great and their transports are pretty solid and bulletproof, which is why so many other manufacturers covet and use them in their products and have in the past.

Chungted - I'm confident Alex will take care of your problems to your satisfaction, and do so in a timely manner.

As far as a "modded" unit, Alex has fixed the laser on my APL-modded Denon a number of times - quickly, inexpensively and without any problems or drama. The laser is a known problem area with the Denon.

My involvement with APL is solely as a long-time APL customer.

Regarding Audiofeil - Someone recently posted that Bill has been "nasty lately". I noticed that too but not just lately. Mocking, disdainful comments and sardonic humor can't hide an innate bitterness. These frequent attacks upon forum members are a self serving effort to pump up the ole ego and feel good. Chill Bill and have more fun.

I am contacting Alex for transport problems.
In my opinion, the fist generation VRDS-NEO is so far the best transport ever produced. Combined with Alex's modification, the NWO-3.0GO-SE makes the sound so natural that one just feels every penny spent is worthwhile and more than satisfying.
Wondering why a company with vast resources and great engineers like Esoteric could not spend a little more effort to improve sound quality when a small company as APL HiFi has already shown a good example. Anyone who is willing to spend over $10,000 for a player must be critical about sound of music. Esoteric stands in a best position to meet this requirement. Thus, people do not have to spend time and effort to go for modification and risk for losing the warranty.

Chungted - I asked Esoteric that exact question - the response I got is that it would be too expensive to do this on a large enough scale to be profitable, according to the bosses, both for the customer and for Esoteric. There also other complicating factors, since production and new product decisions apparently come out of Japan. Alex, on the other hand, has the freedom and flexibility to produce what sounds best to him. IMO, Alex is a one-of-a-kind.

I agree with you on the transport - happily that's what I have as well.

Fplanner2000 - Thanks for your information. But I think it's a very poor excuse for not improving the sound quality. Not only they are using cheaper transports on newer models, also in many people's opinion the sound of X-01 D1 is not to the level of older X-01 Limited.