CD players - Luxman vs. Esoteric?

Hi Toronto416,

My basic Esoteric SA-10 resides in a system that has been discribed by others as musical,revealing,resolving non fatiging etc.When matched with the right components, it is anything but clinical. If the esoteric line sound only sound clinical to you, I would consider other components in the chain including the cables as being the culprit.
I also feel secure in the knowledge that when and if I choose to upgrade, It is an easy sale compared to the Luxman.
I have heard the D-06 but not in a system that did it any service.

Regards,

Hi Mark,

BTW
I'm a 905er

Regards,

I agree with Montejay, there are a lot of folks here that think the Esoteric CDP sound is clinical. I think people here do too much reading reviews of inexperienced posters and take on the opinions of others. So when they do go out and hear an Esoteric CDP they are expecting to hear a clinical system. A properly set up Esoteric CDP is not clinical sounding. At least not in my system. You have to consider the room, components, cables etc. Take one home and try it in your system before coming to the conclusion that it is clinical.

Let me add this as well.
Make sure the Esoteric cdp is broken in with at least 500 hours on it and has not been turned off in the previous 24 hour before you can really can properly assess it.

Regards,

I have an Esoteric UX-1 containing arguably their best transport, now only found in the P-01. My sound is ANYTHING BUT clinical. It is actually just the opposite and although my system is tubes, Esoteric demos their systems at shows without tubes and the music still sounds great. The key, as others have mentioned, is proper setup and system-matching. Most audio folks I have talked to are very tuned in to doing this. My transport spins at 4x the speed of most CD players, allowing for a buffered "error correction" on the fly. It results in very accurate reproduction of what is on the disc, but instead of sounding clinical, it just sounds "right". My goal 8 years ago was to have the musicians "playing in my living room", and I have achieved that with the help of Esoteric and a few other friends.