your impression on esoteric sa-50

I have an SA-50, which I purchased new about a month ago. One of the major reasons I bought it was because of the versatility it offered, serving as both a CD/SACD player and a DAC (with both USB and Digital input). Truly, IMHO, a one box solution.
For critical listening, I use the CD/SACD player, and for casual and background listening, I use Sonos, which I channel through the digital input of the SA-50, utilizing it's DAC. To my ears, there is very little difference in the quality of the music provided by either source.....and I'm very pleased with my purchase. Great build quality, and I'm still expecting the quality of the music to improve, as the break in time on these units is supposed to be in the neighborhood of 500 hours. Hope this helps.

Overpriced for the sound it produces, at least in my rig. OPPO 83SE beats it hands down.

......really, owning Esoteric myself I would wage the bet that in ohhh 5 years let's say, that Esoteric will still be around. Service after the sale was a big factor in my purchase....some are just are flavors of the month.

I'm sure Teac/Esoteric will probably be around in one form or another for a while but Oppo has been around for ten years or more and offers great players at reasonable prices.