Esoteric . . . your thoughts please

I have been a proud and delighted owner of an Esoteric X-01 Limited for almost 4 years. There appears to be a sonic characteristic in common with most Esoteric players. . . discount anything they do be fore you have put about 1200 hours of break-in on them: the 1st 500 hours in particular, are akin to a hellish trip to the dentist without the benefit of novocain, but once these devices have reached their best, they show their true colors, and are incredibly musical on top of being resolution and staging champions. On the P-05/D-05 combo, Garebear can give you his direct comments, because he is an owner.

For what's worth, the X-01 Limited, and the newer incarnation X-01 D2 even more so, are said by Esoteric to exceed the performance of the 05 combo, but I have not been able to verify this claim by myself as I have not had the combo in my system.

The D-05 has just been released, and I have no information nor informal scuttlebut about its musical prowess one way or another.

Guido

Esoteric is a great sounding unit. I have recently heard the '5'. However, it is not a great value. I have heard units, recently the oppo 83se, that almost equaled the '5'. Yes, I know 'almost' is very vague. But the listening test I did was at a dealer that switched the 5 and oppo in and out. I could not always tell which sounded better. My ears, not yours. So, give a listen and let your ears make the decision, not your wallet.

I would consider the D-05 as the better half of the combo insofar as the processing is done in the D-05 and it can upsample on its own, something which even the D03 or D01 cannot do. I've owned the X01, UX1, P03, D03 and D05 and may soon have the X01D2 if I pursue the D2 upgrade for my X01. The D05 has a certain fineness in sonic presentation, the transients are slightly softened compared to the other Esoteric gear (with the differences being greater as against the PCM1704 DAC based units than the AD1955 D03). It is however, wonderful to listen to and I think a step in build quality from the McIntosh.

I have the X03SE and absolutely love it. TOTALLY agree with Guido-1200 hours before this baby sings its lovely song. Buconero117, if an Oppo came close to the Esoteric in your audition, it (the esoteric) could not have been broken in. The Oppo isn't even close to the Esoteric in sound (or build) quality. The transport mechanism is the best out there (no being outfitted to the other top flight CD mfg). I actually think the Esoterics are great values. Not cheap, mind you, any maybe not affordable to many but digital very difficult to reprorduce correctly and I feel Esoterics ability to render digital as it does is well worth the price of admission. Esoterics sound best with the balanced out, like good cables and responds well to power cord and line conditioner upgrades. The owner of Esoteric is an audiophile and he really wanted to do something special-and, IMHO, boy, has he.