Esoteric . . . your thoughts please

Thank you Dennis, since then I have been experimenting with the Shunyata King Cobra CX. . . and I like it even more than the Helix Anaconda Alpha. The good news is that the new Shunyata CX series has completely abandoned the FeSi filtering material, so it has no trace of the old 'laquering' effect of the VX variants. Furthermore, I found that the King Cobra CX that I am trying right now on digital front ends and power products is much more dynamic than the Anaconda Helix Alpha, which while extremely refined in itself, suffered a little bit from over-polite transients and smoothened dynamics. King Cobra in my system appears to be a total generalist that has been happily applicable to every position I tried it on: X-01 Limited and other digital front ends, JRDG 312 power amp, and Furutech ETP-309 conditioner. Only on JRDG Criterion KC appears to have no appreciable effect. . . but no PC I tried this far seems to alter the performance of Criterion.

In my system at least, KC yields all the refinement of the older Helix Alpha series, but with even more transparency, staging, and much better dynamics. Unfortunately I have not yet tried Hydra or the newer Shunyata conditioners. Guido

I had D05 for a year before switching to Berkeley Alpha DAC. Both were used with my computer based music server via Lynx AES16 card. In my system, Berkeley has smoother sound, richer midrange but fatter, slower bass. I think D05 is more fun if you are listening to a lot of rock, pop type music. But if you are listening to classical, vocal, jazz, Berkeley may be better. However, if you are going to get P05 as a transport, ultimately, D05 is probably better choice as you can use external clock. D-05 also sounds better in dual XLR mode than single XLR which Berkeley does not support.

I can also confirm that during a single 2 hour listening session in my system, Berkely Alpha DAC has slower somewhat thicker bass than my X-01 Limited. On the other hand, Alpha is somewhat sharper and less relaxed than X-01, with X-01 seeming also to yield a more defined stage. G.

I've had a UX-1 upgraded to a UX-1pi by Esoteric and a G-0s rubidium clock for over 2 years now and couldn't be happier. Retained the UX-1 VRDS transport. Build quality is great and they are really nice people to deal with. You can take their gear up another notch or 2 with proper cabling for your system - they respond very well to my SR and Mexcel digital cabling. I'm using an external APL prototype 32-bit Super DAC with incredible (at least for me) results.

If you want the snappy, quick bass and control of the Esoteric D05 along with a smoother, more musical presentation you need to look at a Wadia 521 GNSC. I owned both the 521 (still own the 521) and the D05 and did extensive comparisons. I sold the D05 as the Wadia 521 with mods was just in a different league musically. So much more musical through the mid band, but retained all the detail, grunt and low end of the D05.