to SACD or not

I recently did what your doing and bought an Esoteric X03SE.Love it.I could have bought an Ayre at dealer cost and passed after hearing several including the Marantz line...and that Sony all are hyping,forgetaboutit,not even in the same conversation IMO, so no need to "crawl over glass"!

Well after hearing what all have said and seeing the tons of options for a cd player available I've decided it's not the disc player but the preamp which should be a priority to replace. This thought came to mind when I became all excited reading about the EAR acute with analog volume control and balanced outs. Just writing that out sounds tempting to replace my disc and preamp in one shot but who do we kid but ourselves. The simplicity of it sounds appealing but it's truly the best sound I seek. No disrespect Tim de Paravicini

Now back to the drawing boards and by the way have set up a listening session with the EMM Labs CDSA SE.

PS, Why would anybody want to crawl over broken glass?Hilarious

Thanks again everyone for taking time to respond.

For a SE preamp, I suggest you consider the best Shindo model you can afford.

Good hunting!

Tmsorosk,

I am not familiar with the Salons, but I seem to remember reading that they require a lot of power. If 110 watts/channel is not enough, you may want to consider the Lamm M2.2, which puts out 220 watts, if I recall correctly. It's Class A/B while the M1.2 is class A.

I'm very happy with M1.2s in my system. I love their tonal balance with just a touch of warmth, low level detail, dynamics, and rich fullness. Unfortunately, they seem to yield their best sound with the $$$$ Purist Anniversaries. I hope this helps. Happy to discuss more in an email if you like.

Ed

well thanks again folks! If your curious where this thread led to, I ended up getting a VK-3ix preamp and CX-7e player.