Differences Between Esoteric SACD Players

Dorkwad: I like Dan's stuff...I own a 36.5 preamp and the KWA 150 amp. I am looking to Esoteric for the reliability as well as the sound. I am not sold on Sony reliability given the myriad problems people have had over the years with the various SACD players. The one thing I hate most is no music while a piece of my sysyem is gone to a manufacturer for a month.

Hi Buconero,
The reason I posted the link was that they cover a range of Esoteric players and explain what you gain as you move up the range.

Regards,

Teeshot: I'm not sure if this means anything but I also like Dan's stuff (and own the LS36.5 and KWA150) and chose the Esoteric X-03SE because it sounded great and is built like a tank. Their transports are unsurpassed and operating the machine makes you feel like your money was well spent. I did not compare the X-03Se to the X-05 but did discuss the differences with the dealer I worked with and, given the better DAC's, transport, internal wiring, ETC I felt it was worth the extra dollars. Since then I have read numerous comments on this machine that suggest it is the proverbial "sweet spot" in their lineup, representing the best sound and build quality for dollars invested. I don't know what your budget is or whether you are looking to buy new but I do believe that Esoteric has come out with a replacement model called the K-03, however I suspect that is considerably more expensive than the X-03Se. Sorry I cannot comment specifically on your question but perhaps this will provide some help in making your decision.

I've had the Esoteric SA-50 for 6 months now and love it. By far the best CD player or SACD player I've used. I was hesitant at the price but now consider it an excellent value.
It is very flexible with the upsampling/filtering. I like to convert the CD/PCM stream to DSD, really sweet sounding digital. Much better than my prior efforts with various CD players (MoFi, others) and transport/DACs (Bel Canto, Benchmark, others).
SACD is great. It's Esoteric after all, they are pretty good at SACD.
The icing on the cake is the DAC inputs - toslink & RCA/coax. So I can feed my computer audio files and also a Squeezebox Touch for internet radio. Finally, this thing has got a volume attenuator so you can go direct to a power amp. But it sounds better through a pre-amp.
I did not have a chance to compare it to other Esoteric units, but I've been very pleased with the SA-50 - to the point of having no further upgraditis with regards to CD, SACD or DAC!
One drawback, the USB input is not a good implementation, so you need something else between PC and the SA-50, of which there are many different solutions to choose from.
Good luck, you can't go wrong.

These are excellent responses. Everyone to a person,and I have gotten some emails as well, seems to love their Esoterics and it seems I cannot go wrong. Since the X series is considered to be the better series due to its more sophisticated transport, I just have to decide if I want to spend the extra for the X-03se over the x-05. Again, if you are out there and have directly compared them, please chime in.