New Esoteric P02 D02

They are very resolving indeed. Lots of detail and textures. But I guess that also has a lot to do with the rest of the system.

For the 02s, they are the most detailed I have heard. But also very musical. Compared with the 03s, they have managed to increase resolution while keeping the nice musicality.

Specific to your question, yes, the strings sound fantastic, and you can actually hear all the intrinsic sounds to the diferent instruments in a way I have notmheard in other systems.

Now the drums I could not assure you if you can tell the diference in quality of paper or leather... I am not that familiar with drums, and maybe that is too much of a claim by whoever makes it, but not sure., since do not listen to that much music with drums. Although the other day did listen to a jazz trio and drums were fantastic.

At last I completed my comparison.

My comparison was made by using p01vu transport and G0rb atomic clock. Most listening was done with either filter off or short delay 1, no upsampling but in some rare cases with dsd upsampling. I used cds and sacds covering classical, rock, jazz and pop favorites. Cables were from Esoteric. Amps used were Pass(x600 and pre), McIntosh (400 & pre), and Krell. Speakers were Focal 907be.

I agree with Eelii on resolving power of D02. It is more detailed than d03 and any other dac I heard. It projects a very precise holographic 3d sound stage.

But I disagree on musicality. D03 simply sounds more cohesive and musical to my ears. It can even be considered very slightly euphonic. Vocals were more "human" with D03.

Note that I am using p01 vu as transport with atomic clock.

D02 is more revealing and sometimes has tendency to sound very slightly detached or a bit thin. It works better with a neutral or warmer system rather than a lean one.
On the other hand some may find D03 a bit warm in another system.

Their sonic signature is close, yet they still sound
different.
It all comes down to personal taste in my opinion.

I can say that if you are going to use the usb and mostly well recorded cds and if it matches your systems sonic signature D02 is the winner.

When compared with older top of the line d01, it was more refined and smoother. Low level details were better on D02. On the other hand D01 had this powerful presence and texture of the instruments were sometimes better on the d01.

With sacd only comparison D03 was the best sounding with more analog like ease.

More with d02 and d03...

Instruments have more body with d03. On the other hand D02 sounds clearer with extremely low background noise. When it comes to bass D03 has more impact, but D02 lacking slight thickness and warmth of D03 has faster bass and slightly better timing. As for the treble D02 is the clear winner with more extended yet silky smooth highs.

If you dont dissect and over analyze their performance, and
evaluate it as a whole, then I would say d03 in most cases is more musical with more analog like sound. (probably due to the slight warmth in mid bass and better bass impact resulting with more body)

I agree to some extend with Pharma's findings, in the sense that the 03s strongest point was musicality. They had a warm character that made listening very pleasant. But I do not find the 02 less musical.

And also, that t is in the level of detail and resolution were the 02s are far superior.

But to me, they do so while keeping musicality intact. So in my case the level of enjoyment of music is higher by a good margin with the 02s since they do transmit more. You get things out of the performances, that you missed with the 03s. I do not mean little sounds that were not noticed before. You get some of those as well but that does not increase my enjoyment particularly. It is more in the details of how the performers play, the different degrees of intensity, speed, dynamics at micro levels that makes the difference.

Also different finding in bass and presence and body of instruments. Bass is in my case more present and better defined. Also presence and body of instruments is a large improvement with the 02s. The 03s were very good, but they were more flat, in the sense that different recordings and performances sounded more alike. The 02s unveils differences that I did not hear with the 03s.

I guess some of this are system specific. Also the fact that I use the P02 with the specific transfer link to the D02s can make a difference, but there I do not know for sure since I have never tried them with the P01.

Overall some common findings and some differences, that again I think have to do with system and maybe the transport.