New Esoteric P02 D02

Pharma, That is a World Class list of auditions... Great to hear you settled on the Esoterics. They are by a wide margin King of SACD at there price point. CDs can definately sound " brittle" with highly detailed cables. I think it is partly because most CDs have production limitations, only the best production CDs sound good to begin with. Even though they can be limited in resolution compared to SACDs, well produced CDs sound great on my rig.
The Esoteric sound is right on for me. I have an X-01/D2 I set up in my theatre rig to play multi channel SACD, and that sounds terrific too! It is not the smooth, refined and expansive presentation the P-02/ D-02 delivers , but it is definately Esoteric and it is a detailed, dynamic sound. I think that is where the Esoterics really deliver is in dynamics, great contrast in loud to soft, and with good cable choices, it is easy to nail it down however I like.

Hey Zephyr, I think the C-02 sounds terrific, I haven't heard the C-03or C-03x , but I'm sure they are close in sound, and not far of in features! I got the C-02, because I got a great deal on a speaker trade-in with cash for the G-01 and C-02 together! I am glad I did. I have followed tour thread for a while and am starting to hear some of the improvements you text about as the hours build. I have around 200 hours on the C-02 and 300 on the clock. Definately opening up everytime I settle down and listen.
You have me very curious about your cable selection, what else have you tried? The Snake River Audio cables are a great deal, but I get a darker, laid back presentation with them, like I say great for CDs on the Esoterics!

Watch for 350-500 on the Eso equipment (plus anything else for that matter IMHO!); the wait is definitely worthwhile....I've tried VH Audio, Shunyata, Synergistic, Transparent, MIT, Nordost, Audioquest all the way up to Sky, Volcano and WEL Signature, Tara 0.8, 0.5 and early Gold, many others. For PCs and Interconnects, Elrod Statement Gold and above and Kubala Emotion and Elation are my choice for SOTA cables (personal preferences only, not wanting to start a religious war!). I have not tried Crystal, Clarity, Kimber, Snake River and many others as an FYI

Zephyr, Awesome ! Ya cables and clocks.... That al get a more than a few fire up ! As for cables, I would like to stay away from making mistakes, to hard to get rid of! And the mark up is a sin !

By the way, what did you think of the Synergistic Research stuff?

To Colekat :

I am not settled yet. I will audition the new Soulution 745 with DSP upgrade. And there is dCS Vivaldi which is bugging me.
Cd sound improves a lot with the right settings from dac and of course with the right cable choice.

To Zephyr:

How are the Kubala Sosna cables compared to other cables you tried ?
So far best cables I have heard are Odin and Valhalla 2 which are very expensive.