I had an Esoteric DV-50s that I didn't care for and sold... I am wondering how the Esoteric X-01 sounds. Anyone try this player? What other players should I try? I now have a Blue Ray player so don't need DVD video. Intereted in 2CH and SACD.

Check out the new Emm Labs CDSA SE One box wonder. (http://www.emmlabs.com/html/audio/cdsa/cdsa.html)

Check out the new Emm Labs CDSA SE One box wonder. (http://www.emmlabs.com/html/audio/cdsa/cdsa.html)

Any idea about MSRP?

$9995

The Esoteric X-01 sounds very good. I am a dealer for Esoteric and know exactly what you are talking about with the DV-50S and the X-01 Limited is a different animal altogether. They have a new SA-60 out that is pretty impressive as well. Where the DV-50S is a great universal player for movies and basic 2ch listening, I found that it lacked detail and image depth. Both the new SA-60 and X-01 Limited are much better.. The X-01 Limited uses their 6N copper class wiring. I just had my UX-3 upgraded to this and really wondered if that would make a difference. I have been very impressed with the results.

The SA-60 now has a Esoteric transport in it instead of the 3rd party transport they were using in the DV-50S, again it's made a big difference.

Both players from Esoteric are worth considering. If you wanted to include video, the DV-60S is a huge improvement to the DV-50S - it even scales up to 1080p and it has the same great 2 channel as the SA-60.

Anyway, food for thought, good luck in your search.

You may want to also check out the Ayre C-5xe. In one review on Soundstage! they found that it is a comprable player to the X-01.
http://www.ayre.com/products_detail.cfm?productid=13
P.S I have the DV-50S and in my system it works pretty well.

Hi Viper,

Wadia 581 or wait for the Wadia 781 maybe, it's more inline price wise against the Esoteric X-01.

I was really impressed with the Ayre C-5xe but preferred the Wadia 581 overall.

My local dealer has had a dozen customers demo Esoteric X-03 v Ayre C-5xe v Classe CDP-202 v Resolution Audio Opus 21 v Wadia 581- all ordered Wadia in the end. They're hard to get though, or at least here in Europe.

Wadia seem to get bad comments from the small amount of web research I did. Many posts appear to think the company is in financial difficulty. I've no idea whether there is any truth behind such comments. Just thought I'd throw Wadia in as a suggestion/for your consideration. You could spent the price differential getting it upgraded by GNSC. :D

Emm Labs - never had the pleasure of hearing one of their units but they do seem to receive universal praise.

What a shame that the new EMM Labs is a stereo only machine... Serious high end multichannel sacd-players are thin on the ground these days...

SRT-10 Viper,

Take a listen to the McCormack UDP-1 - it sounds great, and save $$$ while you're at it.

- Steve O.

I just picked up an Esoteric UX-3.
I have had several very good CDPs and DACs in my system over the years, and my system is highly tweaked ( power & vibration).

However, I do find the UX-3's bass weight to be too much for my liking.
It is unlike anyhting else I have ever had -> very deep & powerful, but too much so is my initial impression.
This bass weight also shows itself when using the UX-3 as a CD transport into my Bel Canto PrePro-Gen2.
Is such bass weight present in other Esoteric players ?

An another note, I gave up on SACD after purchasing an SCD-777ES when they first came out.
But now after hearing 2-channel SACD via the UX-3 I can easily hear, and appreciate, its superiority.

- Andy

The Esoteric X-01 sounds very good. I am a dealer for Esoteric and know exactly what you are talking about with the DV-50S and the X-01 Limited is a different animal altogether. They have a new SA-60 out that is pretty impressive as well. Where the DV-50S is a great universal player for movies and basic 2ch listening, I found that it lacked detail and image depth. Both the new SA-60 and X-01 Limited are much better.. The X-01 Limited uses their 6N copper class wiring. I just had my UX-3 upgraded to this and really wondered if that would make a difference. I have been very impressed with the results.

The SA-60 now has a Esoteric transport in it instead of the 3rd party transport they were using in the DV-50S, again it's made a big difference.

Both players from Esoteric are worth considering. If you wanted to include video, the DV-60S is a huge improvement to the DV-50S - it even scales up to 1080p and it has the same great 2 channel as the SA-60.

Anyway, food for thought, good luck in your search.

Have you hooked up the various Estoric players to external DAC's to compare the relative effectiveness of the different VRDS transports?

kdavis:
For redbook cd playback considerations only, what model in the Esoteric lineup is the price/performance sweetspot ?
Would you recommend the SA-60 / DV-60S over the U / UX players ?

- Andy

I have decided to go with the Meridian 808. I tested it in my home and was very impressed with the sound quality. I also tested it with the LS26 from Audio Research. The pair were excellent, my wife (who's not an audiophile) told me I should buy them. So, I ordered the REF3 from Audio Research and the 808 from Meridan.

Have you hooked up the various Estoric players to external DAC's to compare the relative effectiveness of the different VRDS transports?

With external DAC's only the P-03 and P-01 which both use the VRDS-NEO, so there was not much to compare in terms of the transports.

We (a bunch of clients and I) did a DV-60 vs. UX-3SE shootout which of course have different transports. The general opinion was that for movies they sounded almost exactly the same but for 2 channel the UX-3SE was a little more detailed and the sound stage seemed deeper. That being said, there are a lot of other parts in the UX-3Se that could be contributing to that.

Regardless of the model, we've had some great success with Esoteric.

Ken

What a shame that the new EMM Labs is a stereo only machine... Serious high end multichannel sacd-players are thin on the ground these days...

there is no shame needed.....

EMM Labs makes both the stereo 'SE' level (the DCC2 SE) and a 6 channel 'SE' level (DAC6 SE----which i have)......both DAC's use the CDSD SE as a transport.