esoteric products

To resurrect an old thread......... Does anyone know of a competent repair facility near Tacoma, Washington state for an Esoteric P-10 transport? Something has gone bad with either the drawer or the clamp, & this unit sounds way to good to toss (BTW, I have an Oppo 95 which does outperform the Esoteric->Illuminatinti->PS Audio SL3 on hi rez; but the cd rig out performs the Oppo on 44/16 cd).

Esoteric responded to my email with a statement that the only authorized service center is ONE in California. With the cost of shipping, I guess I need someone not authorized (GRR).

Sad thing is I used to have several friends & acquaintances that could have done this; they've all either passed away or are about to. The only tech I know who works on vintage gear doesn't do digital; he only does real vintage..........

FYI: The ONLY reason I compared Esoteric & Oppo is those are the only 2 digital front ends I have owned in years; & what I wrote is my experience in owning both. The P-10 was a stunning transport for it’s time; to my ears it sounded much better than the flagship P-2.

Still no luck on finding a repair shop, which was the reason for my post.

I found someone (Northwest Audio) who without seeing it, is guessing it would be an easy fix ($100-$300) & is going to diagnose at no charge. I will be very happy if that’s the case.

Re streaming; I am going file on most new music & loading on Flash Drives (+ backup; btw I’m looking for a couple old external hd’s that will work with XP; the chipset that allowed XP to see over 2 TB has been removed from all current manufacture as far as I can tell).

With that said, the Esoteric/PS Audio sounds better on 44/16 then the Oppo; but I guess I could pop the Flash Drive in the Oppo for 44/16 & run an SPDIF to the PS Audio for 44/16. I hadn’t thought of that until you’re mention of streaming.

It would make an interesting comparison; as back in 1992 I clearly preferred the sound of the P-10 over the 5 times as expensive P-2. The P-10 was much fuller sounding then the P-2 (I believe the d/a used for that comparison was a Meridian.)

My main focus today is hi-res digital; but I still have thousands of cd’s (& a couple thousand albums as 44/16 files).

Robert Harley recommended the SL3 to me at an in store in 1999 or so. Only high end purchase I’ve ever made mail order without hearing the unit, & a choice I’ve been quite content with.

I did buy a McCormack DNA-1 here; but I already had heard & fallen in love with that amp before I bought it.

Problem with my P-10 are 2 belts. Diagnosis was cheap, parts are super cheap; only problem is it takes the only authorized parts supplier over a month to ship out 2 belts. They couldn't give me an exact ship date, but said it would be more then a month.