Esoteric D-05 dac and Oracle transport


Hey guys, I am looking to upgrade my very old Theta Gen Va with an Esoteric D-O5, but I still want to keep my Oracle CD2000 Mk II (because it is soooo gorgeous). A few questions on this:
1. How good is the dac just with regular digital output from my transport? (all the reviews pair it with the matching P-O5 transport).
2. How much am I missing from the dac not being able to get full upsampling?
3. What upsampling choices do I have, other than the obvious dcs purcell (or newer version)? The Purcell is an option I would look at, maybe do this in stages.
valvesandvinyl

Showing 2 responses by dev

Hi Valvesandvinyl,

the Oracle is for sure eye candy, I owned one for a few years.

Some of the info. in your posting is a bit confusing in relation to the model.

2500 MK2 is all in one player that offers XLR out for conection to a pre-amp and also offers digital connections for an option of use of a external dac but does not offer AES "XLR" digital.

2000 is only a transport and you must connect a external dac using a digital cable for it to work.

This is the unit I owned and when I demoed I preferred over the 2500, if you take a peak at my past threads section you will be able read some of my comments in general.

So to answer your question if it is the 2000 transport that you own, my favourite digital cable and digital type was a Stealth Audio Sextet AES "XLR" cable after trying numerous manufactures and types of digital. I also ened up using a Stealth digital power cord and swapped out the cheap glass fuse for a HiFi fuse.

My favourite all time DAC was and still is the Acustic Arts Ref Tube Dac, swapping out the two tubes for different ones and again using HiFi fuse and Stealth PC.

A tip in relation to the puck; make sure you keep the black sorathane tacky because this is apart of the design and has an effect. This was one thing that did annoy me a bit because you would have to peel it off the cd every time and some times I found it took part of the art work off so then you would have to scrap that off the sorathane and again ensure it was tacky.

Enjoy!



Hi Valvesandvinyl, yes you are correct in July 2009 and I believe you already have the HiFi fuse also.

Great to hear everything is working well and you are enjoying.

The Stealth "Sextet" AES digital cable comes up for sale often just ensure it is the lastest most current version if you go that route and at usually at a great discount, just be patient.

Dac, never heard that specific pce paired up with it but the AA as mentioned above and is marvelous.

Enjoy!