I can help a little, maybe!
I have lived with the DV-50s since new (I actually paid to upgrade it to 's' status which was wasted money now but that's another story) and for a long time ran it and a G98DH through a Meridian 861v4, in this setup the G98/861 would be a bit better than just the G08, but this is what I found for differences.
They were both very good players, the Esoteric is a bit more accurate and precise while the Meridian combo was slightly more musical. That said the attack was better from the Esoteric while soundstage was larger with the G98/861, who also had slightly more air and separation.
I often found myself using the G98/861 for CD's more but when I wanted to spin all kinds of discs, I used the Esoteric mainly as the G98 didn't do SACD (and now the new G96 doesn't do DVD-A anymore)
So both are excellent choices depending on what you want, for me, it depended on what I was listening to and my mood, somedays I chose one, some days the other, hopefully I have given you some idea why I did this, but honestly on some days it there wasn't a reason, I just chose one over the other!
I have lived with the DV-50s since new (I actually paid to upgrade it to 's' status which was wasted money now but that's another story) and for a long time ran it and a G98DH through a Meridian 861v4, in this setup the G98/861 would be a bit better than just the G08, but this is what I found for differences.
They were both very good players, the Esoteric is a bit more accurate and precise while the Meridian combo was slightly more musical. That said the attack was better from the Esoteric while soundstage was larger with the G98/861, who also had slightly more air and separation.
I often found myself using the G98/861 for CD's more but when I wanted to spin all kinds of discs, I used the Esoteric mainly as the G98 didn't do SACD (and now the new G96 doesn't do DVD-A anymore)
So both are excellent choices depending on what you want, for me, it depended on what I was listening to and my mood, somedays I chose one, some days the other, hopefully I have given you some idea why I did this, but honestly on some days it there wasn't a reason, I just chose one over the other!