I agree with Violin. I've owned a stock Esoteric DV-50S and a DV-60 with $3K worth of RAM mods. I sold them both when I heard my current CDP, a Marantz SA-11S1 with $3K worth of pcX mods. To my ears, the Marantz was more relaxed, and sounded much closer to my analog rig. The Esoteric's were very revealing, but I found that they were too revealing for me. They rendered about 70% of my cd's as unlistenable due to grain and hash in the high's. Well recorded cd's sounded very good, but you'd be surprised at how many cd's are poorly recorded and/or mastered.
Yes, I suppose you could say that the Marantz masks some of the music, but it never has me grinding my teeth and even allows me to enjoy digital. That's just my $0.02.
FWIW, I have not heard the newer Esoteric's such as the X-05, so I cannot comment on them.
Cheers,
John
Yes, I suppose you could say that the Marantz masks some of the music, but it never has me grinding my teeth and even allows me to enjoy digital. That's just my $0.02.
FWIW, I have not heard the newer Esoteric's such as the X-05, so I cannot comment on them.
Cheers,
John