Mcintosh MCD-500 vs Esoteric X-05


On the market for another SACD/CD player in the $6K retail price range. Building a secondary system for my winter retreat.

What is the better sounding player in mainly CD playback?

SACD is secondary since I only have about 100 sacds verse 7000 CDs.

Also, what is the better player overall for value and construction and reliability ?

Thank you for your help in advance.
joefama

Showing 1 response by 4musica44107

Noticed you have not had any responses yet so I thought I would share my experience with my three SACD/CD players, one of which is the MCD-500, the others being the Marantz SA-11S2 and the Ayre C-5xeMP. All are excellent at both redbook and SACD, but in my comparisons and in my systems, the Ayre is superior to the other two. The Marantz and the Mcintosh are pretty close sonically and so that suggests to me that the Marantz is a better value when you consider its far lower cost.