Prior to this player, I used a CJ Sonagraph and a Kyocera (I think it was the 710, not the $2k 910 which was well reviewed in those days). I purchased mine ~ 1988 from a dealer in Verona, WI and only sold it just last year (only because I had no place to keep it and I was scaling down my digital front end). The 707ESD was just on another level altogether and I never looked back, much as I loved the little Sonagraph with its slow, squeaky drawer. With 45lbs. of extensive internal copper shielding, internal bracing, mechanical isolation and damping with an acoustically isolated tray, this player exuded everything good about a high end product built to last. I used it as a player until the late 90's when I began using outboard DAC's (and the player as a transport). I have never seen a more nimble drive mechanism: the tray closed in about a second and tracking was nearly instantaneous. This was Esoteric before there was Esoteric. As a transport, there really was no better. Consistently musical and never fatiguing, this was a product built for the ages. If any criticism could be levied, it would be for the styling (which one would either like or dislike but is decidedly "80's") or that it was perhaps a bit mellow in character (rather quite opposite of the fare of the day). It is a shame that the drive/laser mechanism was allowed to fall into obsolescence (it cannot be replaced...once it fails; the player's usable life ends). One of the nicest features the player had was the ability to program your favorite tracks for any given disc (up to about 200 or so if I remember correctly) such that anytime you put that disc back in the player, it would queue up the previously programmed favorite tracks. I have never seen this duplicated. It utilized 45bit noise shaping, dual 18-bit DAC's and 8x oversampling and had both fixed and variable outputs so it could drive an amp straight (and the volume was a motorized unit which was remote controllable). IT made use of extensive dual power supplies (analog, digital) and isolated the digital circuitry from the analog with all that copper.
Again, this was a fixture in my system for almost 20 years. It survived severe thunderstorms in the Midwest, multiple moves across the country and even player CD-R's without a hitch and it even worked well with the Mod Squad CD-Damper and Finyl treated discs (and I could readily tell the difference between treated and untreated discs using this player). The ONLY thing to ever fail on my player: a rubber disc that had been glued to the bottom of one foot fell off last year when I was moving the player around a lot getting ready to sell it. All buttons, knobs and dials on both the unit and the remote never lost their silk screening (which couldn't be said for many components), their feel nor did they ever get stuck, jammed or loose. I think the only potential disadvantages to owning one are: 1) the inevitability/likelihood of mechanical failure sometime in this decade and 2) the difficulty in accepting the possibility that a decades old but exceedingly well executed 18-bit CD player might sound better than an inexpensive multi-format player built yesterday…and that you’d need to adopt a "set-it and forget-it" mentality and eschew the need to get the next “latest and greatest” merry-go-round many audiophiles find themselves stuck on. I sold my player here on Audiogon for about $400.
Again, this was a fixture in my system for almost 20 years. It survived severe thunderstorms in the Midwest, multiple moves across the country and even player CD-R's without a hitch and it even worked well with the Mod Squad CD-Damper and Finyl treated discs (and I could readily tell the difference between treated and untreated discs using this player). The ONLY thing to ever fail on my player: a rubber disc that had been glued to the bottom of one foot fell off last year when I was moving the player around a lot getting ready to sell it. All buttons, knobs and dials on both the unit and the remote never lost their silk screening (which couldn't be said for many components), their feel nor did they ever get stuck, jammed or loose. I think the only potential disadvantages to owning one are: 1) the inevitability/likelihood of mechanical failure sometime in this decade and 2) the difficulty in accepting the possibility that a decades old but exceedingly well executed 18-bit CD player might sound better than an inexpensive multi-format player built yesterday…and that you’d need to adopt a "set-it and forget-it" mentality and eschew the need to get the next “latest and greatest” merry-go-round many audiophiles find themselves stuck on. I sold my player here on Audiogon for about $400.