Opinions on Linn Unidisk


How does the Linn compare to The Esoteric DV50, etc.?
splaskin
FWIW I had a Unidisc 2.1 and DV-50 in my system for a few weeks.

The DV-50 has much better bass, while the unidisc is somewhat more musical, more of that Linn sound. I personaly like that sound, but had to agree with the wife the DV-50 just was more 'complete' and accurate. I think the Unidisc sounded better on DVD's, and the picture was slightly sharper IMO, but now that Teac is offering the DVI output for the DV-50 (well, soon.. I suspect the video will be a wash).

While I liked the Unidisc, I kept the DV-50. One thing to realize is this player takes a long time to burn in, mine took better than a month to really come around, but when it did, it was worth the wait.
I also auditioned the Linn Unidisk 1.1 vs. the Esoteric DV-50 and the Krell SACD Standard (and a half dozen others, to boot). I found the Linn to be a bit finicky on what you fed it, and to take a LONG time to startup on some disk formats, or when switching between formats. For more than $10K I just couldn't justify having to power cycle the thing to get it to read some of my disks. The Linn sales guys and reps made excuses about new versions of the firmware and some disks just not living up to the specs - but the bottom line is that neither my DV-50 or my Krell SACD have EVER choked on a disk (I bought them both).

Has anyone else had a similar experience with the Linn? You could go offline if you are afraid your local Linn rep will stop being nice to you...
I feel that the Esoteric UX-1 is superior to the Linn in all respects; audio, video, with superior transport that plays everything including Dualdisc. If you are considering spending 11K, check out the Esoteric for retail of 13K.

Steve