An Esoteric Named Desire. Esoteric X-05 CD/SACD Player.

The Esoteric X-05 CD/SACD player sitting on where my Marantz CD 7's usual place.

We got a request in December last year from our reader called Joseph to compare the difference between the Esoteric X-05 and it's more expensive brother, the X-03. However, due to the product demo and home trial arrangement by Center Circle Audio meant the review had to be pushed back, time and again. I then got news that the X-05 unit on demo was sold and they are waiting for a new shipment to arrive.

Strangely, when the new shipment arrived, a unit of the Esoteric X-05 went to Hi-Way Laser for demo instead! Well, I had a mission to fulfill, as I had promised Joseph earlier. I grabbed this demo from Kenny without hesitation.

The CD tray action is super smooth! No body does em' like Esoteric!

This is where things start to get serious in scheme of all things Esoteric. The X-05 is almost as well built as the X-03, with a few exceptions. As the Esoteric X-05 is the cheaper of the two units at RM$21k, some thing's gotta give. So what's the compromise you asked?

To start, the X-05 feels lighter, but built just as solid, however, as far as the eye can see, the CD tray is now made of plastic, rather than milled from solid aluminium of the X-03. It is on the inside where most of the changes are made. The X-05 uses the lower cost, but still very effective VRDS Neo/VMK5 transport mechanism. Only one power supply transformer powers all circuitry and regulation stages to the audio and digital circuits. The DAC is also an older design CS4398(implementation is still one pair in balanced configuration) instead of the top range Burr Brown 1704 pair used in the X-03.
A peep window on the top panel allows up skirt perverts to satisfy their mechanical lust.

Like the X-03, the analog outputs are strictly stereo only, i.e. non multi chanel. The tonality of the Esoteric X-05 is very much cut from the same cloth of the X-03, very, very neutral. The highs are less extended when compared to the X-03, but still much airier when compared to my 10 year old Marantz CD 7. The top end is refined, delicate and smooth. The mids are dense with clarity and openness. The bass, again, does not sound as tight as the X-03, but still, you won't find the bass lines wobbly either.

Comparing to the X-03 again, the X-05 does not dig out as much information, but still trumps my Marantz again, even if just by a slight margin. I did find the sound stage and imaging presentation of the X-05 to be more laid back, compared to both the X-03 and the Marantz. When playing large scale classical music, the X-05 gives more of a mid hall perspective, compared to both the other players, which presents in a rather front row seat's perspective. The Marantz and the X-03 will sound more immediate and intimate, while the X-05 will always maintain a space between the music and the listener. Neither presentation is wrong nor right, it'll ultimately boil down to system owner's preferences.

The Esoteric X-05 will however do macro dynamics just as well as the more expensive X-03, but the micro dynamics falls a little short by comparison. If there's one surprising area, where I felt the X-05 subjectively trumps the X-03, is the musicality factor. No wonder so many people fell for the X-05 over the X-03!(price factor aside). The X-05 gave superior toe tapping musicality, if some what, a little compromised hifi attributes, compared to it's bigger brother.

The above observation applies when playing in CD mode. I did play a few SACDs on the X-05 and can say that it doesn't sound that much different in, compared to playing CDs. Like it's bigger brother, the X-05 will take a little time to change from CD mode to SACD mode automatically(it doesn't allow manual selection). I did however detect a slightly richer and more organic sound with well recorded SACDs. The X-05 also manages to resolve a bit more information out of the SACD format disc.
A view of the back panel.

The Esotric X-05 compromises on issues of ultimate resolution and micro dynamics. On the flip side, it's musicality somewhat overshadows that of it's bigger brother, the X-03. It's most natural competitor today would be the Ayre CX-7eMP, another of Hi-Way Laser's product. In my books, both disc spinners are worthy of consideration and only one's individual sonic preference and product feature(for example, the Ayre does not do SACD, so if one has a whole collection of SACDs, then it would be no contest in favour of the Esoteric!) would be the final arbiter of choice.

In summary, to use the familiar car analogy again, I felt that if my Marantz CD 7 were an older generation BMW 7 series, the Esoteric X-03 is the latest Lexus LS430(now upgraded to LS460), then the X-05 is the equivalent of the Lexus IS250. It has most of the sonic attributes of the bigger brother in the Esoteric stable, yet proves to be surprisingly fun and musical to listen to. Pardon me if I copy a line from an auto(Toyota) advert, the Esoteric X-05, " It's Desirable!"

Odiosleuth had tactfully reminded me that my system has changed since I last re-visited the Esoteric X-03 in my system last December(it was a friend's unit on loan to me while he goes away for his holidays), and that my PMC Fact 8 speakers may be doing some of the talking to influence the out come of this review. This review is mostly based on comparison taken from my lasting memories of the very special sounding X-03 in grained inside my mind.

Lastly, there's good news for anyone here interested to buy an Esoteric X-05 now. Kenny tells me that this particular unit on demo and review, is to be sold at a discount so........ special, you'll need to call Kenny and ask him your self, and prepared to be in for a very pleasant surprise. Hurry to avoid disappointment.

Note: This special discount is only available from Hi-Way Laser.

Esoteric is sold by Hi-Way Laser, contact Kenny, tel: 019-2813399.

Esoteric also sold by Center Circle Audio, contact Sky, tel: 03-77282686

The Swiss Army Knife of Digital Replay - Esoteric SA-50 Audio Player

I never came across any disc player with as many features as the Esoteric SA-50.

The Esoteric SA-50 is so choked full of features, like a swiss army knife, that I think it is the disc player that offers the best value for money in this regard. I think some would think that these features alone would have worth the price of admission, before even listening to the sound. :-)

Esoteric SA-50, built like a Lexus

Let's see what you can use it for - it is a disc player, taking care of CD & SACD (though it can't do DVD-A). In fact it is a few players in one, as its myriad upsampling and filter options offer subtle differences for you to tailor the sound to your liking. It is a DAC, one that can take digital input from multiple sources including a computer. It can even replace a pre-amp as it has a built-in volume control, provided you have only digital sources.

Technology wise, it uses a version of Esoteric's renowned drive mechanism, called VOSP. Almost every one would agree that no one makes a better drive than Esoteric. It comes with a 32-bit DAC, while many others are still boasting about 24-bit. It allows the user to upgrade it further by using an external word clock, Esoteric can supply one of their own.

Let's look at each feature in more details. First with its up-sampling options. For CD playback and digital input, i.e.,PCM digital audio, you can choose from 4 settings:
- ORG (original, no upsampling)
- 2Fs (32 / 44.1 / 48kHz signals are upconverted to 64 / 88.2 / 96 kHz)
- 4Fs (32 / 44.1 / 48 / 88.2 / 96kHz are upconverted to 128 / 176.4 and 192 kHz)
- DSD (PCM signal is converted to Direct Stream Digital, i.e., SACD format)

I played with these options for a few hours, and found that I preferred the DSD option the best, it sounded the smoothest among the lot, music had a nice flow and was highly coherent. It also sounded the most anologue among all four. ORG was the worst, you are really listening to coarse digital audio, it sounded rough and was really uncomfortable to my ears. 4Fs came in second, a big improvement from ORG but still sounded slightly digital to me. So, I used DSD exclusively for my listening sessions.

Strangely, for SACD (DSD) audio, the Esoteric SA-50 offers the user choices to play back at the native DSD format or converted it to PCM either at 88.2kHz / 32 bits (2Fs) or 176.4kHz / 32 bits (4Fs). I found that I also preferred the DSD setting.

Next up, the filter options. It has 2:
- FIR, which Esoteric says provide "a fuller, richer and deeper sound"
- S_DLY, which provides "an impluse response without pre-echo, natural attack and reverberation. This setting provides tonal quality that is closest to the original without enhancement". The "without pre-echo" words ticked me off, this is similar to the apodizing filter used in the new generation of Meridian's cd players and is also similar to the filter in my Ayre C-5xeMP at the 'measure' setting.

The S_DLY filter did sound more natural to me, the FIR filter slightly more dynamic. Listening to acoustic music, I'd choose the S_DLY filter, but for some music like rock, the FIR could provide just a tad more slam and excitement.

Next the outputs and inputs.

Analog outputs of the Esoteric SA-50

For analog output, the Esoteric SA-50 is basically a 2-channel machine. It offers a pair each of XLR (balanced) and RCA (single-ended) output. For digital output, it offers an optical and a coaxial output. Pretty much par for the course.

Digital inputs and outputs of the Esoteric SA-50

But many would not expect a disc player to have multiple inputs! They are all digital. There are an optical digital terminal, a coaxial RCA terminal and a USB port (v1.1 or higher). Now, you not only can listen to your silver discs, you can listen from your computer hard disc too!

Only a Japanese highend company can do all these, really. The feature list is simply amazing.

I am not done - I am yet to rave about its construction quality. The Esoteric SA-50 is simply impeccably built. The entire thing just exuded quality and class - reminded me of a Lexus. Everything - the disc tray, every button on the machine, the remote control, just worked and worked smoothly. Every moving part emitted nary a pip, no clunkiness, no excessive mechanical sound. And at 18kg, the SA-50 is even heavier than many integrated amps, some power amps, and almost all CD players that ever came into my place. Lastly, this thing came triple-boxed from the factory. Double I am used to, but for triple this was my first encounter. :-)

Ok, I have covered all the physical attributes of the Esoteric SA-50. So now let's sit down and listen to this jewel of a disc player.

I played CDs and some SACDs exclusively for my listening, no external inputs, as I did not have any.

I started with Shelby Lynne. The most prominent sound characteristic of the SA50 was so obvious before the first 5 minutes was up. It was SMOOTH, SMOOTH, SMOOTH... I declare this Esoteric as the smoothest sounding player that I have ever heard in my system. It was like hot-knife-cutting-through-butter smooth, the sonic texture was so creamy and fine. Where is the disjointed digital sound? Where are the digital artifacts? There was none to be found.

The Esoteric SA-50's treble was extended and airy, always non-offensive. The mid had natural body, vocal was slightly more 'youthful' than in my experience with a few other players, Ella Fitzgerald shedded a few pounds and Shelby Lynne was a couple of years younger. It is a different perspective, one that eschewed any heaviness in the sound. Bass was strong, deep, and well defined, though some other may outsmart the Esoteric SA-50 in terms of punchiness.

All in all, it is refinement to the fore, rubbish to the back for the Esoteric SA-50. It always dug up the beauty in the music to present. With my CDs, the Mozart symphonies and all vocal music came through beautifully. The Esoteric SA-50 never sounded hurried, it teased out all the musical strands and presented them to you in a natural way. I found that switching to the FIR filter could add a wee bit more rhythmic drive to the SA-50, but I also lost some naturalness. Well, the fact that you can fine tune is already a plus.

On George Winston's piano pieces, instead of highlighting the piano's attack, the SA-50 focused more on presenting the nuances and the decay of the notes, the acoustic space was also presented more clearly and more prominently. On my harder hitting stuff such as chinese drum music, you can probably find some others sounding more dynamic, but the SA-50 on its own was already no slouch, it was very good in fact. However, in one area the Esoteric SA-50 would be unbeatable, that was the portrayal of the different shadings and the spread-in-the-air quality of each drum beat.

The pricing of the Esoteric SA-50 has not been confirmed by Centre Circle Audio, I think it would be under the RM20k point. I'd stick my neck out and say that for the material value you get, it is really the best around.

That it sounded smooth, highly refined, and nice to listen to is the bonus.

Contact Centre Circle Audio, Ph: 03-77282686; Nelson Chia 012-2876807; Sky Wong 012-3371787

Music, Sweet, Music! Esoteric X-03 SACD/CD Player.

This is an old post of ours in the blog we previously contributed to.

Esoteric X-03 Special Edition SACD/CD player.

My very good friend ask me what I thought of the Esoteric X-03 SACD/CD player? I answered just as above captioned title. He was amused and said "it can't be! Esoteric players tend to tick all the right audiophile boxes, but can come out sounding rather mechanical or analytical".
Top panel detailing, the gold "Special Edition" plague didn't show up on the photo too well.

In this review, I especially looked out hard for that effect but found none of the mechanical, analytical attributes during the term of this review. I played all types of music through it, classical, jazz, pop and rock, but always found the Esoteric to be very musically satisfying, in the context of my system. Maybe my system is bias towards beautifying music, hence could be more forgiving in nature compared to other similar level set ups. What ever the reason, the Esoteric X-03 just fit in to my system sonically like hand in glove. In the past 3 years of comparing high end CD players against my Marantz CD7, I have never found another CD player to sonically advanced over the CD7 convincingly. It's always 2 steps forward and 1 step back type results. With the Esoteric X-03, I have finally found it!
The back panel, note the WBT Next Gen style RCA plugs?

The Esoteric's build quality is of battle ship quality, that was something once my Marantz could claim, but by comparison, it has now being demoted to battle cruiser quality instead!The player weights a few kgs more than my 23kgs Marantz, but the trump card has to be the all aluminium tray! It slides in and out like as if riding on a layer of air! It's that smooth. The review unit has Special Edition logo pasted on to it and the shipping carton, I wonder if it's all those gold plated WBT Next Gen RCA plugs that makes it "special"? Otherwise, from the outside, I can't tell the difference from a regular X-03.
The "Special Edition" packaging.

Let's dissect the sound a little more. From the very first silent notes on a classical track, I could tell this player's noise floor is frighteningly quiet! No hiss what so ever, just an eeri, airy silence, like as if you can hear a pin drop in a large space kinda silence. From the very start the Esoteric's smoothness is very apparent. Some may even accuse it of being too smooth, without character! I beg to differ though. I find this player's tonal balance to be very even and neutral. No added mid range warmth here to seek comfort. The highs have a very special quality that is at once airy and realistic. Playing some jazz music with some elaborate drum work, I find my self playing my imaginary drum kit, I was once a drummer boy many, many years ago. The Esoteric reminded me of the Zildian cymbals and high hats, I used to hit. The snare drums had that special quality too, that is many CD player's weak point, most do snare drums without the initial energy of the stick hitting the skin patch, the Esoteric came closest again to reminding me about my old snare drum kit! The low frequency, if at first did not sound outstanding, is actually the most realistic that I've came along. When the kick drums play, it just sounds so much like my drum kit that I used to play. The Esoteric just makes me wanna stop listening to music and look for my drum kit and jamming partners all over again! It's that realistic! from a musical instrument sound point of reference.

It does vocals very convincingly too, they are always singing in your room with solid density. Bass lines does not have that exaggerated tightness that we're used to with many CD players. The bass lines flow from note to note very organically, without calling for attention to it self, yet, if you decide to look for it audibly, it's all there in full glory. In fact the overall staging and imaging presentation is very organic, and as close as CD players gets to vinyl reproduction in that respect. The images are never card boardy, and never have very strong out lines, just very smooth and organically fade to black back ground kinda effect.
The solid aluminium tray, that glides like on a cushion of "air"!

The Esoteric X-03 also digs deep in to the CD format and retrieves as much information that's possible. And quite like the JPS Aluminata I played with last week, I've never heard so many details in my music like this before. However, the details are all very organically integrated in to the over musical presentation, that whilst you hear it's there you do not find it annoyingly so. Micro and macro dynamic swings are amongst the best that I have tested too.
The Esoteric X-03 even matches like part of the avant garde package, together with the Pass Lab X2.5 and the FE Spider like rack. Beautiful!

All the above I was describing was it's performance in CD mode. I did try the player in SACD mode with the very few SACD titles that I have. I thought unlike the norm, which SACD players tend to short change CD performance to justify it self, the Esoteric never resorted to that game. In fact, I felt it did all it could within the CD format's limitations. Playing SACD just does all the above sonic magic plus a little more. Staging is deeper and wider, imaging just a little more palpable. With the right classical recordings, hall effect is more apparent. Overall, the SACD side of performance is just a little bit closer to the analog vinyl source.

To sum up the final arbiter of this review in the parallel car world universe, my Marantz CD7 feels like the previous generation of BMW 740i series(Ken Ishiwata drives mostly BMWs), whilst the Esoteric X-03 feels like driving the very latest Lexus LS430. If you're familiar with both cars, I know I am.

Just a little quibble to note, when changing format(the player auto detects) from SACD to CD, the next disc takes about 30-45secs to load the TOC and vice versa. However, if you're changing from disc to disc without format change, then loading of TOC is no longer than a standard CD player.

All in all, if I had RM$32K today, I'd tell Nelson of Centre Circle Audio that I won't be sending back this CD player to him. But I don't have the $$$, so my lost is now any one's gain! If you're looking for a high end CD player at the price level, do check it out! I have already included the Esoteric to be one of the finest CD player on the lower side of RM$50k, along with the Audio Research CD7 and Meridian G808.2. It's that good, if not better!

Esoteric is sold by Centre Circle Audio, tel: 03-77282686

Posted by Panzer 19 May '09

Esoteric 3-in-1

This is an old post of ours in the blog we previously contributed to.

I just completed the review of the Esoteric SA-60 for the upcoming AVXpress. It took longer than expected because of the machine’s flexibility, it was like having to review 3 players in one go. Ok, a bit of exaggeration here, but the 3 up-conversion settings in this Esoteric produce differences that are, although not very pronounced, easily discernable, provided your have a transparent system.

So this one is a tinkerer’s delight, I can imagine some finicky audiophile choosing a preferred setting for each CD, or even one for each TRACK on the same CD. It took me one week of nightly listening to decide which setting I like – you can get my rundown of the sound performance of each setting in the full review. I think Maggielurva should pay me an extra allowance for having to run between my listening chair and the machine to make the changes, because you can’t select the up-conversion scheme from the remote, which is a major pain in the you-know-where.

Anyhow, the SA-60 turns out to be a refined and detailed machine on CD. I can’t fault its performance, nothing is missing and everything is done in an even handed manner. Its soundstaging capability and bass performance bettered my resident Copland, but the Copland did not concede easily too and replied with better musical flow.

On SACD though, all bets are off. SACD on the Esoteric is way better than CD, whether on the same machine or on the Copland. It is a pity I don’t have a big collection of SACDs and the format is also not in danger of becoming wildly popular in the market place. I played Telarc’s Tchaikovsky 1812 Overture by Erich Kunzel and the Cincinnati Pops on SACD, even my 8 year old son was impressed - by the cannon shots, and he asked for encores. Hehe, this boy has potential.

Anyway, it was a delightful experience getting acquainted with the Esoteric SA-60. Check it out in the upcoming AVXpress.