Anybody have a set up with Esoteric CD players?
Feb 20, 2019 at 2:26 PM Thread Starter Post #1 of 4

lfsszd

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I just got an esoteric x-01 for my headphone system, but it seems too good for a headphone system. I felt my headphone and amp combo can't handle the signals from the cd player. Has anybody has a good headphone system setup with esoteric digital source would share your setup?
 
Feb 21, 2019 at 12:51 AM Post #2 of 4
If people don't have an Esoteric CDP it's not because "headphones can't handle the signal" out of a good DAC circuit, but because:

1. They don't even have a CDP
2. Even if they have a CDP, it's not necessary to have one built like a tank, since on a purely headphone system, there are no soundwaves bombarding the whole room, and at worst a cheap mechanical source might impart those vibrations onto certain vacuum tubes might be vulnerable to those vibrations.

Neither excludes the use of a good DAC. At best, the idea that a headphone system can't "handle" the signal out of a good DAC is simply because of physics - the headphones aren't positioned in a way that is anywhere near as conducive to making the most out of the imaging that can be squeezed out by a good source and a good amp driving good speakers in a well-dampened room. But even then this has more to do with price efficiency - if I can have $10,000 CDP then I might as well just get a $5,000 speaker with a $2,000 amp and $1,000 CDP, then spend the change on renovating an entire spare room as an acoustically perfect listening room.
 
Feb 21, 2019 at 6:25 PM Post #3 of 4
Actually, I stupidly connected x-01 to perfectwave mkii DAC by PS audio to compare it with my old marantz universal CD player, but I used its built-in DAC, it sounds so good that I don't think I am listening to a headphone. Seems like Esoteric and PS audio are terrible together.
 
Feb 21, 2019 at 7:51 PM Post #4 of 4
Well saw this earlier and didn’t think you could overpower most things so glad you got it figured out.
 

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