DavidNY
100+ Head-Fier
- Joined
- Jul 17, 2005
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Quote:
I have had the pleasure of auditioning a number of high end transport / DAC's this Spring. Of the brands you have mentioned I never had the chance to do a head to head comparison of EMM and Esoteric but I did audition a number of transport / DAC's in a several price ranges. I found the Esoteric X-01 and dCS P8i to be very similar with a slight preference to the X-01 on RBCD. For long term listening, I preferred the Weiss Jason/Medea to the EMM CDSD/DCC2 (not the Signature Edition) (which for some older recordings I found the high frequencies to be a bit "grating"). And at the ultra expensive end of the spectrum I preferred the Zanden transport and DAC (which has a colored but very musical and involving sound signature) to the dCS stack (which is a bit more clinical and precise). The dealer who allowed me to demo the Zanden combo and dCS stack also had the P-01/D-01 and said that it did not stand up to the other two and I therefore never had a chance to listen to it.
One brand that gets very little mention, probably because it's very hard to find is mbl. I thought their top of the line 1621A transport and 1611E DAC sounded better than either Zanden or dCS. By the way at these prices I do not miss SACD. RBCD sounds just as good if not better. I have also been told that mbl’s mid priced transport and DAC are very good and would recommend that you try to hear them if you are considering the P-03/D-03.
Lastly I would try not to get wrapped up in all of the techno jargon used to describe certain manufacturers' design methodologies. I suspect that there are about 20 design parameters that go into making a high quality digital front end and that you have to do at least 90% of them well to end up with a successful product. Focusing on a single feature like converting PCM to DSD, a low jitter measurement or a tube output stage is in my opinion meaningless if the other parameters are not done well. I was amazed with the variety of sound signatures I experienced in my search. Some differences were small but others were surprisingly large. And, as usual, there is no substitute for listening for yourself in your system to find a sound that suits your tastes.
Good luck in your search!
| Originally Posted by Sleestack I wouldn't expect the DV-50 to keep up with the EMM gear. The DV-50, as nice as it is, is a bread and butter product for Esoteric. Plus it relies on their older DSD-PCM conversion technology. The P-03/D-03 is a completely different beast built strictly for audio with much more focus put on the ouput stages. It does not convert DSD-PCM and can even do a PCD-DSD up-conversion. It also uses the VDRS-Neo. While I would love t get the P-01/D-01 combo, I'm not shelliing out $50K for that privilege, so the P-03/D-3 combo is really my focus. I would consider the EMM gear if they built a 2 channel DAC w/o the preamp functions. |
I have had the pleasure of auditioning a number of high end transport / DAC's this Spring. Of the brands you have mentioned I never had the chance to do a head to head comparison of EMM and Esoteric but I did audition a number of transport / DAC's in a several price ranges. I found the Esoteric X-01 and dCS P8i to be very similar with a slight preference to the X-01 on RBCD. For long term listening, I preferred the Weiss Jason/Medea to the EMM CDSD/DCC2 (not the Signature Edition) (which for some older recordings I found the high frequencies to be a bit "grating"). And at the ultra expensive end of the spectrum I preferred the Zanden transport and DAC (which has a colored but very musical and involving sound signature) to the dCS stack (which is a bit more clinical and precise). The dealer who allowed me to demo the Zanden combo and dCS stack also had the P-01/D-01 and said that it did not stand up to the other two and I therefore never had a chance to listen to it.
One brand that gets very little mention, probably because it's very hard to find is mbl. I thought their top of the line 1621A transport and 1611E DAC sounded better than either Zanden or dCS. By the way at these prices I do not miss SACD. RBCD sounds just as good if not better. I have also been told that mbl’s mid priced transport and DAC are very good and would recommend that you try to hear them if you are considering the P-03/D-03.
Lastly I would try not to get wrapped up in all of the techno jargon used to describe certain manufacturers' design methodologies. I suspect that there are about 20 design parameters that go into making a high quality digital front end and that you have to do at least 90% of them well to end up with a successful product. Focusing on a single feature like converting PCM to DSD, a low jitter measurement or a tube output stage is in my opinion meaningless if the other parameters are not done well. I was amazed with the variety of sound signatures I experienced in my search. Some differences were small but others were surprisingly large. And, as usual, there is no substitute for listening for yourself in your system to find a sound that suits your tastes.
Good luck in your search!
