Only for your information. A local magazine (from Spain) reviewed the Spectral SDR-4000S last december. They ever use good and big photos from the outside and from the inside, last case only if the local dealer lets to do it. And this was the case. The transport is the old "P3" and looks very similar to the "P2s". The reviewer said that is built with plastic (the photos revealed this truth) and a full metal version is offered with the extension "Pro" in the name of the model (and it has balanced outputs). The "normal" version has only single ended outputs and nothing more.
All the money (an absurd amount of bucks) go to a very very good PS system, fully discrete, five sections, etc, and, of course, to the analog output, quite impressive. They don't added neither digital nor analog preamp volume output stage nor upsampling nor digital inputs. They don't use any opamp in the entire system! From power supply, through DAC boards , DAC amp and finally the output stage, the whole system is fully discrete.
A week ago I had a conversation with a dealer of several hi-end brands, including Esoteric. When I ask for his opinion about X-03SE he told me that the transport is excellent but the maker save money with the output stage to fit the bill that they expected. And this decision affects the final sound more than to choose a cheaper mechanicals and improve the boards. He explained that, in his opinion, a player like GamuT CD-3 has better sound and this is the case because they choose a reliable transport and better output stage (better than the esoteric, that is).
Some time ago I believed that Esoteric was a panacea, the top realization of my dreams (using solid state components, of course). But the new Krell Evo 505 (SACD/CD player) and the Audio Research CD7, two expensive examples, choose good transports (400$ for a phillips Pro-2 -the election for the most part of the highend makers- instead of 3000$ for a VRDS-NEO, in the last example) and reliable suppliers (a very big problem with the cheaper Krell SACD Standard). The rest of the money goes to the output stages (discrete and spectacular in the Krell, the best of the valves circuitry in the ARC and without upsampling too, like Spectral) AND max sized power supplies (the Krell way).
I don't know how they sound. But they don't choose that way if they think a better transport and poorer boards improve the sound, IMHO. Maybe if you want the best of both worlds and have the money...