UPDATE (12/23/07): added the MBL 5011 preamp. After living with my Esoteric front end for almost 3 months without a pre, I came to the realization that a pre was definitely needed. Without a pre, the sound was a bit thin and lacking bass. The 5011 addressed these issues and so much more. I did not realize how poor my soundstaging was until I introduced the 5011. This pre does in incredible job of layering the soundstage as well as separating each individual instrument.
UPDATE (12/07/07): added the Ayre MX-R amps. These were broken in by my dealer for 2 weeks before I took delivery. I rarely am taken back by gear but I was startled at how much real these amps sounded to me than my previous amps. There is more detail, more immediacy of notes, very good separation of instruments, and a very nice holographic presentation. I can go on and on but by far these amps are the most realistic sounding I have come across. They are just so enjoyable to listen to!
UPDATE (9/29/07): added Esoteric P-03 transport and D-05 DAC. The D-05 has the latest 32 bit DAC from AKM. Even only after a few hours I hear much better separation between instruments and notes, better sustain and decay, and more authoritative bass. More updates to follow.
UPDATE (8/03/07): added the Oyaide R1 outlet for my amps. Everything is a bit livelier with much better detail. I am hearing so many little nuances I have never heard before!
UPDATE (7/24/07): added the Oyaide SWO-GX Ultimo outlet to my front end. What a difference! The bass now goes lower and there is more detail across the board. I will adding another outlet for my amps next. This is by far one of the best tweaks I have ever done.
UPDATE (7/13/07): I finally got around to adding some heavy silk drapes and they made a world of difference. Everything is much smoother. I will continue to look for ways to judiciously treat my room without making it look like a recording studio.
Beauty:
-The sound is just incredible. Vocals are holographic and textured.
-The MBL 5011 preamp is beautiful to look at. Luckily the sound is just as good.
-The Ayre MX-R amps are just gorgeous to look at. The casework is outstanding. And as my wife said, "they are so cute"!
Beasts:
-The Usher BE-10 speakers are big and thick producing a powerful yet delicate sound.
-The Esoteric P-03 transport is incredibly heavy (75lb) and big but it sure sounds good.
My system has undergone A LOT of changes over the last few years. This has been mainly to me figuring out my own listening preferences and understanding what I wanted to get out of my system. After swapping out a lot of components and spending too much money, I have finally settled down a bit.
I listen to all kinds of music but tend to favor anything with female vocals, particularly acoustic folk and vocal jazz. I also favor simple orchestration and basic instrumentation with a preference for acoustic guitar and piano. The less number of instruments between me and the vocals the better. I mainly go to listen to music in small, intimate venues where I am able to sit within a few feet of the band.
Given my musical tastes, I wanted to put together a system that is able to reproduce the sound as organically as possible. I want to hear every little detail like the quiver in a singer's voice, the sound of the guitar pick striking the string, the feeling of the hammer hitting the piano string. To me, these tiny nuances help to make the music sound as real (i.e. organic) as possible. To this end, I wanted a system that was detailed, dynamic, fast, and immediate with just a hint of warmth. I did not want anything that was too syrupy sounding though. My current system gives me everything I am looking for. It is as close to hearing musicians in my room that I have ever heard with any previous iteration of my system.
I love the Esoteric sound so much I had to get their P-03 transport.
Esoteric D-05
Anniversary model with new AKM 32 bit DAC
Esoteric VRDS-Neo
This transport is a work of art! By far, the best, most accurate transport available. The amount of detail it extracts is amazing!
Sonos ZP-80
Wireless digital music system. Digital output is sent to Esoteric D-05 DAC, a huge improvement over internal DAC. I enjoy my music so much more now that I have instant access to my 40K song library
MBL 5011
A very musical preamp with outstanding soundstaging and separation of each instrument.
Ayre Acoustics MX-R
I am so happy with these amps. They make everything sound so real it is startling! The transparency and dynamics suit my preferences perfectly!
Usher BE-10
Very dynamic and neutral sounding speaker. I am sold on beryllium!
Tara Labs The One
Very transparent and "tight" sounding cable that also offers weight and solidity. These give me all the virtues I admired in my previous speaker cable, the Nordost Blue Heaven while providing what it was missing.
Acoustic Zen Silver Reference II
Used between my source and preamp. Great detail without sounding bright or edgy.
Acoustic Zen Matrix Reference II
Used between my preamp and amp. Very smooth sounding.
Acoustic Zen MC2 XLR
AES/EBU digital cable from Esoteric P-03 transport to D-05 DAC.
Acoustic Zen Silver Byte
Used to synch the word clock from the Esoteric D-05 DAC to the P-03 transport.
Acoustic Zen MC2 RCA
Digital cable from Sonos ZP-80 wireless digital music system to Esoteric D-05 DAC.
Virtual Dynamics Nite 3
Being used to power by MBL 5011 preamp. Like all VD power cables I immediately noticed more dynamics, speed, and authority. The soundstage with the VD power cables are incredible!
Star Sound Technology SP-4 Sistrum Stand
Great amp stand that helped to add smoothness to my system.
Oyaide SWO-GX Ultimo
Double cryo'd outlet with 24K gold plating - used for cdp and preamp
Oyaide R1
Cryo'd ac outlet with Beryllium/copper and palladium plating - used for amps
HiFi Tuning Fuse
I added this "audiophile" fuse to my MBL 5011 preamp. I am not sure it made any difference but it was cheap and lord knows I have spent much more money on things that actually made my system sound worse! My previous preamp, Classe CP-700 did respond positively to these fuses though. I still may try some in my other components.
hey--were you able to find any more info on the symphonic line gear from Klaus?-I have had my amps and preamp for over 10 yrs and still love them also have you thought of the pass pre--sometimes all in the same brand sound better-then mixing and of course sometimes they don't--and have you received the isotek yet --rich
audphile, you are my hero!!! I love going to live shows!!!! But kids and work and wifey makes it hard for me to go as much as I would like! We also like to go the theater a lot too but its gets so expensive (especially since I blow all my money on audio gear)!
Thanks for the tip on the Dartz. To be honest, I do not want to spend that kind of money on a preamp. To my ears, preamps do not really sound any better beyond the $10K mark. I am hoping to pay a lot less than that.
I'm going for some "organicness" tomorrow at Carnegie Hall I'll be listening to a live performance of Mahler's 2nd with Cleveland Orchestra....should be pretty organic.
And in November, my favorite composer, Shostakovich, 5th Symphony with Bergen Philarmonic Orchestra...increadible...you can't let me near the box office....I'll buy the entire season and be broke. LOL
Thanks Peter. I also find that hearing all the detail, (i.e imperfections of a singer's voice and the other instruments) also adds greatly to my sense of realism and organicness (is that a word?). This is where my system shines right now mainly because of the Esoteric and Usher speakers.
You are right, the Ref 3 is a very good preamp. Its midrange was magical! But I also missed the dynamics of solid state. I am hoping to find a solid state pre that has some of the Ref 3's midrange magic while also having the dynamics.
Tboooe, I've enjoyed reading about your ever-evolving system. I'm interested in the discussion you generated with Audphile1 about the term "organic". I have often seen "organic" used to describe systems consisting of vinyl, tubes and horns for that "warm, natural and immediate(palpable)" sound. But, as you know, I love those Pass XA160's and find they match very well with my Pass X1 which is very neutral and quiet. I'm surprised you sold the REF 3.
I look forward to following your system changes and resulting impressions. Thanks. Peter
Thanks Henry. Actually we do a lot of business in Europe. I am managing director of our German (GmbH) subsidiary. Where will you be moving to?
I would like nothing more than to visit you and listen to your incredible system. By the time you settle in, I should be able to give you a good idea of how the Esoteric sounds, though I doubt nothing can compare to the vinyl setup you have!!!
Wishing you and your family (and your audio gear) a safe journey back to Europe.
Tommy, shame you couldn't drop by when you were in the area recently. Now that you haven't and the little experience I have with my new setup I am glad you didn't. Since that week the improvements have been staggering, and you wouldn't have got the right impression as these components are still not fully broken in. Now you'll have to come to Europe to visit me !!! Any business trips soon? :-)
I'm particularly interested in what you think of your new Esoteric seperates as they break in and how that compares to other CDPs you've experienced.
dpac good points. The thing is I dont always listen to low levels. Sometimes I crank it up so if I was to go with a low power system I would not have this option. So I guess having the extra power is useful for me every once in a while.
maybe you need a shift to high efficieny speaks, low power SET since you listen so low. What's the point, don't get me wrong, with mono-block class A biased hot beasts and you are listening to what 70-75 db? You might want to research high efficieny systems. Great dynamics at low levels too. either way you are back on the merry go round...enjoy your ride!
T --when you get the isotek--put it on program 2 and let it play for 24hrs--then run it thruough your system at low vol for just 1 cycle then listen should help --agree with Zephyr needs at least 250-300 hrs --rich--you could also put your preamp back in to see the diff --
Thanks Guys! I am not too troubled right now. I know the Esoteric is a great cdp. I loved my X-03se. My feeling is that it is a combination of break in and the lack of a preamp. The thing is, I do not listen at very loud volumes at all, maybe around 70db. Anyway, more fun to come as things settle in...
Tommy, if your ears hurt, don't listen to it for a long period of time! You will probably need a preamp(I assume you had not noticed this quality with the REF3 in the mix) so be carefull with listyening to your system at elevated levels or for an extended periods of time.
I had the same problem with the highly modified SMcAudio McCormack DNA-225 amplifier. It just caused major fatigue and my ears were hurting. I think in my case this was because of the hump somewhere in the mid frequencies that this amplifier was producing. With your set up it may be something different. May be the Esoteric's volume control is screwing up the overall balance of the presentation and if you used fixed output via the preamp it would not be noticible at all......check it out....if you didn't ship the REF3 yet. Anyway, be careful with it.
Tboooe: 75 hours is not even close to the point that the Esoteric P-03 will open up and lose that sheen and two-dimensionality. The results after 250-275 hours and above the 300 mark should amaze you given your choice of interconnects is not standing in the way or influencing in some way that is affecting what you hear. I cannot speak for the D-05 as I've not owned it however my results with the D-03 parallel those with the P-03. I'd simply turn the volume off on the system and let the transport and DAC run until they break the 200+ mark and then listen again.
I do have one key question in that on 10-05 you said that you had lived with the gear for almost a week and now on 10-11 you are saying you've got about 75 hours on it. At this point you should (with 24x7 continuous break-in) be over the 200 hour mark; are you not doing continuous break-in?
As some of you know I have been trying the use the Esoteric combo without a preamp since the D-05 DAC has a built in volume control. Earlier, I have my impressions of the functionality of this volume control (mediocre). For this post I wanted to give a brief description of what I am hearing from this combo after almost 75 hours.
The sound continues to sound more organic, dare I say analog like? Initially, the system sounded as if it had some sort of slick sheen on it. Everything sounded too glossy. I am happy to say things are sounding more organic, more real. Of course, detail retrieval is incredible and is probably the Esoteric's best quality. But it does so without sounding clinical or cold. There is an imperfect quality to it. I know that sounds completely contradictory but what I think is happening is the Esoteric is picking up all the smallest details and nuances in the music, including the imperfections of the voice and instruments. This gives the sound an incredible sense or reality.
Now for the bad news. For some reason, my ears hurt after listening to the Esoteric. It doesn't sound overly bright to me at all. Perhaps there is some high frequency harshness that I am hearing that is causing this. The last time I had this sensation was when I had some speakers that were overly bright. I wonder if this has to do with me running the Esoteric without a preamp. Without a preamp the sound is a bit thin and lacking a bit of body. The bass is also lacking.
Anyway, more impressions to follow as things settle in a bit more.
Tommy --go to the odysssey-web site--in the audiogon manufact- list --klaus is the us importer for symphonic line --at their web site there is a link to symphonic line --just great amps and pre amps ---don't forget your pass amps are great as well ---nelson pass is one of the grandad's of high end gear--rich--btw the furman stuff is wonderful--any ? email me --
Rich, i placed the order for the isotek last week. I will let you know how it goes. You are the second person to recommend the Symphonic Line. I just checked out their website and it looks pretty dated. Can you provide a link?
Zephyr, thank you always for the input. Power delivery is definitely on my list of things to take care of.
zephyr--bass with the symphonic line pre was in spades --also using a furman ref 15--one for my cd player and preamp and another for amps, sub and my speakers --they truly made a huge difference --agree with what you said --rich
Without sacrificing pits of hell bass, seductive mids or great leading edge highs, transients, etc....I have the CP-700 cabled with AQ SKY XLR balanced. The combination is just right to my ears and lets all the great information get through to my Edge NL12.1's. I have pits of hell bass, killer mids and great highs with very good imaging, etc.....I'm sure there are other great pre-amps out there but I'm here to tell you this combination works very well. One additional jump I took was adding a Shunyata Anaconda Helix power cord for the CP-700; the noise floor on the pre-amp is already damned impressive but with a Furman ITRef20i, the Anaconda and a great dedicated circuit I have yet to 'hit the wall' with this pre-amp's performance..again, all IMHO.
Thanks Dpac. As Zephyr said, I sure learned a bit more than I knew previously, especially with regard to the differential volume control.
Zephyr, yes the Classe is back on my short list. It is tremendously well built with great user features. My one and only complaint about it when I had it was that it was a bit too polite. Dont get me wrong, the sound was smooth and midrange seductive (I like this) but overall I thought perhaps it had more of a laid back personality, as if I was missing some leading edges and dynamics. Perhaps I did not let my unit fully burn in or perhaps I did not have the right interconnects. Anyway, I would greatly appreciate any feedback you may have on this aspect of the CP-700's performance.
hi T--glad the esoteric is jumping :) did you order the isotek system enhancer ??if you are not familiar with the jazz at the pawnshop cd and like jazz it is a must esp the XRCD--my speakers are transparent and system is pretty nat sounding so I don't know whaat I would do with the the p3d5 combo --how is that for rationalization--haha--I previously had a tube preamp to go with my symphonic line rg4mk3 monoblks and my electrostats --and switched to the sl rg3mk3 solid state pre and it just blew away the tubed one midrange was better just glowing and had greater dynamics and detail--so don't be afraid to try a ss pre --it just has to blend with your system--also looking at your system -you have great components and you will go wild when you can get them into a better room --imho--take care --rich
