Esoteric

Esoteric, a division of Teac of America, is 100% devoted to building the most musical instruments. They are making CD/SACD Players, Amplifiers, Pre Amplifiers and Speakers, along with DAC's and Transports.

Their revolutionary transport is used on many top name players.

These players have achieved a level of performance that unmatched.

•  SA10 SACD/CD Player ..$3,500

Ralph Werner 6moons review

Soundstaging: This player is big in all dimensions. While laterally very broad, the immense depth casting will be the subject of true fascination. Even in height -- admittedly a somewhat esoteric subject -- one gets the sense that rather than a flat roof above the speakers' baffle edges, there's a kind of dome. This translates as added dimensionality even though with breadth, width and height covered, we've already run out of proper dimensions. Regardless, this extra dimensionality factor of "Om Vinteren", a 12-minute dream by the Danish octet, became simply stupendous and significantly more acute, a quality not to be confused with...

Localization focus: This relates not to the size and boundaries of the soundstage per se but the organization and sorting of instruments and sounds within it. Here the Esoteric goes about its business with such precision as to be downright scary at times. Think millimeter-obsessed virtual stage reconstruction where nothing wanders, blurs or obscures. The SA-10 even differentiates between up and down. Just slightly off center left in the second layer rings a cymbal one meter high, in the third layer behind it a hi-hat attack occurs 30cm higher and 10cm off to the right. All this is standard protocol with the Esoteric and when delivered at such a steady clip, a true luxury.

•  SA60 SACD/CD Player..$5,000

As soon as I gently rested the box in our living room, a wave of anxiety rolled over me. The box had a large dent on the side, evidence of the care in handling provided by US transporters. I could not stop wondering what damage had been done to the player. Opening the outer carton had me quickly reassured as a second box was literally floating inside the first one, suspended by green foam inserts to keep the valuable content away from the sides. Whatever punctuated the very sturdy outer box would have had to penetrate over 5 inches deep to get even remotely close to the player - not impossible but not likely either. Pulling the green suspenders and the inside box out, I was ready to take a first peek at the SA-60 when lifting the flaps revealed... a third box. Yes, Esoteric cares about their gear. I have never seen such high-quality packaging at any price point ... not even my Accuphase player came this well protected.

To try and sum it all up, the SA60 is an impressive player that can be finicky and won't deliver its full potential until all stars line up just so. I spared you the detailed account of four amplifiers, three speakers and seven interconnects swaps as well as countless hours of playing with speaker tilt and toe-in to rebalance a thrown-off midrange but this review was not an easy one to pull together. At times I felt I had reached ultimate audiophile neurosis, incapable of finding a satisfactory setup. Yet over a month ago it finally all clicked and I have not felt the need to change a thing since. Actually, my system has never sounded this good before. Letting the SA60 go won't be easy now that I got my system optimized to get the very best from it. All this to reiterate that the smallest details will matter to wring the most from the SA60, far more so than any component I have ever owned or reviewed.

The reward for your efforts will be an engulfing soundstage with perfectly layered and positioned musicians and a wealth of meaningful detail that never seems forced or out of place, with a sense of timing that is just impeccable at least through the RCA connection. But the greatest reward of all for me was the simple gift that the SA60 gave by making a number of questionable CDs listenable again - by minimizing if not fully eliminating the digital harshness hiding in their treble and midrange. This comes at the price of the last level of intimacy, detail and tonal intensity in these frequency ranges. For many, it will be a reasonable sacrifice since it can be compensated for with amplification and speaker choices. The fact that the SA60 does all this with SACD material is great but should be expected from a hi-resolution player at this price. That it does most of it with CDs as well is rather remarkable, however.

•  X05 SACD/CD Player...$6,000 includes VDRS-VMK5 Transport

We have been using the X03SE in our reference system. Huge soundstage, beautiful presentation, thunderous bass.

X03SE SACD/CD Player..$8,200 VDRS 03 series transport