Dave, the ICs I provided were Audioquest Sky. In the end, we simply did not have enough ICs and PCs of the same brand/model to make the testing environment truly uniform and meaningful. While I did prefer the Esoteric stack, this was with a full triple stack with external clock, not just P-03/D03. Furthermore, I really do not remember if we were using the G-03 clock on the MPS-5. And of course, the fact that I prefer one solution over another, simply points to a purely personal preference, and is no indication of one device being 'better' than another. G.