Esoteric DV-50: Any cdp's Significantly better?


Is there are anyone out there who has compared the Esoteric DV-50 to a number of dedicated red book only players (or other universal's) and found one that is SIGNIFICANTLY better?

I stress significantly because in my humble opinion the redbook playback (if comparison unit is just a cd cd player only )must be significantly better to justify losing DVD-A, SACD and DVD-Video capability.

I keep hearing there are better one box solutions and being a die hard 2 channel fan I would sell my DV-50 if I found a player in the same price range that sounds significantly better. But every time I do an AB comparision to other well respected units the DV-50 has slayed each and every one.

So far, it has eaten the lunch of the Classe CDP-10, Ayre CX-7, Linn Ikemi, Cairn Fog Vers. 2, Cary 306/300, Arcam DV 27A and CD 33T, Myryad CD 600, etc. It even betters a Sony SCD 777ES/MF Tri-Vista 21 transport/dac combo that I previously owned. I'm only comparing the DV-50 to single box cd or universal players, but I just wanted to mention the Sony/MF combo. I'm sure there are some dac/transport combo's that will handily beat the DV 50.

Some may say that the DV 50 should beat all the above because the of price point ($5,500 vs. average price of $3,000 for the above players). But I disagree since conventional wisdom says that stand alone players (especially with the pedigree of those mentioned above) should produce better redbook than a universal player trying to be a jack of all trades. Only the DV 27A does video plus audio. By the way, I was very impressed with the 27A as just a cd player. Of all the above I would say the Ayre was the best.

Next on my list is the Electrocompaniet EMC 1UP and the Resolution Audio Opus 21. However, I must tell you I am really impressed with the DV 50 and all the great reviews are absolutely true. I've noticed that many people who are using it or comparing to other players are using the RCA analog outs instead of the balanced outs. There is a significant improvement in sound if you use the balanced outs and I'm only interested in hearing comments from people who have compared it against other players using the balanced outs on the DV-50.

My system components are as follows:

B&W N803's speakers & HTM-1 center
Cary Cinema 5 (5 x 200) amp
Anthem D1 Statement pre/pro
Esoteric DV 50
Acoustic Zen Satori Shotgun speaker wire
Nirvana SX balanced interconnects from DV-50 to Anthem
Acoustic Zen Matrix reference II interconnects from D1 to Cary
No after market power cords or isolation equipment

My system sounds great! Those who comment please make sure to specify what specific improvements you heard over the DV 50 and what cdp were you comparing it against.

AVGURU
avguru
711, your humor is contageous. Yet, let's all try to avoid playing at 'MY DAC'S BIGGER'N YOURS!"

Doc Luke, Audiophilia Nervosa is an extremely debilitating hereditary condition. It is more formally known as Degenerative Audiophilic Chorea (DAC). It was first recognized and described in 1989 by a team of European neurologysts, audiophiles and philosophers of music lead by Gavronsky and Pugnetti of the Istituto Don Gnocchi in Milan.
See: Aloysius Q. Schmaltzenstein Gavronsky, Dr. Luigi Pugnetti et Al. Environmental triggers and sex-linked predisposition in late onset adventitious Audiophilic Dementia (Acta Medica Refutata, vol 35, No. 4, pp. 435 - 459. Appenzell, 1989).
The authors describe DAC as a acute disturbance of the central nervous system, usually having an onset in very early middle age and characterized by involuntary muscular movements, uncontrollable usage of credit cards, increasingly severe and expensive delusions, disastrous lapses of financial common sense, and general progressive intellectual deterioration, accompanied by often mewlings, drewlings and ritualistic genuflection and prostration in front of any gleaming audio component.
DAC attacks the cells of the basal ganglia, clusters of nerve tissue deep within the brain that govern coordination, as well as the cortex, which is expected to govern common sense.
The onset is insidious and inexorably progressive; no treatment is known.
Psychiatric disturbances range from personality changes involving compulsive purchase or modification of audio equipment, in the abscence of which the sufferer experiences apathy and irritability, to manic depressive or schizophreniform episodes when away from one's audio components for any significant amount of time.
Motor manifestations include flicking movements of the upper extremities, towards credit cards and compulsive signing of any audio sales slips, a lilting gait, in front of high-end audio stores, and motor impersistence (inability to sustain a motor act such as tongue protrusion), unless ever-more-frequent and progressively expensive upgrades to the patient's audio system are applied..
In 1989 the gene responsible for the disease was located by Schmaltzenstein-Gavronsky and Pugnetti; within that gene a small segment of code is, for some reason, copied over and over.
Genetic and audio counseling is extremely important, since 50% of the male offspring of an affected parent inherit the gene, which inevitably leads to the disease if the subject is exposed to any high-end system worth of such an appellation.
An autosomic recessive form of the disorder likely also exists, but is very rare, according to the scant epidemiology studies of DAC, as far less females than males are affected. The prognosis is rather bleak. Sufferers invariably end their days divorced, indigent, externally semicatatonic, with a silly grin on their faces, while immersed in a permanent REM state, dreaming of evermore extravagant system upgrades.
Guido,I am so relieved that we can talk about this openly and sensitively. My name is Phil and I have DAC. My Dad had it too. He had tube gear that he built himself and a bozak speaker (tweeter suspended in the middle of the midrage driver) installed in the door of his bedroom closet, with a 15" woofer installed in something the size of a dish washing machine. He kept muttering: Infinite baffle, infinite baffle. My poor Mother. My poor neighbors. Dad would play his system at realistic levels. Being an engineer, (read: original propeller heads) he played a test record with a train comin' on down the tracks. One of our neighbors apparently made a mess of himself when he stood up suddenly upon hearing said train coming through the wall of his bathroom. The shame of it! This was a decent, middle-class neighborhood. Yet, how I loved Sunday mornings when my father would blast his classical music. We were eating downstairs in the kitchen, but the sound was at concert levels.

Guido, I know there is no hope for me (I have an order with Alex, that evil modder and facilitator of our sickness, that self-promoter who dedicates himself to this work by sleeping but a few hours a night and then has the unmitigated gall to be proud of his work!). I can only hope others escape this terrible fate. I hope to pass my remaining days in audio nirvana, but a shell of my previous virile, aggressive, unhappy self.

Phil
Hey guys lay off Richard. What he says shouldn't hurt your feelings if you truly believe in what you're doing. I think we all feel passionately about audio but it's how we express the passion that counts. I will assume for my own sake that Richard is sincere in his belief. Please let's just agree to disagree and get back to the journey after this brief,unfortunate interruption.
Phil, it is sad indeed to behold how the masses of the DAC afflicted are surrounded by unscrupulous individuals and companies that foster their doom and feed on their despair. From mysterious corporations that promise the poor wretches audio nirvana through gleaming pieces at staggering prices, to modifiers-magicians who sell promises of relief from the horrid compulsions of DAC for much more moderate sums, to British physicians who insite the whole sad lot to self-medicate for only penneys a day. And it's all downhill from here! The only thing left is to admit it in public, to declare our state, to cry out our fate. . . Yes, it is true, I too Guido, have DAC! I too am an audiophile, was bborn an audiophile, will pass on to Nirvana as an Audiophile!