Esoteric P-03/D-03 or Metronome

The only person I know of that has owned transport/DAC from Esoteric and anything from Metronome is on Audiogon as Audioezra. If memory serves, he's owned the P-01/D-01 and the Kalista Reference, is a great guy to talk to and loves this hobby.

Re: reliability stand point, if you had to fix or sell I would recomend Esoteric, it's built like a tank.

I was demoing some transports at one point and had the Kalista Ref, "gorgeous pce" and at that time compared it to a Oracle 2000, I slightly preferred the Metronome but;

I then evaluated it along with asking myself some questions,

a. It would not play a few pces that I have never had any issues with before so that concerned me, error just kept coming up.

b. 50K list, the differences just were not enough, I needed to be wowed!

c. if I ever had issues down the road big question, what would I do? Not sure now but US dealers were dropping the product line.

Now recently I did some more transport demos, I bought the Oracle 2000 latest version but one pce I demoed was the MBL 1621A Ref dac and I now own it.

It really is going to come down to your preference, you should check out Reference Dac's and refer to the types, what the different flavours are. If you have heard any and ask your self do you agree, this will assist in you deciding what might possibly work for you.

I heard the Esoteric top of the line VU with clock and it was very nice, very expensive. This is one combo I will get down the road and demo within my set-up but I'm in no hurry as I'm really enjoying my current set-up.

don't know if this helps.

Dev,

If the '2000 gave the Kalista some competition. that speaks wll for the Oracle. How do you desribe it's sound with the MBL?

I agree with Dev's assessment of Esoteric build quality. The P/D series are built with outstanding quality. Esoteric customer service is also first rate...I've owned several Esoteric units all the way up to my current P-03 and D-03 and found the way in which Esoteric takes care of customers and issues when they occur to be among the 3 best I've dealt with (Edge, Classe and Esoteric).

Tabl10s, the Oracle 2000 is a marvelous pce. and eye candy to boot and really enjoyed. In my system it was very musical and even though Oracle refers to it sounding it's best via BNC connection I preferred AES by far with my dac anyways.

MBL 1621A, in my system all areas across the board are improved which is pretty amazing. The only area I preferred the Oracle was I felt it was ever so slightly more musical, this is slightly though. Now this was using the Oracle with AES connection which was my preference, I found myself connected to the music with my toes always taping along with sometimes finding myself singing along but not so when BNC connected. The person who bought the 2000 also wanted my AES digital cable so I reluctantly sold it thinking I could pick one up used easily but this has not happened. I have not yet had my MBL hooked up in AES configuration, I'm currently using the BNC. If you refer to my initial info. saying improved in all areas and my feeling when using the Oracle with my preferred connection AES should say allot and hope once I get around to getting another AES conection will hopefully be another improvment like with the Oracle, that would really be nice but even with the BNC curently is pretty amazing.

The MBL was a no brainer upgrade, one thing that was interesting was I demoed the matching dac but still preferred the AA Hybrid Dac.

What kind of sound are you after?

I have only heard the P03/D03 with the clock and it is a very nice player. Quite warm or rich and sounds as solid as its construction. It is lust worthy to look at and use.

I have not heard the Metronome in a system I know, so I would not comment on the differences other than it was a nice player.

The Kalista as a transport is a work of art. Personally I am not a fan of top loading transports. I never got used to the fiddling with the puck and the disk and then the removable teapot lid. I always felt I needed another hand. I also mistrust disks being read in the open light. I had an Oracle some years ago and it drove me mad. Although it was a good sounding machine at the time, it sounded quite different with the lid off.

Chad,

I know, you know the lid wasn't to be removed when it was in play.

Dev,

Here's a cable you might enjoy.

http://www.theaudiobeat.com/equipment/sensorypower_active_digital_cable.htm

Hi Tab110s,

I couldnt resist the experiment to give it a listen without the lid. I had seen a few exotic top loading players that had no cover, like the 47 labs, and I always thought it was an odd idea to read light in light. Obviously I only needed to try it once... well maybe twice!