Esoteric E-03 phono stage

[JohnA]

Room acoustics is always good fun.
I enjoyed doing mine. Learned a few things along the way.

I hope to be in Sydney for the show so we can catch up. Would love to listen to the new babies

[walakalulu]

Compared the Esoteric with a Rhea at home today along with my own Minimax. The Esoteric blew the other two away to such an extent that I've ordered one. A no brainer in my system, feeding a ARC ref pre into a dartzeel power amp.

[JohnA]

Great to read mate. It is a great phono stage and i was very close to pulling the trigger on one also

[turntable]

Originally Posted by walakalulu

Compared the Esoteric with a Rhea at home today along with my own Minimax. The Esoteric blew the other two away to such an extent that I've ordered one. A no brainer in my system, feeding a ARC ref pre into a dartzeel power amp.

Excellent stuff For me the best quaility was on certain rcordings everything seemed to float on "air"- BTW, it loves expensive power cords.

Great system - Your speakers and table ?

I must admit, I never liked the Rhea, too noisy for my LOMC's are loud music.

[turntable]

Originally Posted by JohnA

Great to read mate. It is a great phono stage and i was very close to pulling the trigger on one also

John, you picked up a ripper in the Audia Flight . As we know at this level it is all musical preference and system synergy - not one product is better than the other.

I bet you are now appreciating what it can do compared to the musical surroundings

[JohnA]

Originally Posted by turntable

John, you picked up a ripper in the Audia Flight . As we know at this level it is all musical preference and system synergy - not one product is better than the other.

I bet you are now appreciating what it can do compared to the musical surroundings

Shane, yes, from the first note on both the esoteric and the audia i appreciated how much more they had over the musical surroundings.

You are correct, at this level it comes to system synergy, the way my room was last time, the esoteric would have been the one for me.
Shame it had the noise issue at the time

[turntable]

Originally Posted by JohnA

Shane, yes, from the first note on both the esoteric and the audia i appreciated how much more they had over the musical surroundings.

You are correct, at this level it comes to system synergy, the way my room was last time, the esoteric would have been the one for me.
Shame it had the noise issue at the time

The noise may have been a good thing John considering the changes you have made to the room, in now being more naked and open

[walakalulu]

Originally Posted by turntable

Excellent stuff For me the best quaility was on certain rcordings everything seemed to float on "air"- BTW, it loves expensive power cords.

Great system - Your speakers and table ?

I must admit, I never liked the Rhea, too noisy for my LOMC's are loud music.

Table is Finite Elemente and speakers are Magico V2 - love the wood finish + UK rooms are none too large.
The Rhea was interesting but sounded a little syruppy compared to the Esoteric. Also lost out on dynamics and tonal colour where tubes generally rule over solid state

[turntable]

I have the E-03 back at home for another listen. My speakers are different this time around.

I will be comparing this over the next few days to the more expensive Pass XP-25 that is sitting on shelf above.

There are no bad choices at this level, just what synergises best into your system.

cheers

[Puma Cat]

Shane,
Be interesting to do an on the EAR 324 also if you can find one to compare....