After hearing my Esoteric phono with the proper loading, (had 100 ohm loading before, now change to 1000 ohm.) my brother was so impress with sound he wanted to hear the Esoteric in his own system, so I brought it over to his place to try. He has the same turntable and cartridge, Well Temper Reference and Benz LPS-MR. Benz recommend 500 to 47k ohm setting depending on your phono stage and your listening preference. He also have the Conrad Johnson Gat and BHK 250 along with the PS Audio DSD and DMP. His speakers are the Thiel cs6 which sounds phenomenal. It was really no contest. The Esoteric sound like live music. The boulder in comparison, sounded veil and boring. The Esoteric had the body, the substance, and presence that the Boulder only hints at. My brother couldn’t believe the difference. He has never heard his system sound so good before with the Esoteric. Not only that, the Esoteric cost less, 9k as oppose to 12k for the Boulder. He has work out a deal to trade in the Boulder for the Esoteric. As the reviewer in Absolute Sound say, the Esoteric is underpriced.
My brother system with the Boulder, it is considerably more musical than his digital, with the Esoteric that gap has widen. Maybe when the TSS comes out, we may have a contest, but the DSD is definitely not in the same ballpark.
I don’t care what people say about the measurement, that vinyl measures horribly, but when you hear it in a high enough end system, it has gives you the emotional impact that is very difficult to achieve with digital.
Update: My brother ordered an Esoteric E-02 from Overture and traded in the Boulder 1008. The Esoteric transformed his system to a level he has never heard before. The instruments has such natural textures and three dimensionality and soundstage you can walk into that his former phono cannot approach. Forget about digital, he has never heard digital to sound as natural. His digital always leans out and harden the sound a bit even with Windom. It just can’t compete with the emotional impact of his vinyl with the Esoteric.
When the BHK Phono comes out, maybe it will have this level of musicality. We shall see. But it may even cost more than the Esoteric.
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