Hamburger menu at the top right: FAQ
I completely agree with you that advertising on this community should be blocked.
4 Likes
Thanks folks for flagging and bringing this to my attention.
Up until now we haven’t really needed anything in the forum rules related to advertising products on the forum. There are of course a lot of user suggestions of products. Any cases where people affiliated with manufacturers have brought up products they are associated with have been to drive the relevant discussion forwards - not with the sole intention of selling to the forum userbase.
I very much try to operate things here with a light touch, only nudging things in the right direction for the wider community when they are needed. However, I think it is fair to say that allowing advertisements, particularly from manufacturers, risks degrading the quality and authenticity of conversation for all users.
This forum is intended to be a place for open discussion, driven by dCS owners and enthusiasts – not a place for dCS users to be sold to. We deliberately do not have a “marketplace” section for users to sell second-hand products for this reason – the forum is a place for discussion, and there are appropriate places to go to for this type of sale to be facilitated. I agree that this is also true of manufacturer involvement, and such advertisements should not be allowed.
Regular users will note that even dCS staff don’t push our products through the forum - it’s just not what it is here for. We answer questions and participate in forum discussions, but we don’t sell.
I will update the forum rules on this next week, as I want to be sure I have worded it correctly and not knee-jerk react and get something posted hastily.
Very good point. There is a general “sticky” post that sits at the top of everyone’s home screen (this one), and I will edit that post to include the forum rules to make them more visible. That post hasn’t been edited since the forum was created back in 2018, so it is due for a refresh anyway!
7 Likes
Well the esoteric p03 looks very interesting.
It has the very nice transport.
It has dual aes outputs.
It has world clock input at 75 ohms.
Split design inside, one side power supply the other side transport.
Maybe this could be a good substitute?
Possibly. It looks interesting on paper.
As with purchasing all legacy players do check that spare optical pickup units are available and buy one now as they may no longer be if you find that you need one in a couple of years.
Looking at the unit online it appears that its PS is a separate box so ensure that any sale includes this.
I was just doing some research lol.
I decided i don’t need a CD transport really as i already stream and store music on my SSD melco n1zs mk2.
Plus as you say replacement transports is the issue.
It looks like esoteric don’t service these any more? But that might be wrong as it’s just what i read, but that’s not great if true
Plus i know the transport on these are built like a tank and it’s the 2 belts that can fail. These can be replaced, but the complete transport if you can find one is very costly and i mean thousands.
But you can pick up a P03 for £3000 or less in working order.
Alao, it’s a one box and not two. The power supply is a separate box, but it’s attached to the transport box. Then a nice front hides the fact it is actually two boxes.
It was more a post of a transport that might work well with a dcs dac.
With it having dual aes and a clock input that should work ?
Cheers dunc
As I said, it looks good on paper. However I don’t have any hands on use.
As for spares it would be less likely to require a complete transport replacement, only the OPU as the laser is really a consumable. Also Esoteric transports of this age with dual laser systems ( CD or SACD) have a cog in the swapping mechanism that can wear. However I have been unable to find out if the OPU is of this nature. If not and as the machine is sold as a universal player ( CD, SACD and DVD) then it may play all formats with a laser of a singe wavelength which would be a compromise. I have no idea about Esoteric servicing and that does not look straightforward to me.
I agree that your Melco reduces any need for a transport. Not that I am biased , having one too 
. However I have to point out that the Rossini Transport opened me to a higher level of silver disc replay than I had ever anticipated with other ( dCS) transports. However, that is another matter.
Dunc,
if you have a Melco already, you may buy the CD ripper from Melco too (D100- a fantastic device) and you can use this combi as CD player (!) as well.
Melco—USB—D100----USB—dCS
1 Like
Did that and sold it as i couldn’t hear why i would want to.
This was after ripping all my CD’S
1 Like
I guess if you use dual aes into the dac then no upsampeing will be done? If this is the case then i wouldn’t want to lose that as it adds so much to the normal red book quality.
I guess for that it would be single aes in to the upsampler
I am now lost as to what we are talking about. The thread is currently dealing with using the Melco D-100. However your question can’t apply to this:
Are we talking about the Esoteric P-03 again? If so there will be upsampling with that transport into a DAC that handles the formats as the Esoteric has upsampling for PCM 2x or 4x or conversion from PCM to DSD.
If not, what combination are we now dealing with ?
We are back with the esoteric.
The D100 was just a quick side step. Been there and done that
Duncan, not all “Dual AES” between different vendors are fully compatible with each other - for example, Chord with dCS Dual AES works for hirez bit-rates but not redbook. I have no idea if Esoteric’s Dual AES is fully compatible with dCS. So, be cautious.
2 Likes
Thanks Anup that is a reasonable caveat and is why I was careful to say that I have not had any hands on experience wuih the Esoteric transport.
However :
That is correct. Dual AES cannot work for redbook or sample rates of 44.1, 48, 88.2 or 96 kS/s as all are handled by a single AES connection. Dual AES only functions for PCM rates is excess of these or DSD. If you watch your Vivaldi DAC’s display you will see that fed a mixed diet of of redbook or hi-rez although two AES connections are there physically only a single one is operational for redbook or other low rate formats.
As said i am not looking at getting one or any CD transport.
It was just that it looked a good contender with the outputs and clock.
The duel aes on the esoteric look to be L and R.
I thought you were hallucinating but you’re right…
That’s fascinating. I don’t recall ever seeing a digital connection that splits the left and right channel signals before!
I have the opportunity to try one but not sure if it’s worth trying or not really?
Not sure how best to connect it up, etc.
I think that may just be nomenclature. I checked the user manual to ensure that the Esoteric transport has dual AES and not simply two AES ports.
The way dual AES works for higher res signals is to split them into two. Effectively this sends each channel to a different AES output. However I think both need to be operational to hear anything but I have never tried.
My guess then is that it will work but Anup’s caveat still holds. You won’t know for absolute certain until you try.
As for that you have already said that you are not really interested in getting a transport so if I was you I wouldn’t want to waste the loaner’s time. If, on the other hand, you are now more serious about it then do it as I reckon it will work. As for how to connect, the user manual is online.
It certainly wont be messing the owner about, as i will be the one picking it up and returning it.
Already been told to just come and get it and see how you get on.
I guess for me it’s more to see if i feel i am missing anything.
But the guy that had this, now has a vivaldi apparently, so i am guessing he has a vivaldi dac, and that would mean he obviously got it working ok into the dcs.
Also the difference was apparently very small between them, so take with that whatever you want, but i would certainly want a big jump in sound quality for the price difference.
But the question still remains do i even want to open this door? I don’t think i need to really, but as said i am open to be proven wrong.
I think this depends on your collection of CDs and SACDs and whether you want to play them per se rather than just looking for any gain in SQ over ( good) ripping.
Although sometimes I find a small SQ advantage using silver disc this is only apparent by direct a/b comparison. However I do not want to spend my time making comparisons. I want to enjoy music and the rips sound great in their own right and are often indistinguishable from the disc anyway.
So why have a transport? Mainly because I have a big silver disc collection some of which (e.g. large box sets) would entail too much effort to rip and SACDs where ripping has defeated me technically. If these factors apply to you then do it.
1 Like
I certainly don’t want all my CD’S back down from the loft.
I love the fact i can play them all from my chair.
I have actually ripped them all twice, once with a normal drive, and then again with the melco D100.
For me it’s vinyl as this still sounds slightly better than my vivaldi stack. But it’s certainly more effort.
But i either buy the download and it goes directly to my melco, effortless or i tend to buy older vinyl as the new stuff is mainly crap
5 Likes