Esoteric Amplifiers

[insider9]

Depends on Rick's availability. I'm sure he'll want to give it a good listen before I pick it up. It shouldn't be long now. Leema's packed and ready to go back. I've also had to make a larger shelf for Esoteric as dimensions suggest it was too deep to fit on the rack *biggrin*

 

[insider9]

I'm off to see Rick soon. Swapping Leema for Esoteric *yahoo*

Watch this space.

 

[Macspur]

I'm off to see Rick soon. Swapping Leema for Esoteric *yahoo*

Watch this space.

Hurray!... very much looking forward to your impressions.

Mac

www.realmusicnet.wordpress.com

 

[MUSICRAFT]

I'm off to see Rick soon. Swapping Leema for Esoteric *yahoo*

Watch this space.

Hi insider9

Great to see you again *smile*

All the best

Rick @ Musicraft

 

[insider9]

Somehow we've managed to get it in. And it's in place and just put on Jimi Hendrix just to and I'm called downstairs already.

I wouldn't have managed without my wife's help. As its so big and heavy. So I better go and spend some time with her.

Will take some pictures tomorrow when there's better light as it's just gorgeous.

 

[CnoEvil]

As its so big and heavy.

That's usually a great sign.

Which Model - F-05?

 

[insider9]

When you see pictures you'll see what I mean. It's crazy. I had to built a larger shelf so it even fits on the rack.

I would not dream of carrying the box on my own. Amp itself is 32kg, then DAC board, all the cardboard, etc. About 40kg+ I reckon, in a huge box.

 

[CnoEvil]

When you see pictures you'll see what I mean. It's crazy. I had to built a larger shelf so it even fits on the rack.

I would not dream of carrying the box on my own. Amp itself is 32kg, then DAC board, all the cardboard, etc. About 40kg+ I reckon, in a huge box.

My 35i was nudging 30kg.

I've never heard an Esoteric, but from what I've read, would expect it to be a little less forward/upfront and more refined than the Leema, while being more detailed/controlled with terrific Bass. I think it will be a great match with your speakers.....a rich, seductive sound, like the Sirens of Greek Mythology, tempting sailors onto the rocks (and you away from your family).

I look forward to your thoughts.

 

[Happy_Listener]

I've heard their CD Players before, which are excellent, but never any of thier amps. I wonder how they compare to the likes of Luxman and Accuphase?

 

[insider9]

My 35i was nudging 30kg.

I've never heard an Esoteric, but from what I've read, would expect it to be a little less forward/upfront and more refined than the Leema, while being more detailed/controlled with terrific Bass. I think it will be a great match with your speakers.....a rich, seductive sound, like the Sirens of Greek Mythology, tempting sailors onto the rocks (and you away from your family).

I look forward to your thoughts.

Thanks Cno. Lovely analogy and you might be quite right. I've not had anywhere near enough time with it to post any thoughs.

Pictures are incoming though.

I've heard their CD Players before, which are excellent, but never any of thier amps. I wonder how they compare to the likes of Luxman and Accuphase?

I wish I could answer that.

 

[insider9]

Here's a view from the side to show size difference to my Hegel. Should I have left standard depth shelf it would overhang on both sides. I've added 6 inches to the depth in order to have good weight distribution.

Here's a view from the front.

I'll post more pics later but they're already on my Flickr if you want to have a look. Link in my signature.

 

[Macspur]

Here's a view from the side to show size difference to my Hegel. Should I have left standard depth shelf it would overhang on both sides. I've added 6 inches to the depth in order to have good weight distribution.

Here's a view from the front.

I'll post more pics later but they're already on my Flickr if you want to have a look. Link in my signature.

Hey Insider! any chance of a written description of the pics for little old me please?

Mac

www.realmusicnet.wordpress.com

 

[insider9]

The amplifier comes in brushed aluminium silver finish. It has a simple, sturdy looking design. In some way it resembles your Accuphase. Two knobs either side for volume and input selector. Both are digital. Rectangular power button to the left bottom of the and mute button and headphone input on the right. The middle has a organic LED display (black background with blue lettering); tone contols for bass, mids and treble; tone defeat button; phono; speaker select and a balance knob. Top of the amp has lovely vents.

In terms of size it's actually deeper than any amp I've owned to date. It's about 2 inches deeper than your Accuphase with similar width and height to it. Because of the depth of the amp I made a larger top shelf for my DIY rack. The rack I'm using is three tier rack, short (about 20 or so inches), made out of birch timber. It has black metal hollow shelves with are covered with birch timber boards placed on sorbothane pucks. The bottom shelf has a half width silver streamer which I'm running Roon on. Streamer is hard wired to local network via home plug. The middle shelf occupies my Hegel Rost in white, which will not be used for a while. Esoteric amp is on the top shelf. The extended shelf stick out a little both at the front and at the back. Because of the extraordinary depth of the amp. Having measured space between Esoteric feet it would go on top of ordinary size shelf, just. However it would be sticking out substantially either side. I didn't feel confident about this. The rack is placed centrally but it doesn't encroach on the speakers and is right against the wall with speakers brought forward.

As to the listening room. It is a first floor master bedroom, so not a large room. It only contains two items of furniture that are not related to audio, a double bed and a night stand. The part that's dedicated to audio has speakers setup on black isolation platforms. Speakers are slender and tall in French Sycamore wooden finish. They have two five inch drivers either side of a ribbon tweeter on the top and a 10 inch bass driver on the side of the inside of the speaker. Room has a blue wallpaper and lilac carpet. It is acoustically treated with rectangular, panels covered with yellow fabric and hang on front and back wall and blue-ish bass traps in corners. There's also a couple of panels to one side somewhat covering a window. One of the blue panels is also hanging from a ceiling. It's fair to say that aesthetically room decor divides opinion. Being mostly in wood, with yellow and blue dominating and black accents. It's clean and tidy and sounds good. Listening chair is 6ft away from each speaker and is a black PVC leather recliner with a footstool.

Please let me know if you have any questions and apologies for being so daft that you had to ask me to post this.

 

[insider9]

 

[Macspur]

The amplifier comes in brushed aluminium silver finish. It has a simple, sturdy looking design. In some way it resembles your Accuphase. Two knobs either side for volume and input selector. Both are digital. Rectangular power button to the left bottom of the and mute button and headphone input on the right. The middle has a organic LED display (black background with blue lettering); tone contols for bass, mids and treble; tone defeat button; phono; speaker select and a balance knob. Top of the amp has lovely vents.

In terms of size it's actually deeper than any amp I've owned to date. It's about 2 inches deeper than your Accuphase with similar width and height to it. Because of the depth of the amp I made a larger top shelf for my DIY rack. The rack I'm using is three tier rack, short (about 20 or so inches), made out of birch timber. It has black metal hollow shelves with are covered with birch timber boards placed on sorbothane pucks. The bottom shelf has a half width silver streamer which I'm running Roon on. Streamer is hard wired to local network via home plug. The middle shelf occupies my Hegel Rost in white, which will not be used for a while. Esoteric amp is on the top shelf. The extended shelf stick out a little both at the front and at the back. Because of the extraordinary depth of the amp. Having measured space between Esoteric feet it would go on top of ordinary size shelf, just. However it would be sticking out substantially either side. I didn't feel confident about this. The rack is placed centrally but it doesn't encroach on the speakers and is right against the wall with speakers brought forward.

As to the listening room. It is a first floor master bedroom, so not a large room. It only contains two items of furniture that are not related to audio, a double bed and a night stand. The part that's dedicated to audio has speakers setup on black isolation platforms. Speakers are slender and tall in French Sycamore wooden finish. They have two five inch drivers either side of a ribbon tweeter on the top and a 10 inch bass driver on the side of the inside of the speaker. Room has a blue wallpaper and lilac carpet. It is acoustically treated with rectangular, panels covered with yellow fabric and hang on front and back wall and blue-ish bass traps in corners. There's also a couple of panels to one side somewhat covering a window. One of the blue panels is also hanging from a ceiling. It's fair to say that aesthetically room decor divides opinion. Being mostly in wood, with yellow and blue dominating and black accents. It's clean and tidy and sounds good. Listening chair is 6ft away from each speaker and is a black PVC leather recliner with a footstool.

Please let me know if you have any questions and apologies for being so daft that you had to ask me to post this.

Insider, you're a true gent, thanks so much for such a detailed description... I actually just meant the amp lol!

However, it's great to get a picture in my mind of the whole room, sounds ideal.

Which room were you using before, I recall you said it got very warm in there. Can't remember, what speakers do you own?

The Esoteric does indeed sound like the Accuphase, I didn't know it had tone controls... I might even take Rick up on his offer for a home demo when you've done with it.

Have you listened to it much yet?

Mac

www.realmusicnet.wordpress.com

 

[insider9]

I know you did Mac. I just thought I might as well give you a detailed description.

It's still the same room, however the I've worked on setup. It can get hot during heat wave. As long as I'm prepared for it, it's manageable with air circulation. Treatment has been stacked before as opposed to hanged. And even though it still did its job it looked rather poor compared to what it is now. I've also DIY'ed some bass traps in place of what was there before. Rack has been pushed more to te back also.

Speakers are Red Rose Classic. Red Rose Music was company owned by Mark Levinson at the turn of the century. Depending on reports they retailed between $8,500 - $11,500 back then. As far as I'm aware mine are the only pair in the UK.

I've only listened to it for about 2 hours today. There's been quite a few things happening and I've been a taxi driver for my wife and sons. I'd rather not post any thoughts yet as I'm not sure if it requires any warm up and as such how long it takes. I've also not got a chance to take any measurement to setup DSP properly. Been running it using Hegel filters which sounded very good but I'm sure it can sound even better.

Also I've upsampled everything to DSD64 so need to do a comparison between DSD and PCM with Esoteric DAC. Effectively I've got two new components, need to realise how they both contribute to the sound. I planned to do a lot of listening this weekend so should have thoughts in a few days.

All I'll say for now there's a lot to like and the level of performace is really high *clapping*

 

[Macspur]

I know you did Mac. I just thought I might as well give you a detailed description.

It's still the same room, however the I've worked on setup. It can get hot during heat wave. As long as I'm prepared for it, it's manageable with air circulation. Treatment has been stacked before as opposed to hanged. And even though it still did its job it looked rather poor compared to what it is now. I've also DIY'ed some bass traps in place of what was there before. Rack has been pushed more to te back also.

Speakers are Red Rose Classic. Red Rose Music was company owned by Mark Levinson at the turn of the century. Depending on reports they retailed between $8,500 - $11,500 back then. As far as I'm aware mine are the only pair in the UK.

I've only listened to it for about 2 hours today. There's been quite a few things happening and I've been a taxi driver for my wife and sons. I'd rather not post any thoughts yet as I'm not sure if it requires any warm up and as such how long it takes. I've also not got a chance to take any measurement to setup DSP properly. Been running it using Hegel filters which sounded very good but I'm sure it can sound even better.

Also I've upsampled everything to DSD64 so need to do a comparison between DSD and PCM with Esoteric DAC. Effectively I've got two new components, need to realise how they both contribute to the sound. I planned to do a lot of listening this weekend so should have thoughts in a few days.

All I'll say for now there's a lot to like and the level of performace is really high *clapping*

Seriously, I do appreciate it.

I've heard of the Red Rose and coming from the ML stable they will be a top loudspeaker and deserve quality amplification.

I wait with baited breath for your thoughts.

Mac

wwww.realmusicnet.wordpress.com

 

[insider9]

More and high resolution pic on my Flickr. Click on "testing..." in my signature.

 

[Vladimir]

I've already had my fix by gawking its nudies on google images. Looks built in the proper Japanese high end integrated amp tradition that peaked in the mid 80s. Custom laminated core transformer, line up of Sanken darlington packs, cascode gain staging, capacitor banks for low Z... This was the best Accuphase, Luxman, Sony ES, Yamaha and Esoteric made. Still made today! Hard to improve on it.

It probably belts out Katy Perry like nothing else.

 

[insider9]

I'll be sure to include Kary Perry in the review for you

Built is as impressive as anythign I've seen.

 

[Vladimir]

The Hegel looks like a tuner compared to the Esoteric.

 

[CnoEvil]

The Hegel looks like a tuner compared to the Esoteric.

It looks like the Esoteric Egg has hatched out into a Hegel. *biggrin*

 

[insider9]

It looks like a toy, even standalone. But most amps would look inadequate compared to Esoteric. It's got a presence you walk in to the room and expect greatness.

Two Hegels could fit into Esoteric chasis with room to spare.

 

[Vladimir]

Does it iddle on the warm side?

 

[insider9]

It's pleasantly warm to touch. It did take a while to get to this point. I've not pushed it yet over a few hours so will be interesting to see what temperature is like when it's pushing out seriou dB.