Esoteric X-3SE SACD playback issue
 

Hello,

I had bought this cd player years ago but incredibly I had never played a SACD disc on it. Regular CD's sound OK.

So, I recently bought MOFI's Supertramp"Breakfast in America" SACD.
I expected great things.
What I got was a very muted, dull "low-ish type of volume sort of a playback.

On my other "regular" Meridian CD player, the same disc sounded great. Vibrant detailed and dynamic.

The Esoteric has "SACD" on the front panel during playback. Is there some button or function or setting that I need to address on this player?
I am puzzled.

It can't be the disc right? I don't have any other SACD's at this time.

thanks

mike

problem solved:

I called Esoteric. The SACD disc sampling rate is 2.8Mhz. This SACD player does not go that high so it reverts to regular CD rate 44.1.
I would actually need to find some "older" SACD'S to play within the limits of esoteric...oh well.

Thank you for sharing!
I just assumed that SACD had a defined set of format standards, just as CD does.

Not a Esoteric owner but this is odd. I was under the impression that ALL SACD discs have the same format. Also if listening to the regular CD version (44.1) sounds “dull” I wonder if there is an issue with this particular player.

SACD discs do have a standard spec and its 2.8MHz (single bit rate). CD is 44.1kHz (per 16 bits). If you player is playing an SACD at 44.1, it must be playing the CD layer of an SACD/CD hybrid disc.

Strange by definition a SACD is recorded at a sampling rate of 2.8Mhz and therefore should be playable. Sounds like you need to find/borrow another SACD to see what happens.

Edward

from X-01se manual(circa 2006?)===The main unit can accept and synchronize to the followingfrequencies received from external devices:44.1kHz, 88.2kHz, 100kHz, 176.4kHz (rectangular wave)

from current K-01 manual===The K-01/K-03 can accept and synchronize to the following frequencies received from external clock devices:44.1 kHz, 88.2 kHz, 176.4 kHz, 10 MHz (±15 ppm)


It seems the new K series can accept a much higher resolution( up to 10MHz)

So, the tech told me because my cd player cannot go as high as the new disc has to offer it reverts to the next lowest level ==44.1

So, apparently, this new MOFI re-issue probably plays amazingly on the newest SACD players

p.s.==I have to retract my opinion that the regular CD plays dull on the esoteric. It actually sounds good, but not as good as when I play the same disc on my Meridian 808.2

Michael Paul,
Data rates from external sources say nothing about the unit's ability to play discs. The Esoteric X-03SE is called an SACD Player by Esoteric and at least one review on the internet describes its SACD performance (reviewer was not impressed). Consequently, my conclusion regarding SACDs is that either your player needs repair or you have an operational issue.

The frequencies you are referring to are those sent to the Esoteric from a master clock.

These frequencies have nothing to do with the sampling rate of a SACD except that it is a multiple of the CD rate of 44.1, exactly 64.

Another think to consider is a setting on the Esoteric that is messing with things like 2ch playback vs multichannel, etc. May want to check that out.

The fact that the SACD light comes on means it recognizes the SACD as such so an output setting must be set to the wrong setting.

Edward

hi thanks for all the responses,

I checked all the settings and then a second time with the tech on the phone . We were on the phone for over 40 minutes going over everything.

Somehow , somewhere, he read to me the stats for this particular cd player and concluded that it was " unable to play this newer sacd and I would have to dig up some of the older ones". In essence it's obsolete.

There is not a firmware update. He did mention a way I could play it with a laptop and a downloaded driver from esoteric(and my laptop would be part of the whole process connected by usb etc etc). This is waaaaay beyond anything I would ever trouble myself to do.
And I would never send it in for service at this point.

The player is from 2006 and I never bothered to play a sacd. I am not missing it really, although it would've been nice. Like some of you said =something is probably wrong with it. It works fine otherwise and I am more focused on my digital gear(streamer/dac combo) right now which I think is as good as if not better than sacd??

Happy listening guys!