[doggiehowser]

Listening to music is such a subjective thing..

But FWIW, until Esoteric adopted AKM DAC chipsets, I didn't think too much of their players. Their transports? Now those were a thing of beauty. My EMM Labs XDS1 and the Playback Designs use a variant of their transport (sadly it was only the one from the K05? I think).

Audio Research players stick to a more conventional approach - BurrBrown DACs with a warmer sound (even the solid state CD6) and uses probably the best CD transport they can find (CD Pro2).

You either like the sound or not.

I dont think we can talk in absolute terms here.

I find there are times when I find my old school R2R Ayon CD5S more engaging to listen to and that only plays CDs (CD Pro2 too) and times I love my DirectStream DAC/Memory Transport combo.