Yes, be sure to audition. I am fairly confident you will find the upper octaves more airy and the overall resolution quite a bit better with the Esoteric. The 808.2 was an effort by Bob Stuart to get rid of pre-ringing with apodizing filters of his design if my memory serves me right. It was successful and it is a very musical CDP but by today's standards it lags a bit in utter transparency and resolution but it is up to your ears to decide which is better for YOUR system.
I've owned the earlier Meridian CDPs and was always very satisfied.