Esoteric DV-50S

[LordoftheRingsEE]

Originally Posted by rw@cn

I've had the DV50s since it was first released. The list price was $6000 but I bought it for $5500 or so. The DVD PQ is great, better than an Oppo 93. Of course, it doesn't do BluRay but I have an Oppo 93 for that. It sounds better (IMO) than the Oppo which is seven years younger. I was really surprised about that, since I wanted to simplify my rig by selling the DV50s.

Right now it is off the shelf because I have been putting my Invicta DAC to the test. The Invicta sounds much better for PCM of all types. Since I have about 200 SACDs (most of which I love), I think I'll put it back on the shelf until I find a relatively easy way to rip them. If I do that, I'll send it to one of the repair centers for a tune up.

-----Hi,

What I truly would like to know is this:
what connections are you using, analog or digital.
Then, which type; digital HDMI, Coaxial, Optical, USB, ...? ...Or analog Stereo, or analog multichannel RCA, or XLR?

- Tres tres important to know when you compare two or more audio/video components.

* As for the DVD picture quality; how many of us are still into it big time?
...I mean watching a lot of DVDs? ...I must have over 5,000 DVDs and if I watch more than two per year on average for the last five years, that must be about it.
DVD simply doesn't compare with Blu-ray. ...Picture quality wise (low def vs high def), and sound quality wise (highly compressed lossy vs high res lossless).

I mean, if you're going to watch a ball game, get a good view on the large playing field.

[AudioNut]

Hey Bob, you are really inquisitive today . . .

I can only speak for myself - but I only listen to two channel audio (I only have two speakers on each of my systems). I use the analogue two channel outputs for all audio (except on the rare occasion that I might use the digital audio through an HDMI cable.) I usually turn off the HDMI audio in favor of two channel analogue stereo. . . for which I use balanced XLR cables with all the machines I own that will allow their use.

No, Bob, I seldom listen to DVD-A, and my current Esoteric X-03 will only play CD/SACD and nothing else - This Esoteric X-03 is the machine I've compared with the Oppo BDP-95. I never compared the DV-50s with any Oppo machine. And the X-03 does sound better, to me, than the Oppo BDP-95 on CD's and SACD's.

I think I remember that the Esoteric DV-50s would play DVD-a discs, as will the Oppo machine. (And so will my Lexicon RT-20) but I only own 3 or 4 of those discs and never play them.

I have a sizable collection of DVD video discs and play some of them fairly often- The up-sampling ability of the Oppo BDP-95 machine (as well as the Lexicon RT-20 DVD player, which I also own) makes them appear and sound almost as good as BluRay discs. (and yes, I did say "almost").

When I watch DVD's or BluRays, I still pump the sound through my stereo systems using the analogue outputs from my players. (in the two systems I have here at home, my televisions are positioned between two stereo speakers and the combos sound pretty good.) I do not have surround sound capability, nor will I ever have it. We had a home theatre room several years ago that made both me and my wife nervous so we never used it, and when we moved, we decided "never again".

As for your 5,000 DVD's - Should you ever wish to throw them away or something, I'll happily send you my address and a FedEx sticker. .. .

[rw@cn]

Originally Posted by LordoftheRingsEE

-----Hi,

What I truly would like to know is this:
what connections are you using, analog or digital.
Then, which type; digital HDMI, Coaxial, Optical, USB, ...? ...Or analog Stereo, or analog multichannel RCA, or XLR?

- Tres tres important to know when you compare two or more audio/video components.

* As for the DVD picture quality; how many of us are still into it big time?
...I mean watching a lot of DVDs? ...I must have over 5,000 DVDs and if I watch more than two per year on average for the last five years, that must be about it.
DVD simply doesn't compare with Blu-ray. ...Picture quality wise (low def vs high def), and sound quality wise (highly compressed lossy vs high res lossless).

I mean, if you're going to watch a ball game, get a good view on the large playing field.

I used XLR to my preamp for audio. I used DVI-HDMI (Esoteric) to a plasma and HDMI-HDMI to a plasma (Oppo).

[LordoftheRingsEE]

---Ok, that's more like it; more precision here, I like.

Julian, ahhhh, you compared the X-03 with the 95 (thanx for that clarification).
...And very good that you mentioned the type of connections you use.

Also, DVD is only 480p (the anamorphic ones), and Blu-ray is 1080p. So, "almost" doesn't really cut it with Bob (me).
All your gear is top notch, and there is nothing I can say against it.
And somehow I got a strong feeling that you're a happy man, with a happy wife.
And you and your wife you made your choice as how you like to watch flicks.

We are all different animals, and we all have our own journey into eternal bliss and spiritual nirvana; and that, is the real beauty of it.
I have the utmost respect for your journey.


_________________

rw@cn, thank you.

[kev313]

Originally Posted by LordoftheRingsEE

---Ok, that's more like it; more precision here, I like.

Julian, ahhhh, you compared the X-03 with the 95 (thanx for that clarification).
...And very good that you mentioned the type of connections you use.

Also, DVD is only 480p (the anamorphic ones), and Blu-ray is 1080p. So, "almost" doesn't really cut it with Bob (me).
All your gear is top notch, and there is nothing I can say against it.
And somehow I got a strong feeling that you're a happy man, with a happy wife.
And you and your wife you made your choice as how you like to watch flicks.

We are all different animals, and we all have our own journey into eternal bliss and spiritual nirvana; and that, is the real beauty of it.
I have the utmost respect for your journey.

_________________

rw@cn, thank you.

How about older movies in blu ray? Is it just me or do they look weird? Blu ray does not look like film.

[rw@cn]

Originally Posted by kev313

How about older movies in blu ray? Is it just me or do they look weird? Blu ray does not look like film.

Well we have always had that problem when redoing old film to new technology. VCR -> Laser Disc (some people had this complaint although the PQ was so much better), Laser Disc -> DVD (going from analog to digital drove some folks crazy) and now DVD -> BluRay. Although I am really an audiophile, I have seen the quality of re- reissued movies improve from the early days of blu ray. I think the video industry is becoming much more adept with reissues.

[mintakaX]

Sorry to resurrect this ancient thread. I have a DV-50s that I've been using strictly as a CD and SACD player. I'm upgrading my audio system and wondering if I should keep this unit or not. How does it stand up today against newer SACD players ? I do mostly streaming but occasionally do play an SACD or two.

[mintakaX]

Apologies if this was a naive question. I did do a pretty detailed double blind A/B test using an SACD track played through the DV-50S against the same track streamed through a Lumin D2. The two person panel picked the streaming version as sounding better every time.

[brodricj]

Streaming is the way of the future...the popularity of disc spinning must be in decline, even if Esoteric build better and better disc players they are going to be a tough sell.

[SCAudiophile]

Originally Posted by mintakaX

Apologies if this was a naive question. I did do a pretty detailed double blind A/B test using an SACD track played through the DV-50S against the same track streamed through a Lumin D2. The two person panel picked the streaming version as sounding better every time.

You may wish to compare disc playback of a current Esoteric model with streaming with the 2018 D2 as the DV-50s is a design that's over 12 years old. I owned one and it was very good but it is vastly surpassed by more current models.

That would be a fair and proper test.