Esoteric N01XD DAC / Streamer - Here Is My Review Of This Unit!
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- čas přidán 5. 09. 2024
- Here is my review of this $20,000 Esoteric N01XD dac/streamer. is it worth the asking price? find out !
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#dac
#esoteric
#madeinjapan
#streamer
#hifi
#cdplayer
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I own a full Grandioso system and I can tell you that this gear is worth it asking price even if it does not belong in the Grandioso line
Spot on review. It's a great piece for the money for sure. Esoteric was wise to move towards a more organic, natural, non fatiguing sound. I hope this applys to the rest of their new gear. Great job Jay.
Awesome
@@hifi2169both excellent. If you are looking to buy one, don't do it without talking to me
@@jaysullivan9545thank you
Magnificent review! Calm, collected, great presentation format. You are a professional reviewer for all to respect. You know what you are talking about.
Much appreciated!
Well reviewed we always adored Esoteric and Japan.
Agreed 👍
Now we are talking ..... I have heard many products by Esoteric .... all were amazing
Awesome
Excellent review, thank you Jay
My pleasure!
Your description rings all my bells. Sounds like a winner.
Perfect!
Great review. The most exciting thing you said was reviewing the HIFI Rose in the future.
Thanks
Apart from synergy effect of a system the decay is also to do with frequency range and signal noise ratio.
Yup
Please do a comparision video with the other dacs.
Jay: very interesting. I’ve never heard Esoteric sound described this way. A change from what I’ve heard in the past. Thanks.
Thanks for listening
Those Esoteric displays are Late 80's look! Jay, your Evaluation is accurate in what they do and what they don't! 💪
I'm an Esoteric owner and the display is gorgeous. I don't want a color touchscreen in my Esoteric. Jay was right about the reliability of Esoteric products. I've never had an issue with any of mine, and I don't know anybody who has.
I appreciate that!
touch screen makes noise and I shut it first thing.
@@tonyxu8501 Exactly.
I own one. A clock really takes it up a notch!
Yeah. It's odd that Esoteric discontinued G-02X without offering a replacement entry level clock model. It doesn't make sense to add a US$27K G1X clock to a US$20K N-01XD. G-02X would be a nice upgrade for N-01XD.
Awesome
@@brodricj3023 that's what I have. It improves the Soundstage quite a bit.
Hi Jay, thanks for your great review! I just purchased a K-01XD and am still in search of a proper preamp - currently using a SPL Director MK2 as make-shift. Been thinking about Constellation preamp 1.0 or Esoteric’s own C1X Solo, but no opportunity to test.
Glad I could help!
You’ve mentioned in the past you would comment on your opinion of the $5,000 HIFI Rose RS 150B . The display on the Rose is spectacular. How do you feel about the sound? I would greatly appreciate your opinion.
Sounds like a ton of value for the money! Love this dac!
Thanks
Most excellent review, your best to date🥂🥂
Wow, thank you!
Nice review and please more review on other equipment 👌👍
Sure 👍
Again ..I’m freaking in awe 😅
I used to work selling Esoteric gear and the analytical 'house-sound' they often got tagged with was never wholly true. In fact all of their models were deliberately voiced slightly differently; hence I myself owned the analytical ultra-high paced X-03SE as well as the most analogue rich-sounding digital front end I've ever heard, the P-05/D-05 combo.
I actually got an opportunity to ask one of the designers what their approach was and he told me that they used a lot of listening panels made up of members of the public, and the company's aim was to be able to offer one player that was ideally tailored for classical music aficionados and another that would suit dance music & J-Pop fans better, etc.
Having heard the latest XD Dac (in a K-03XD) my feeling is they have better nailed the all-rounder thing now, leaning just a tiny bit to the warmer side tonally but now with a lot of accompanying drive too.
Great comment
@@jaysaudiolab Cheers Jay🍻
Garbage sound
Dead dull dark murky lifeless warm laid back, nothing like focal sound
@@moktaabdul6310 So that is YOUR opinion, its a good thing your opinion means about as much to everyone else as a huge pile of dogshit ain't it? :)
A few points. The DAC in N-01XD is a simplified circuit of the master sound discrete DAC found in the flagship D1X. It is not the same DAC as found in D1X. ES-LINK is a proprietary high bandwidth connection for Esoteric disk transports only. The display is 100% fit for purpose. Esoteric use a modern iteration of low noise electroluminescent display technology - it looks like the same display as in older Esoteric models but it's not. Esoteric keep the same aesthetic flowing through to new models as a design point. They do this for a reason. The owner of a legacy D1/P1 combo can upgrade to a D1X and keep the P1 as they look identical. Or you can upgrade from N-01 to N-01XD and they look identical. Esoteric are not going to put noisy touchscreens in their products, which is a good thing.
Cool
@@jaysaudiolab I'd also add that Jay mentioned the "signal ground" connection on the N-01XD. To be clear, this is actually a chassis ground and not a signal ground. Chassis ground and signal ground are quite different electrically. This error was discovered by Shunyata when it was developing its Altaira grounding hub products. I'm to understand Esoteric will correct the labeling error in new production units at some point. If you want to leverage the performance of what N-01XD is capable of connect its ground post to an Altaira-CG hub and the 10Mhz clock input to a G-02X (or high spec Cybershaft clock) using a Shunyata Sigma or Omega CLOCK-50 cable. You will be blown away by the improvement.
Love it. Thanks Jay.
Jay is killing it 💥 💥 💥 💥 💥 💥 💥 👍
Thanks
I’m still rocking my 90’s cd 💿 player .
Denon 3520 The Beast!
Btw, I’m on my 3rd external DAC 😂
Nice!!
Great review! I didn’t known any Japanese co is known for digital maybe a bit from accuphase. One of your comments on note decay bothers. It indicate they didn’t get group delay right which differentiates poor digital from any analog. It could be internal clock implementation or something more fundamental. I own a Linn Klimax DSM which sounds really close to their lp12.
Thanks for the info!
Great review Jay 👍👍
Thanks 👍
Recently picked up a K-01x, and I'm feeding an Auralic Aries G1 streamer into it, I mostly listen to CDs. Albums on cd generally seem to sound a little better than the file versions on Tidal. Wondering which streamers might be able to provide a significant audible improvement.
also the optical is needed to connect the TV to the unit to run Netflix movies and Sports through my system...
I’m sort of confused..not by you and your mission statement for we’re all grateful for your dedication to the art.
My question is .. the CD community on Twitter ( now X) ..no one seems to have ANYTHING close to the level and dedication that you’ve been showing us.
Now the Esoteric line is gorgeous..and delivers a great performance ..but that’s not even the TOTL in this hobby ….but no one has anything even at lower tiers of gear ⚙️.
I’m absolutely amazed at where this TOTL digital art is going .
Take care Jay.
Thanks for tolerating my rant .
I hope you’re making headway on the room remake .
Jay great CZcams channel and how's does it compare to msb dac?
Both are amazing
How does the N-01XD compare to the Playback Designs MPD-8 or DCS Rossini, as it relates to soundstage and tonality.
I have no issues with the display. It is simple LED display. I don't need to display the album art, it will probably last longer than a colour display.
Nice work & review!
Glad you enjoyed it
Our modified Lumin X1 does the same. People have no idea how important the internal DAC is inside a streamer. The 3D stage of the modified Lumin X1 is the biggest stage I ever auditioned. The same counts for the analog sound. Lumin is far superior in the sharpness of the individual focus of instruments and voices compared to any brand I auditioned for streaming. The menu of Esoteric streamers is bought from Lumin. Lumin is also better in diversity in the height of voices and instruments. When people learn what sound is, audio becomes a lot easier to understand. All the extremely expensive High-End DACs showed a shortcoming regarding the layering of sound. When you understand sound you will become aware of why a separate DAC has its limitations. The Rose is 2D and is a Hi-Fi streamer.
What mods are done to your x1? How big of an improvement from stock?
@@divertiti, we do not share details about the parts we do use and imply. It improves the layering in sound a lot. But it also improves the dynamics and resolution. I learned what sound and music are. I can judge not only every single product on sound but also the parts we use for our modifications. When I talk to audio manufacturers each discussion proves that these people do it by trial&error. It is pure gambling. Based on the fact that they even do not know which aspects of sound their own products can reveal. As they do not know how the aspects it can reveal are being carried out one by one. All our Lumin streamers did outperform any Esoteric streamer. It is not even a fair comparison.
Cool !
How do you know the sound of Rose, maybe Jay got the newest model RS130 which is completely new design streaming only model and they say sound is very different from older streamer / dac model. I have not seen any CZcams review other than Korean where the product are made.
Not just the menu is bought from Lumin. The hardware inside N-01XD is a Lumin U1 with Esoteric DAC and power supplies.
Price of Magnepan 20.7s 😊
Separates for future advancements
When is the Stromtank returning?
It's here
Frequency range is not wide enough to make a good decay. Narrow frequency range make a good density of sound
Jay, do you still have plans to bring the K1X/PS1 into the lab?
In the future
Огромное спасибо!
You're welcome
I guess there must be some reason they don't choose fancier display yet.
how does the Esoteric K-01XD compare to a Denon SX1 dsd sacd/ DAC Limited ❓
Hey Jay, have you ever heard a Berkeley Audio Ref Dac 3? It is in the Eso's price range.
Not yet but soon!
Would you be willing to test something like the bluesound Node x to see how it really sounds. Due to the caliber of your system, I think it would be interesting, and im looking in to buy it. Just a thought. Thank you for your content.
Eventually
@jaysaudiolab Thanks, Jay
hello, are they great differences between the new N01XD SE ?
hi jay
thank you very much for this review, i will definitely buy it.. now i have a question. i have the esoteric k-03xd cd player and want to replace it for the k-01xd. does it sound just as good as the streamer or is the k-03xd cd player nicer?.organic. I would love to hear from you or from other users/followers.
I asked this question directly to Esoteric. The N-01XD and K-01XD are the same machine, with the same exact DAC- the only difference is the mechanism inside the unit- CD transport in the K model and the network streamer in the N. There is some chatter on forums that the N-01XD has superior DAC to the K-01XD, somewhat in line with the DAC from the K1X, but this is not the case.
@@foamantelopeV2thanks for your comment. I wonder how the sound of the K-03xd is compared to the K-01XD. in other words, is the sound of the K-01XD more organic than that of the K-03XD or are they sound-wise the same?.is only the mechanism the difference between the K-03xd and the K-01xd or is there a sound difference between the two.
Consider my consultation service if you are going to spend this kind of money
I won’t step on Jays toes here, but there is certainly a difference in sound quality. I have heard both, and own the 01Xd. Consultation is a solid idea when you are spending this many dollar signs on a component.
@@foamantelopeV2exactly 😊
So if this is so super wher is the socket for headphones...ha
Is better than Moon 780 D V2 ? It is approximately the same price level.
if the display was nicer, high-res with touch etc then the mystery of its sound quality would be gone. what i like is the huge expense and inconvenience. much better than a cheap wiim streamer with a perfect topping/smsl dac lol
💤
Gotcha
If you add a good external master clock, such as a one VAccoustics around 5k, it just goes one level beyond.
Indeed
Available used for 15K in audiogon
Ok
When you reviewing the Kassandra DAC?
Never
I thought you had one delivered?!
How did you connect the Taiko to Esoteric?
USB
USB cable
@@jaysaudiolabPurist Audio Design Diamond Revision 30th USB cable. Most excellent 👌
It's a great component ruined only by connecting it to the bad combo of Dartzeel + Boulder. Ughh. Get rid of the Dartzeel already.
Why....it sounds good
Will you try the Lampizator Horizon?
Yes
Jay, is there anything this DAC does better sonically than MSB Reference?
Smoother
So you can’t change filters to alter sound to your liking.
No
@@jaysaudiolab That's not correct. The N-01XD has different D/A and DSD filter settings via the Settings 2 menu. Page 18 of the owners manual refers.
Yes you can. 3 different settings for D/A conversion and 3 different settings for DSD filters.
Lol, sounds like we should sign up for your consultation services instead 😂
@@brodricj3023they don't do a thing...can't hear a difference with such filters
When you test a streamer is the device hard wired to ethernet or wireless?
Wired
...he had no choice with N-01XD. It is wired ethernet only.
What happened to the MSB Select II?
You are way behind ...
@@jaysaudiolab sure I understand I may be behind but please let me know why you sold it and how you liked it. Thanks.
Your criticisms of the esoteric is entirely justified, and this is because esoteric does uses a more underperforming discrete ladder dac implementation. Also it has a some technical performance issues, and it definitely does not have the lowest noise floor, transparency detail and dynamics separation available. If you want ultimate natural transparency detail, dynamics, do not go and buy a discrete ladder dac streaming player, simple as that .
Thanks
N01xd vs Lumin P1
🤔
Whatever performance doesn’t justify 20k for a digital device, above all if labeled Esoteric which hasn’t much to share with highend products
It was worth it for me
All Esoteric build like tank, that said they also sound like a Tank. Metallic sound.
Nope
Worth it? Is it sufficiently good, important, or interesting enough to justify the ridiculous ultra high price of admission? Not one bit.
It is to me ...
Where I live for 20k you can buy a house 😅
Wrong channel lol
Ouch !
Then you can buy the whole town for the cost of the rest of the system!
"Is this worth a great value?" short answer. Absolutely not. No offense, but anything with a price tag that large, is purely subjective. I GUARANTEE you wouldn't be able to pick a winner in a blind test of this VS a $5,000 DAC. Putting a DAC into a giant box will give the listener confidence in quality, but it's sooooo far into the realm of placebo it's not even funny. I can't believe people pay $20,000 to have a DAC basically be an EQ, but will be the same people who tell you EQ'ing is a huge no no.
You even proved my point in this video alone. "its got that tube feel". classic
😁😁😁
Hey Jay, Please can you play José Padilla-Blues for Ibiza on your sound system.
Ok
@@jaysaudiolab Cool, I can't wait to hear it, The quality of the sound of Music from Your system is Amazing on Headphones or My 7.1 (stereo through CZcams).