I had the privilege today of going over to Dagogo’s Constantine Soo’s home for some good music and fine food. His wife had prepared some really fine Shrimp Etouffee, which we enjoyed and ate with great gusto. We also spent a while listening to the Magnepan 3.7i loudspeakers driven by a pair of Pass Labs XA200.8 mono-blocks. The line-stage was the Pass Labs XS Preamp. The digital front end was the Esoteric K-03 Player SACD/CD player with the Esoteric G-01 Rubidium Clock. We also listened to the newest and best Oppo player, sorry I don’t remember its nomenclature.
From the very first track, I was reminded of why many people love large planar speaker so much. What big, rich sound accompanied by a huge, deep soundstage behind the speakers. Everything sounded great, but the shocker to me was how good the Oppo sounded. I think it cost around $1,200, and I could have easily listened to it instead of the $30,000 Esoteric setup. The Esoteric was warmer, richer and played mass strings a little better, but it was way to close for comfort when you look at the price difference. I hope and can get that Oppo over to my house and take it for a spin.
Anyway, I want to say thanks to Constantine and his wife for such a great lunch along with great music!