the audiophile voice
not the main feature. These units have been designed
with only one purpose in mind – technical excellence.
And that is where they shine – as you will see, they pro-
vide positively brilliant performance.
When viewing the overall stellar performance pic-
ture, what stands out is their versatility. Esoteric has
seen fit to provide a bevy of desirable options to the
user to accommodate personal tastes, variations in
recording quality, music preference, and the wide vari-
ety of playback equipment likely to be encountered.
The P-03 Transport
To me, the P-03 transport with the upgraded VRDS-
NEO disc-clamping system is an absolute electro-
mechanical marvel, the pinnacle of Esoteric’s electro-
mechanical offerings. I cannot think of another more
sophisticated or better-executed product in all of high-
end audio.
When it comes to output protocol and interface
choices – choices that permit getting the best perfor-
mance out of the P-03 or setting it up to optimally inter-
face with other DACs – the P-03 transport is the most
versatile and flexible CD playback component offered
by Esoteric to date. It has “Anything you can do, I can
do better!” written all over it.
Want to play a Red Book CD? Take your choice of
outputs. The P-03 will give you AES/EBU on an XLR
connector, SPDIF on an RCA connector, Dual AES on
dual XLR connectors, and iLINK (IEEE 1394 or
“Firewire”) on its dedicated iLINK interface connector.
How about SACD? It’s ready! For delivering SACD
data, Esoteric provides a choice of two output formats:
the industry standard IEEE 1394 iLINK, usually known
as “Firewire,” or ES-LINK, a proprietary Esoteric-exclu-
sive protocol. This iLINK uses its own dedicated con-
nector, while the ES-LINK relies on the dual XLR out-
puts.
What about using another DAC with the P-03? Can
do! The P-03 will support AES/EBU or Dual AES/EBU, or
SPDIF on the dual XLR or RCA digital output connec-
tors, respectively.
Yeah, but how about using the P-03 with another
SACD capable DAC? Ready and able, as long as the
other DAC has an iLINK or “Firewire” interface.
But there’s more. The P-03 can up-convert to 44.1
kHz, 88.2 kHz, and 176.4 kHz rates in addition to pro-
viding a digital filter off mode at 44.1 kHz.
How about up-sampling to the DSD rate? Absolutely!
As probably the only equipment to offer this choice, the
P-03 features PCM-to-DSD conversion functionality for
Red Book CD playback. With a DSD rate of 64f or
2.8224 MHz, this makes it the highest up-conversion
rate available in the industry today.
To round out its versatility, the P-03 will also accept
an external clock on its BNC-type “Word Synch” input
connector, for frequencies of 44.1, 88.2, 176.4 and 100
kHz.
Unlike the P-01, which sported a separate power
supply, the P-03 transport is configured to be a single
box unit. The power supply components are contained
in a carefully isolated separate compartment within the
main housing, making it a part of the P-03 chassis.
NEO, Not Just A Three-Letter Word
The NEO version has been designed to fulfill a new
set of requirements. For one thing, since the P-03 has to
accommodate SACD discs, the CD turntable holding
the disc needs to attain rotational speeds 4.5 times high-
er than what a standard CD requires. To that end,
Esoteric selected duralumin, a relatively new low-mass
metal originally developed for use in the aircraft indus-
try as the material for their new CD turntable. To do
this, they had to solve some demanding machining
challenges presented by this new material. Furthermore,
the designers felt they wanted to have the turntable sur-
face assume a new shape. This surface now is slightly
concave, so that when the disc is being played, and
thus is clamped to the turntable at its center portion, it
assumes a slightly concave contour. This shape was
implemented to precisely maintain the optical axis of
the laser pick-up with that of the pit surface of the CD
during playback.
To spin the CD disc, the Esoteric engineers created a
long-life, three-phase, brushless spindle motor using
new high-precision ceramic bearings. The new bearings
were newly developed exclusively for the P-03 and
allow the turntable to spin with extreme rotational sta-
bility and smoothness. Another new motor, a Hall-ele-
ment sensing type, and also a brushless design for long
life, was chosen to drive the P-03 laser pick-up sled
along a rigid shaft. This critical process keeps the laser
sled precisely positioned as it traces the CD’s bit track at
its very center. I just want to remind you here that the
width of a CD bit track is roughly 1/20th of the width of
a human hair. The sled motor is controlled by high-
speed, high-current servos to maintain accurate tracking
and to also provide very fast access speeds.
The whole VRDS NEO turntable mechanism is sup-
ported by a 20-mm thick bridge structure made of
SS400 steel, and the bridge alone weighs 3.75 lbs.
Structural integrity of this order contributes significantly
to the creation of a rigid and resonance-free environ-
ment, something of utmost importance when trying to
accomplish the playback process with state-of-the-art
accuracy.
The P-03 CD tray is a joy to watch and use. It glides
out in the quietest, smoothest manner I know of. Up to
now, the Linn CD-12 had the smoothest drawer, but the
P-03 is now my new “slide and glide” reference.
For a crowning touch, the P-03 transport is equipped
with a shutter mechanism for the CD tray opening.
Whenever the CD tray is summoned to the “Open”
position, the shutter internally pivots out of the way,
and closes once the tray has retracted into the housing.
This shutter not only keeps dust out, but it also prevents
potentially adverse internal sounds from escaping from
the transport’s inner sanctum during playback. In its
closed position, the shutter is rendered inert as it is
secured very snuggly against the player’s front panel.
P-03
