Esoteric K-05XD Wins What Hi-Fi? 2024 Temptation Award

The prestigious British audio magazine What Hi-Fi has recently announced its 2024 awards, with the Esoteric K-05XD SACD/CD player earning the coveted Temptation Award.

When audiophiles discuss Esoteric, the conversation invariably turns to the VRDS transport mechanism—a system that has long been acclaimed as one of the most precise disc-reading mechanisms in the industry. In recent years, Esoteric has further refined this technology, introducing the next-generation VRDS-ATLAS. This advanced system features a reinforced aluminum alloy base and an enhanced aluminum alloy upper beam support. These structural improvements, with their increased mass, significantly reduce disc vibration, enabling more stable laser tracking. The result is a marked improvement in tonal quality, dynamic range, and musical detail reproduction, delivering performance that surpasses its predecessors by orders of magnitude.

The K-05XD's excellence extends beyond its sophisticated VRDS-ATLAS transport. At its heart lies Esoteric's proprietary Master Sound Discrete DAC, engineered with discrete components configured in a Delta-Sigma conversion circuit. This innovative approach minimizes distortion while effectively eliminating digital artifacts, resulting in a remarkably natural and authentic sound reproduction that brings listeners closer to the original musical performance.