Listening to music with the Esoteric C-03

It was one of those being-in-the-moment moments that music has such special power to evoke. Evgeny Kissin was well into the “Sehr innig und nicht zu rasch” movement of Schumann’s Kreisleriana (RCA Red Seal 82876-59412-2). He’d lapsed out of look- how-fast-I-can-play mode, his touch becoming thoughtful and moving, true to the romance of the work. I was wrapped up in the music, and my notepad and pen were down.

Then I heard the crickets, and I finally got it. Or better perhaps, the Esoteric C-03 finally got me.

Into my second month with it, the first of serious reviewing, I was wondering if I’d yet taken the C-03’s full measure or if there was something more to it besides being a solid, competent preamp, and just that. Then there they were, appearing out of nowhere, but in reality just on the other side of the one window on my listening room — a Greek chorus wailing their lamentations stage right. They’d been at it awhile — long before I realized what I was hearing. With apologies to the composer, I sensed no difference between live cricket music and recorded Schumann music. I knew then just how right this Esoteric preamp was.

It is supremely quiet. Notes from the C-03 simply appear, lasting precisely as long as needed and no longer. There is no “blackness” or space between them, only time. There is no blurring across quick arpeggios; the placement of musicians is not fuzzy. The front edge of attack is natural, not announced or incisive — as good as I’ve heard. Listen how interior woodwind solos spring to life in Sibelius’s Second Symphony under Barbirolli’s baton on Chesky CD (Chesky CR3) or in Stokowski’s rendition of Smetana’s “The Bartered Bride” on his Rhapsodies LP (RCA/Classic LSC-2471). Oboes nicely contrasted with bassoons, tonally and spatially. It was audibly easy to spot the positions of flutes relative to the clarinets. However, perhaps because of its quietness, the C-03 seemed to better represent music’s natural drive and vivacity when fed from the Ayre digital player than from either of the phono stages on hand. It’s the first component in my system that led me to play more CDs than I usually do. Maybe Esoteric’s expertise in making digital gear has something to do with this.

Soundstage perspective was on a low-angled oblique, yet the front-to-back layering of musicians within the orchestra was precisely obvious. Cellists appeared, their instruments sounding with strength and radiance as bow motions came easily to my imagination. When their time came to perform, entire sections appeared upon the soundstage fully formed. Notes from instruments evinced with clarity in decay and an exquisitely fine-spun dynamic gradient that extended out the fullness of their harmonic information — until they stopped and again there was nothing.

“Die Moldau” from Smetana’s Má Vlast (also on the Stokowski record) let the C-03 further show off its strong suits. The soundstage went beyond speaker boundaries with exemplary depth. Violins during the “Night Faerie” section sparkled with extended finesse and delicacy. The C-03 is among the very best at rendering what I call the shimmer of massed strings — those tiny dynamic differences inevitable within a group of musicians bowing the same note at the same time. Trumpets and horns had believable tonal density without any hint of glare, and their placement within the orchestra was consistently exact. After a month of break-in, there was none of the faint high-frequency hardness I heard initially. Playing two or more octaves above middle C, violins and piccolos were marvelously extended with clarity and definition. If I had to pick nits, I’d say cellos and basses were a teeny bit bloomy around the edges and not quite as defined as other instruments playing in higher frequencies. Yet there was good weight and heft to the fundamental as the C-03 firmly drove my Atma-Sphere amps.

The Esoteric preamp gave me some of the best reproduction I’ve heard of a favorite choral piece — Gerald Finzi’s Intimations of Mortality performed by tenor Ian Partridge and the Guildford Philharmonic Choir & Orchestra under Vernon Handley’s baton on Lyrita LP (Lyrita SRCS 75). I’ve listened to this music with every review component that has passed through my system; I know it well and my compliment is genuine. Although the choristers were not quite as three-dimensional with the C-03 as I’ve heard, they were well individuated, sonically and spatially layered, and they presented with an excellent tonal and dynamic gradation — the choral analog of string-section shimmer. Soundstage width positioned triangle and xylophone well outside the speakers and to the rear — if I could stake their spot with a sticky note hung in thin air, it would mark the back-right corner of the orchestra. The metal-on-metal tone of the triangle’s strike was just right, with a crisp front edge. A big acoustic band with a big choir all going at it at once is one of the true challenges for any stereo rig. You may have thought the Esoteric’s +/-38-volt output buffer a tad exuberant, but the music’s resolution and coherence never blinked under the steadiness of its reserve. The C-03’s low noise floor and its facility with dynamics and timing delivered the vivacity and power of the orchestra and choir performing together without muddle or confusion in complex passages.

Whether it’s the short signal paths or high-grade WIMA caps I can’t say, but that low noise floor yields a highly resolved presentation that gets cashed out as the best image specificity of any preamp I’ve heard to date. Couple this with expressive microdynamics in the mids and highs, along with realistic instrumental and vocal timbres, and the C-03 delivers a wonderfully satisfying listening experience. Rare with many components that pass through my system for review, I came to look forward to listening sessions with the C-03.

Contrast and compare

It was a good thing to have a truly great reference preamp for comparison with the C-03. My Atma-Sphere MP-1 Mk III with phono section ($12,100) sports a V-Cap upgrade and a few strategically placed ’52 Sylvania 6SN7 bad boys. I used the tubed Audio Research PH7 and solid-state Zyx Artisan phono stages with each preamp and also compared the MP-1 Mk III natively to the C-03-plus-PH7 combo.

The lineage, architecture, and implementation of the C-03 and MP-1 Mk III couldn’t be more different, and no doubt this is reflected in their sonic characters. Despite these differences, both preamps yielded the result of high enjoyment while honoring the music. I would love to eavesdrop on a discussion about music and component design between Motoaki Ohmachi (president of Esoteric) and Ralph Karsten (Mr. Atma-Sphere). Beneath the mechatronics, handcraftsmanship, logic processors and tubes, their products reflect a common passion in pursuit of musical realism.

The capacity for music to express irrepressible human joy finds no better spokesman than Beethoven. My notes detailed impressions gathered from a back-to-back comparison using the ARC PH7. My sonic lens was B’s Symphony No.6, “the Pastoral,” superbly performed by the Berlin Philharmonic under the baton of Andre Cluytens (EMI ASD 433). Overall, the MP-1 Mk III sounded more immediately alive, in a raw, visceral sort of way. It gave a bit better sense of an orchestra in the space of a concert hall, a sense of the distance between the orchestra and back and side walls. Soundstage width, depth, and height were top-notch with both preamps, though slightly wider with the C-03. I heard less surface noise through the MP-1 Mk III, but the C-03 was quieter when no music played. In the “Scene at the Brook,” woodwinds through the C-03 were better outlined with a clean-cut focus; however, harmonics and overtones were just a touch richer through the MP-1 Mk III. Through the MP-1 Mk III, individual musicians had greater three-dimensionality and instruments took on a vivacious “lit from within” quality. The C-03 impressively laid out the orchestra with clear image placement front to back. Overall each preamp showed excellent articulation, but the Esoteric line stage offered cellos and basses with a faintly clearer leading edge, as I heard their bows’ rosiny attack with slightly fuller low-end body.

Both preamps gave different but equally compelling renditions of Dmitrij Kitajenko conducting the Gürzenich-Orchester Köln in Shostakovich’s 12th Symphony, “The Year 1917” on SACD (Capriccio SCD 71 037). If you like the bombastic side of Shosty, here is your piece — after all, it is revolutionary. Step by ponderous step, the inexorable carapace of proletarian praxis rides athwart the imperial walker of historical inevitability. The C-03 gave full measure to a chorus of growling trombones and giant bass drum-strikes in the final movement. There is no joy here, only the inevitable crush of synthesis, the sledgehammer of history delivered in huge dynamic swings of massive timpani whacks and cymbal clashes. Both preamps laid out the orchestra before me. Here again the MP-1 Mk III offered an open, spacious presentation — a bigger, more dimensional sound, with more air, while the C-03 exhibited refinement and specificity with a tailored sense of realism. The C-03 showed no hint of shyness when called upon to deliver the full power and scale of the music. The MP-1 Mk III yielded a marvelous clarity of intonation in the midbass and lower bass, while the C-03 had more heft and sheer grunt in the low end. A giant gong strike made with a soft mallet spread outward in a circular pattern like ripples on a pond. The C-03 got it just right, and I felt a deep resonance as the pressure wave of its frontal assault moved through me.

From a satisfaction perspective, each preamp was difficult to switch to from the other, yet neither ever disappointed upon arrival. Both were true to the music at hand, and both showed assurance driving the Atma-Sphere amps. If I had to boil it down to one word, I’d say the MP-1 Mk III is “transparent” while the C-03 is “sophisticated.” Which would you prefer? It’s a hard choice to make. I prefer having a fully balanced system — i.e., using the Atma-Sphere preamp with the Atma-Sphere amps — but I could live with either preamp. There is no best here.

Conclusion

With the C-03, Esoteric brings to market a thoughtful design with top-notch build quality and pleasing ergonomics. It is fast, quiet, and highly resolving with superb microdynamics, and best-of-breed image specificity. It won’t congest or smear complex music delivered across a broad dynamic range. Notes are articulate with a naturally crisp leading edge. The C-03 delivers graceful fluency backed by quiet strength. It is a very compelling component that consistently drew me into the music.

I’m told the first-year anniversary gift is paper, and for ten years it’s tin, but who knew that 21 years is a preamp? Esoteric’s first preamp honors its viability in high-end audio and joins an exclusive group of the best line stages available today. I hope the engineers at Esoteric don’t wait 20 more years to make another.