Esoteric F-05 Integrated Amplifier Review and Opinion

[Cafad]

Well my mission to sell some amplifiers does not seem to have gone as planned.  However, my parallel  mission to move on some speakers has managed to get somewhere, and that somewhere has landed me a new amp to play with.

 

Enter the Esoteric F-05.  

I can't recall hearing an Esoteric amp prior to this one so I was fairly excited.  But things did not go smoothly to start with and I have several "beefs" to comment on.  I'll get to the sound eventually but sometimes it's important for things to be portrayed in the order they occurred in.  So, let's begin.

 

The first thing I discovered about the F-05 was that it does not obey the remote.  The remote has an "on/standby" button, but it does neither of these things.  The amp simply ignores it.  If you wish to turn the amp on you must move close enough to it to press the "on" button on the bottom left of the faceplate.  If you wish to turn it off you need to do the same thing, or switch off your source and then wait for the timer to switch it off when it notices that it hasn't been getting a music signal for too long.  This seems strange to me.  (And yes, I did check the manual, and under the entry on the "Standby/On" button on it says "This button does not turn the unit on/off".  However it can be used to change screens in the settings menu, so it does have a use, just not the obvious one.)

 

The second thing I discovered about the F-05 was that it had no bass.  Not quite none, just far less than it really needed to make me happy to listen to it.  Just in case I was missing something I pulled the Heschl HAL-350 off its comfy shelf and fired it up.  It gave me tons of bass, which is good, this is as it should be.  Swap back to the Esoteric and still no bass.  Maybe, I thought,  it's more sensitive to the thickness of the speaker wire than the Heschl is?  

 

OK, so let's replace that 14AWG speaker wire with some 12AWG.  And hey, that makes a difference all right, the bass just increased by about 30%.  Still a bit on the weak side in my opinion, and nowhere near the bass that the mighty Heschl was giving me.  Hmm, OK, what cables do I have that are thinker than 12 gauge?

 

That's right, I still have that pair of Redgum cables, they're 7 gauge.  OK, so in they go and yes, bass levels increase again.  This seems about right, enough bass to accurately convey the weight of a performance and actually give you some fullness to drums.  Enough to really enjoy some rock music (although still a touch lighter than it should be in my opinion).  All right, I can work with this.

 

The third thing was that the F-05 is far more sensitive to digital cables than anything I have heard to date.  I started out using a copper Aurealis coax cable but since I was using a silver digital cable on the Heschl and I intended to do some direct comparing I thought I'd try to keep things as similar as possible so I put in a silver one on the Esoteric as well.  Man that was not good, the F-05 got leaner and thinner so  3 quarter songs later the Aurealis coax was back in.  Wow!  

 

It has been a while since I've had so much to say about an amp well before I make it to the sound.  I will make it to the sound, but it probably won't be tonight.  I'm tired, hungry still partially hung over, and I have a prior booking so I'll sign off for now with a picture of the Esoteric sitting next to the Heschl, and another picture of the offending remote control.

 

Enjoy the weekend everybody!

 

 

 

 

[Steever]

Gee, it’s not looking good, is it?

This is one of the brands I’d shortlisted should I break from my current system. 
I know a personal listen is always best but, waiting on further observations when you have the time…

[sir sanders zingmore]

Someone has to ask the silly questions (sorry!)

- Did you check and double check that you’d wired the speakers in phase?

- Did you check that the tone controls weren’t active?

[Cafad]

19 minutes ago, sir sanders zingmore said:

Someone has to ask the silly questions (sorry!)

- Did you check and double check that you’d wired the speakers in phase?

- Did you check that the tone controls weren’t active?

In answer to your first question, yes, every time I changed the cables.

 

In answer to your second question, absolutely!  I turned them on before I started changing cables to see if I could use them to partially counter the lack of bass I heard.  The were fairly smooth and subtle so they could not, so I turned them off again.

 

I've also tried a second pair of speakers to see if part of the problem is that the Wilson Benesch ACTs are lowish impedance.  I hope to have more to say on that as I progress.  Unfortunately I seem to have come down with a flu so I'm progressing very slowly, even by my usual slow standards.  I'll get there, eventually.

[sir sanders zingmore]

1 hour ago, Cafad said:

Unfortunately I seem to have come down with a flu so I'm progressing very slowly, even by my usual slow standards.  I'll get there, eventually.

Take care

[Cafad]

OK, I think I've finally got a handle on the Esoteric F-05.

 

In a bit a pickle as to what was actually going on I turned back to my old test disc, I had to return to music I knew by heart to figure it out, not newer music that I just really like (which is what I've sort of drifted into recently, listening to music because I like it, but now was not the time for this emotional frivolity, this was serious, time to get to work).  

 

I decided on using the Aurealis UP-620 speaker cables (12 gauge) rather than the redgum 7 gauge cables as the Redgums didn't sound quite right.  Also, if the Esoteric couldn't manage decent bass with 12 gauge cables then that was its problem.  I did give the F-05 a run on my Lenehan S2R speakers and it gave me slightly better bass but I still wasn't entirely happy with it, for the purpose of this post I used my Wilson Benesch ACT (model 3) speakers.

 

In the interest of giving the Esoteric a fair trial I'm going to type up my notes so readers can see what I saw/heard and thought.  

 

Highs: Amazing detail and dimensionality, polite rather than hard or detailed, 3D soundstage is excellent and sounds travel up above the plane of the speakers easily.  But for some reason I'm just not engaging with it, quality is 8.8 out of 10 but engagement on my part won't go above a 7.0.  

 

Mids: Quality is excellent, woodwind vibration is awesome to hear but somehow it sounds withheld at the same time, there may be some emphasis on the upper mids at the expense of the lower as many instruments seem higher in pitch than I am used to hearing.  Not going to score this one out of 10, it's just too hard to do.

 

Bass: Has presence and power but seems almost scared of impact. Distinct lack of bass at low volume, need 75db plus to wake up the bass region.  Quality is excellent but amount is lacking, 8.5 for quality, 7.2 for the amount.  

 

Vocals:  Female vocals are sweet and rich and sound very nice indeed.  Male vocals feel lean, not deep or gravelly as they can be.  Leonard Cohen does not sound like he should, not at all.  And Mark Knopfler sounds like a young man with trim and taunt vocal cords, not near as textured as he should.  Female vocals score an 8.6, Male only a 7.  I need reality in my male vocals, not a blandish, politeness filter applied to them.

 

2D soundstaging is excellent.  Stereo effects and a sense of massive separation between the channels really come across well.

3D soundstaging is good, but this is where things get interesting.  There is no soundstage in front of the speakers, behind yes, to the sides yes, and above too.  The soundstage is, much like the frequency range, politely recessed.

 

Overall Performance Integration.  PRAT is very good and it has a good level of presence and power but for some reason it just fails to engage with my love of music.

 

Ability to Emote:  Not working for me on an emotional level, the technical side of my brain is quite impressed at the detail level and the stereo separation but I'm just not enjoying it.  Technical rating 8.9 (it's really, really good and I am pretty sure I know that in my head) Emotional rating 7.6.  I would prefer to listen to dozens of other amps over this one.  

 

Electric Guitar Test:  No, something is not quite right here.  It might be the pitch or it might be the reverb but whatever it is I don't approve of it.  There is no sense of energy, no rawness, no sense of a rebellious soul to the instrument at all.  

 

80's Rock Test:  I feel withdrawn from the listening experience, like watching the same film clip on the same TV but sitting 15 feet further back.  It's not as much fun as I'm used to.

 

So my conclusion is this.  The Esoteric F-05 is an excellent piece of engineering but it is aimed at people who have different preferences to mine (or perhaps it is meant for medium sized stand mounts, that might go a long way to explaining things).  I am not a bass head (or at least not a very large one) but I do need more of it than the Esoteric will provide.  Also I cannot abide it's presentation of drums, I feel as if several hundredths of a second of the initial impact of each drum strike has been surgically removed.  As I said above, very polite.

 

And that, as they say, is that.

 

Enjoy the weekend everybody!

 

 

[RoyW]

Everything sounds thin after Sansui.

[Cafad]

12 hours ago, RoyW said:

Everything sounds thin after Sansui.

So true.

 

My experience with the Esoteric has me thinking about the output impedance of amps right now, and I don't think I did much comparing of the performance of any of the Sansui amps with varying thicknesses of speaker cable.  So that's the plan for this afternoon, out with the Esoteric and in with a Sansui or two.

 

But first Jon has to stop by with his Canor, I'm looking forward to hearing that.  Must remember to take a pic while it's here.  Then it's back to the Sansuis. 

 

Should be a good Sunday!

[aussievintage]

13 hours ago, Cafad said:

The Esoteric F-05 is an excellent piece of engineering but it is aimed at people who have different preferences to mine (or perhaps it is meant for medium sized stand mounts, that might go a long way to explaining things). 

 

 

I have to say that this is not the way amplifiers should work.  They should be capable of providing whatever the user's preferences might require.

[Tim D]

Very surprising.  I too was contemplating Esoteric but am now glad I went in the direction of Luxman.  They look very nicely put together at least.

[aussievintage]

1 minute ago, Tim D said:

Very surprising.  I too was contemplating Esoteric but am now glad I went in the direction of Luxman.  They look very nicely put together at least.

 

I don't think you can go wrong with Luxman.  You made a good choice IMHO.

[Cafad]

3 hours ago, aussievintage said:

 

I don't think you can go wrong with Luxman.  You made a good choice IMHO.

I would definitely be agreeing with that statement.

 

 

[Cafad]

Well Jon is on his way back home and, unfortunately for me, he is taking his Canor 1.2 along with him.  I could certainly have handled having that stay in the flat for a few weeks longer, but it wasn't to be.

 

And here's a picture for those who appreciate such things.

 

Hmm, that pic looks a bit pixel-ishly overdone.  That's a pity because the amp is a really good looker in person.  I'll have to have words with my phone.

 

[wikeeboy]

2 hours ago, Cafad said:

Well Jon is on his way back home and, unfortunately for me, he is taking his Canor 1.2 along with him.  I could certainly have handled having that stay in the flat for a few weeks longer, but it wasn't to be.

 

And here's a picture for those who appreciate such things.

 

Hmm, that pic looks a bit pixel-ishly overdone.  That's a pity because the amp is a really good looker in person.  I'll have to have words with my phone.

 

 

Never listened to one, but a guy i know in a pretty well known shop has churned through a lot of very fine gear over the years and bought a Canor integrated for his own system and rates it very highly. I'd never heard of the brand until he mentioned it.

[Cafad]

I'd never heard of Canor prior to about a month ago either.  Glad I have now though.

[cafe67]

3 minutes ago, Cafad said:

I'd never heard of Canor prior to about a month ago either.  Glad I have now though.

They make a few really nice phono stages and indeed the integrateds are supposed to be really nice 

[JD1]

I bought the Canor from Sight and Sound in Melbourne and they gave me a great deal. They are running them in the shop on some fairly high end speakers. I must say Will and the guys were very good to deal with. I did check with them to make sure it was okay to mention them. I think they do have some of the Canor stuff still on special.

[wikeeboy]

6 minutes ago, JD1 said:

I bought the Canor from Sight and Sound in Melbourne and they gave me a great deal. They are running them in the shop on some fairly high end speakers. I must say Will and the guys were very good to deal with. I did check with them to make sure it was okay to mention them. I think they do have some of the Canor stuff still on special.

 

Yes this is where i first learnt of them. It wasn't a salesy discussion either, one of the guys there had previously bought some of my own high end gear via the classifieds here and later replaced with the Canor.

[JD1]

That is the way I found them to deal with. They were not pushy but helpful. I think I spoke with the guy that probably bought your gear and he has a pair of Sonus Faber Stradivarius that are very well regarded speakers. There is a great thread on the DIY forum about The Mad Scientist that built a pair of them. It was incredible the lengths he went to, to build them.

[Cafad]

On 10/11/2024 at 10:05 PM, cafe67 said:

They make a few really nice phono stages and indeed the integrateds are supposed to be really nice 

I would certainly say that I am in agreement with that claim.

[PKay]

On 11/11/2024 at 10:01 AM, JD1 said:

I bought the Canor from Sight and Sound in Melbourne and they gave me a great deal. They are running them in the shop on some fairly high end speakers. I must say Will and the guys were very good to deal with. I did check with them to make sure it was okay to mention them. I think they do have some of the Canor stuff still on special.

I heard the Canor amps at the Sydney HiFi show and I thought that they were excellent.