When any app, including esd, is unable to bind to a port, it nearly always returns a reason for the failure as the result code. Look at the result code and see why it think's it is having trouble.

One possibility could be lack of a configured ethernet connection. On the Empeg, the player software configures the ethernet, so if you have completely disabled the player software, you may not have any ethernet.

So long as the player software is allowed to start up and run, and you don't kill it off until the ethernet has been verified (observed) to be configured and running, then things ought to work.

Cheers