Hi Kevin,
I love the Askar 130 PHQ and it seems to be the scope I use the most. But I also find the Esprit 100ED to be an excellent scope too, with stars very sharp. Color for me is primarily a software/post-processing problem, when I look at the individual subs (.fit) that come out of the camera I rarely see much color. Images have to be stretched and processed.
I doubt you could go wrong with either scope. The advantage of the Askar 107 PHQ is that you won't need to install a flattener, it's built in, which means you don't have to calculate back-focus. With reducers, each scope would be faster an more wide field. On the other hand the Esprit comes with a flattener too, it's just not built in.