Esoteric K-01

FWIW, TAS (Alan Taffel) says in the May/June issue of K-03 on redbook: "the K-03 sounds beautiful, delivers exceptional detail and spatial depth, and is tonally ravishing. On the other hand, it is missing the ultimate resolution, openness and freedom from digital edginess that makes today's reference gear so relaxing and engaging."

He says his Goldmund transport/dCS Debussy DAC have better resolution.

Mr. Taffel says the K-03 is much, much better on SACD and as a DAC.

the goldmund transport/dcs debussy combo can not play sacd.

and is of course very natural sounding combo.

So would anyone say the K01 handles poorly recorded popular-music redbook discs OK, reducing the digital glare and shout in vocals and the upper mids that I think is a central fault with many redbook CDs?

I like how SACDs (most of them) don't seem to suffer from this on good machines.

Thanks.

Nothing can make poorly recorded music sound good. Well recorded CD's sound absolutely superb on the Esoteric K01. I think many well reorded CD's sound just as good as SACD's on the K01.

Hi Matjet, thanks for the response. After many CD players, some players handle lesser-quality discs better than others, say with somehow detecting digital glare and recessing the upper mids a bit (BBC dip?).

I don't think coaxing detail and character out of vintage recordings in redbook while avoiding harshness and glare is impossible, and to me it's the holy grail of digital processing, and, like I said, some players do this well, some not.

At least that's how it sounds to me with the players I've owned. (I've had a lot of them and certainly the newer ones are better at this now). It's some sort of digital processing magic I confess I don't understand (maybe analog-stage also). I'm sure Alex could explain this somehow.

So, if I want to listen to the Supremes and have Diana Ross sound powerful and detailed but not painfully piercing (like vinyl can do to my ears, or SACD with other vintage recordings), would the K01 fill the bill better than other contenders?