Zepher, I owned the K-01, which is a fantastic player that I easily could have lived with for along time and not looked back. I upgraded from the X-01/D2, which is an all together different sound. The X-01 plays multi channel SACD and when done right is certainly worth the listening time, for me anyway! But the K-01 is a huge step up from the X-01D2, much more relaxing and easier on the ears long term. They both are excellent at extracting information, but the K-01 is much much smoother and not as acute at the extremes.
To the point, an excellent opportunity came up to trade out the K-01 toward the D-02/P-02 combo... And that is a whole other league. The D-02/P-02 combo is by itself in the Esoteric offerings. Out of the box these players blew me away, even with the stock cords and inexpensive cables. I've since upgraded to Wireworld series 7 clock and DC's and Shunyata ZiTron PC's and the sound just gets bigger and bigger everytime I play them. The deliniation of sounds and instruments, and the authentic reproduction of vocals and piano is astounding. On live music the audience clapping sounds as real as I've ever heard it through speakers. I find it hard to believe that there are many players as peers to these machines ! I say to anyone who can afford it , don't even thing twice about it and you will never look back! Enjoy the music !
