Esoteric K01: What are the best settings for CD?


The Esoteric K01 has several up-conversion and filter options for CD play-back. Unfortunately, each up-conversion option and each filter option requires approximately 500 hours of 'break-in' to sound it's best. I have owned the Esoteric K01 since it's release. It is a superb SACD and CD player. I have 'broken in' some but not all filter and up-conversion settings. I am still unable to decide which combination I like best. I am currently using S_DLY1 (for digital filter) and 2Fs (for up conversion). I would like to know what settings other Esoteric K01 owners like best. It would be helpful if If you can explain why those settings sound better to you than other combinations. I wonder which settings the experts at Esoteric/Teac would recommend?
matjet
Hi Matjet, hoping the system cooperates with me today, here is my post from yesterday... am not at all surprised if you find that warm up time is necessary on K-01. I always left K-01 on all the time, and if I wanted to do some critical listening, I put it on repeat play for a few hours while listening to my favorite radio station to pass the time.

I did not "get rid" of the K-01 at all... But resources being limited under.... uhrn, marital concerns.... I had to choose between purchasing the Vienna Die Muzik and the marvellous K-01... So the K-01 review unit had to go back to TEAC *sigh!

Concerning PCs, my absolute favorite PC for all my equipment has been the Shunyata King Cobra CX. However I have heard that some of the members of the newer Z-Tron series from the same company may outperform it. Reason for liking King Cobra CX... the usual.... That marvellous sense of sinking into musical reality with revealing detail, depth of field, and no listening strain.

K-01 performs best fed from a dedicated outlet.... better staging and imaging in general, and I have some tracks that can otherwise show traces of brittleness in chorded higher bowed strings.

power conditioning... My favorite is the Shunyata Triton... have not found one that can yield the same magic yet, consistent with what Shunyata cords do for living, and what I deem to be music.

Footers/spikes.... I have tried Nordost Kones (Aluminum, Bronze, and Titanium)... I was conjecturing that I would like Bronze Kones best, but the most elegant sound with exposed rippling harmonics and lack of glare was from the Titanium variety.

Saluti, G.
Matjet, I have K-01 and still go thru the same choices. For a while I settled with well burned-in 4x and S_DLY1 combo. The 2x is also good (sometimes sound more natural than 4x) but 4x is more dynamic and results in bigger soundstage. But recently I decided to follow Guido recommendation and tried S-DLY2 option and I think Guido is right on with this one and his description match my findings. I think I will stop driving myself crazy and use 4x and S_DLY2 combo from now on as best sounding in my system.
Important thing is all combos MUST go thru long brake ins.
Again, as other saying, the great ICs, power conditioning, and great isolation will show true potential of this marvelous player.
Are you serious?..is it that difficult to push buttons and
and select filter settings and listen to your speakers's
and make a choice?..Really!!
From my experience and in my system, Slow Delay 1 with no upsampling sounds best. It was also the preferred setting specified on Arthur Salvatore's site. I tried all sixteen combinations, and my result concurred with that of his reviewers.
Hi Washline, how much break in time did you allow for each filter and each upsampler?

G.