Esoteric K-01

Joe-

I believe you might be trying to compare apples and oranges, as they say. I would either call Esoteric or your Esoteric dealer if you have one. There is also another thread here talking about the K-03 with some feedback from several dealers that you might want to check out. Their comments pretty much echo what I was told by my contacts at Esoteric, FWIW. Good luck and let us know if you get the K-03!

Here's a link to that thread:

http://forum.audiogon.com/cgi-bin/fr.pl?ddgtl&1301679798&&&/EMM-Labs-XDS1-vs-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.