Esoteric K-01

Anybody compared the Esoteric K-01 to the Burmester 089 yet ? Feedback would be appreciated.

I listened to K-01 extensively at RMAF 2011... While it is rather difficult for me to contrast K-01 with my own X-01 Limited, without having both in the same system, K-01 was A/B/C/Ded against several lower end Esoteric players in the suite, with audible results commensurate with a good fraction of the respective price differences.

The benefit of controlling K-01 through a G-0Rb clock was not at all a subtle affair... The audible result was rather obvious to me, as well as to all listeners I queried on the subject.

I left RMAF intrigued enough that I intend to audition K-01 in my own system one way or another before too long.

Harv, it was absolutely fabulous finally meeting you!

G.

Guido - it was my pleasure to finally meet you as well!

I also spent a fair amount of time listening to the K-01 at RMAF and came away very impressed, as I had a hunch I might. The ability to nuance the sound with the different filters as well as the ability to play SACD in native DSD were 2 areas that my current NWO-M does not possess. The ability to be able to select these as needed or desired is a good selling point, IMHO. I am now more curious how the K-01 will sound in my system, although not to the point of trying it yet. Going from a single box solution back to 2 boxes doesn't feel like "simplifying" to me, even though I still have my Esoteric rubidium clock and digital cabling. :-)

Hi Harv, yes the ability of K-01 to tune effectively the sound to a user's preference via oversampling options and filters was very impressive. I did preferred FIR1 and FIR2, while Esoteric staff seemed to be fonder of the Slo2 filter.

G.

Guidocorona,
I have owned an Esoteric K01 for at least 6 months. It is the best cd/sacd player I have ever heard, just spectacular. I tried a G-orb with it for atleast 3 weeks, with hours of testing. The G-orb does not improve the sound of the K-01, period. It will probably improve the sound of a 2 unit player (po3/do3 or p01/d01) due to synchronization of transport and DAC, but it doesn't improve a single box unit (K01).