Esoteric K-01

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).

Very interesting Matjet.... In the Esoteric suite it seemed that the G-0Rb clock was making a significant difference.... Seemed to be the consensus.... Tim Crable, visitors, myself... I wonder what else may have been going on that caused the general opinion in the suite, short of mass histeria? Have you tried various clock modes and settings?

By the way, what combination of oversampling and filter settings do you prefer on K-01, and why?

Have you tried the K-01 directly into amp? Opinions?

G.

Matjet,

very interesting, I have been holding off getting this unit for the specific reasons Guidocorona mentions.

So I look forward to more details.

How do you find the unit for noise, disc spinning?

Any noise?

Other models including their top unit from first hand experience in my own set-up I could hear such specially on silent passages which was distracting to me and stopped my purchase.

I have the K-01 and it is a superb sounding machine. It is a big step up from the X-03SE, which I still consider a great player, and which deservedly attracted glowing reviews. I have had a few high end players in my system, and I think the K-01 excels in presenting music with exquisite detail that sounds natural and does not fatigue, and lays out a magical soundstage. Vocals are sublime. It needs
time to run in but fresh out of the box, you already know it is something special.
I think the TAS choice of the S_Dly1 filter on their K-03 review was a mistake, if the K-01 is anything to go by. To my ears the Fir1 or Fir2 (not certain yet but think Fir1) sound better. I feel the S_Dly1 filter seems to flatten out the music a little and rob it of a little air, but it is subtle.
Definitely use the 2x upsampling.

There is no noise with the K-01; it is dead silent. The build quality is superb. The machine is beautiful, a pleasure to use, look at and touch. The sound stage is extremely three dimensional. Instrument and voice separation is superb and emerges out of a black silent background. Music is very detailed and sounds more alive than any other CD player I have ever listened to. My prior CD player was the Esoteric X-01-D2. There is no comparison, the K-01 is in a different league. The improvement in sound was immediately obvious, right out of the box. I did not have to do an A-B comparison.

I really wanted to love the G-orb. But it made absolutely no improvement in sound with the K-01. I tried it with all types of music, various settings, Sacd, Cd. I focused on all aspects of sound: low level detail, dynamics, bass, treble, midrange, sound staging, timbre, instrument separation, voice, strings, jazz, classical, rock. Lengthy listening and A-B comparison with and with out the G-orb in the loop. I couldn't detect an improvement.

Regarding settings. I am still uncertain which one I like best. I would be interested in hearing what other K-01 owners like best and why.