Esoteric P-02 / D-02 sound

All: Thank you for the help and advice from the K series and the 02; I've done a LOT of testing of permutations and track by track compare over the last couple of days with the various filter and upconversion & protocol options for PCM on the P02/D02 and this is where I think I'll stay for a while as it gives;

- the biggest, densest and deepest soundstage
- best imaging in all 3 dimensions for the 'crucible recordings' I've used for testing for years
- the deepest, most accurate bass without over-bloom/muddiness
- the most pleasing and roundest notes, best transients and overall musical experience thus far

Caveat: I've stayed away from PCM->DSD on purpose for now. Will test that later after I burn in pure DSD for SACD once the PCM circuits hit 500 hours each. Then we're on to more testing and then even more with the high-throughput USB options; should be done about this time next year at 500 hours per permutation !

Here's the config;

- up-conversion PCM->4Fs (176.4) on P-02, 48-bit ESL3 seems to be the silver bullet!

- digital filter set to On (P-02), resulted in slightly tighter bass, thought FIR on the transport and anything on the DAC would redundant but it really seems to do wonders so filter on P-02 is back on!

- P-02 set to output ESL3 protocol, 24-bit 352.8 is impressive but 48-bit ESL3 176.4 is the best thus far (note above,...skipping test of DSD for now). D-02 set to receive ELS3/176.4 so 48-bit input on dual AES

- up sampling set to 176.4 (D-02), ELS3 *dual XLR inputs", this is 48bit output!!!

- digital filter set to S_DLY2 (D-02), no ringing, all the right elements as highlighted in my opening passage, amazing filter, at least on this system

- clock frequency 22.5792MHz master clock output from D-02, P-02 clocked to D-02, still don't miss the G-03 given clocking improvements in D-02. 22.5792Mhz sounds better than 176.4, the 512x over 44.1 seems to really round things out nicely with the right combination of precision and musicality...

That's all for now, let the burn-in continue :-) !!!

FYI...learned yesterday that the driver for MacOSX is not yet up to working with v10.10 (Yosemite) of the O/S. Esoteric informed me that for now, we should utilize the non-async (HS-1) mode for USB input....they will notify as soon as the USB chipset vendor remedies this issue with the driver. Normal non-async playback should work as before with iTunes, JRiver, etc....I think this implies we have to hold off using HRAudioPlayer for now until the USB driver underlying that player is fixed.

I've been communicating with Scott S. and Cedric M. at Onkyo/Integra/Esoteric. They sent out a driver and related software that needs a Windows laptop and USB cable to connect into the D-02,etc... and install/burn a driver update. Important facts in the PDF instruction file and mentioned to me via phone that it will change the display in both MacOSX MIDI utility and other config panels to state "TEAC...." for the driver type and I was told yesterday will change the display of (at least the D-02) DAC itself to read "TEAC" instead of "Esoteric". This fixes the issue but clearly they need to come up with an "All Esoteric" solution......

Update: Just heard from Esoteric that the driver update does NOT change the display of the unit itself, only the way the driver reports itself in MIDI Player, HRAudio/other programs that reflect the detailed info of what driver is being used for audio input. There was some confusion in the info relayed to me via phone yesterday; this has been straightened out.....