How much better is Esoteric K-03 vs K-05?

Just having fun with you Milpai :)

Fplanner, that's good to know. I expected as much, and probably would have been very happy with the K-05, but I couldn't resist the K-03.

Other than a server, this should complete the 2ch aspect of my system, joining Revel Salon 2s upfront, a Mac MC452 amp, a Krell S-1200 pre, and now the Esoteric. Hopefully I can jump off the merry-go-round and settle into just listening instead of chasing better equipment :)

OK Jeffkad
To make you feel better I had k-05 for 3 weeks.
Natural sounding player with good amount of details and when properly burned in does not exibit digital glare. After that I decided to listen k-03 and k-01 (my dealer had a demos). K-03 is much more resolving and more dynamic player and I think, best/price combo in esoteric line. But I end-up buying K-01 :), because I am running K-01 direct to amplifier and K-01 was worth the price from what I heard. Please be patient and burn each filter option at least 300 hours before jumping to conclusions.

Thanks much Denon1. Yes, from your older posts and many others, I'm very aware of the burn-in time, and that it must happen on each filter you use. That is a bit daunting, but I will work my way through it eventually. I will probably put this up as a separate post, but interested in which two filters worked best for you? If I can focus on two, maybe on opposite ends of spectrum, that will make process less arduous. I have noted that in some cases, people preferred one filter before break-in and another after break-in.

@Denon1, just curious what your thoughts are on using the K-01 direct to the amp. Correct me if I am wrong but I thought the K-01 adjusts volume digitally??

Tboooe, yes K-01 have digital volume control, but because of its 8 dacs per side and 32 bits the impact of the loosing bits is not audibel at all (for me). Two important factor to consider when driving direct,
1.Input impedance of the amplifier. It should be in a higher (like 50 and up) digits.
2. Using great ICs.
So far I like to drive my krell 302e direct. May be if I got very good pre-amp (at least on a level of ARC 5se or esoteric c-03) I might have gotten even better sound (more life) from my system. But this costly and I will not go this road (I can’t even arrange a demo). That was the one of the key reasons I went with k-01 instead of k-03, driving direct K-01 is more harmonically rich and coherent. One thing to notice, before make any judgment on esoteric driving direct any amp, one needs to burn the digital control "ON" option for a good 300-400 hours.

Jeffkad,
I tried, as some experienced guys on this forum advised, the 4x up sampling with s_dly1 filter, but the sound (in my system) still had been more analytical that I wanted it to be. Later I found K-01 and K-03 overview of some guy and he recommended no upsampling and S-DLY1 filter.
I decided to try this combo and felt ( after braking in this combo) that this is the best combo for me. The sound became much more natural with bigger soundstage and more air. I really enjoy it now.