Esoteric K-05 or K-07?

Audiolabyrinth,

I was in a similar situation that you were in a little over
a year ago. I had the K-03 and the Rega Isis in my system at the same time and the Rega simply was more enjoyable to my ear. I really wanted to buy the K-03 but in my system the Rega did everything wonderful and had that analog smoothness to it. I do have a great analog setup amd for the first time my digital is just as entertaining as my vinyl. The pricing of the Rega Isis & K-3 are quite similar. There is a review in Tone Magazine and a few others about the Rega. You owe it to yourself to at least hear the Rega. Have fun!

Hi Kiwi_1282001... You are right on about pure BC, including BC on X-01. Yes, earthy with a little more bass than what I would been happy, and a little less treble than what I would prefer, is exactly how I would define it... Overall, not a setup that I could live with.

The magic appeared only once I "doped" the BC trio with one single TC in the middle front of the X-01 unit.

Guido

@ Bobheinatz, Hi, Thankyou for yor post, My question is, Does the rega Isis have a volume control?,, I know that may seem crazy to want one, My cables cost so much money, God forbid buying multiple cables!, I am tring to go source to amp, then latter, I may go the over exspensive route of a pre-amp and more cables, can you imagine $15,000.00 for each 1-meter interconnect?, I really do not want to go there!, thats why I have one i/c at that retail price!,, all my less exspensive cables are for a second system, when I rebuild it., Happy Listening.

Yashu, the K-05 has better DACs and a better transport than the K-07. In fact, the K-05 has the same DACs as the K-01 (8 per channel) and the K-03 (4 per channel) just less of them at 2 per channel. Hope this helps, Kevin

I'm in the middle of what will be a hard-fought upgrade transaction with a very difficult seller (have 40+ pages of email and other comms, glad to provide details on this challenge and the seller so people can avoid him,....communicate with me on in-mail) and after a month, finally have a P-02 installed in the system in place of my 7 1/2 tried and true P-03U Transport. The D-02 is still outstanding and will likely become a 'longer story' with a potentially legally troublesome ending (for the Valley Stream & Lynbrook NY-based seller in question) so the P-02 is feeding my existing D-03 Dual Mono DAC with incredible results.

The holy grail of this hobby so to speak, is to be able to achieve very detailed and accurate playback with all possible inner detail retrieved from the recorded medium while also having organic, musical and non-fatiguing playback. As much as I love the P-03U/D-03 combo all these years, it's hard to put into words what additionally the P-02 brings to the table. The difference and upgrade in all these key areas is not subtle and is incredibly impressive! I'm extremely happy with the P-02 after only 2-3 days and cannot wait for the D-02 to arrive!