New Esoteric P02 D02

Hi Zephyr, my experience on K-01 first edition was that each filter variant required its own break in time of about 500 hours. For my own preferences, S_dly2 met the right balance of resolution and musicality.... S_dly1 was more tube-like, while DSD upsampling resulted in a highly resolving and snappy, but also "nervous", rendering that resulted in an edge-of-seat experience that I was not too fond of. FIR filters seemed to yield a bit of a two-dimensional stage with a touch of synthetic in their sound signature.

Thank you Guido...I will give it a try and burn it in for at least 2 weeks before judging. The big question is do you disable the digital filter on the P-02 as they could overlap in function and what up-conversion on the P-02 do you have set? I have heard thus far that 48-bit ESL3 4fs (to 176.4...) seems to be the best though I have not spent a ton of time with PCM-DSD as I found was the best on my P-03U/D-03. What is the complete set of options that you utilize across both transport and DAC? Thanks!

Eelii008: Thanks....don't know if it will help it move any faster though I am hoping! I'm really looking forward to the next few years with this rig and beyond!

Hi Zephyr, I have no experience on the combo units at all... My findings are based on K01 only.... By logic only I imagine that if you set filters on D-02, no filters should be set on P-02... But it might be best for you to consult Integra/Esoteric tech support on this.

On K-01 I much prefered the resolution, spatiality and the overall musicality of 4X upsampling over 2X... And I preferred 2X over no upsampling at all.

Zephyr if you do check with esoteric let us know what they say. I have also asked that question myself many times. You can do the up conversion either at P02 or D02. Or you can do it at both. I do it only at the P02 level and leave the D02 as ORG. Do not think doing it twice makes sense. Although it could be better to do it at the DAC. As for filter I use none, but if I decided to try some I would be also interested to know if better at transport of DAC.

Also check out the XLR gain at 0 or + 6db. It does change the sound.

It's hard to believe these components are entering there fourth year. With Esoteric releasing the K-01X the D-02/P-02 combo may become somewhat scarce, with everyone opting for the K-01x. Esoteric has told me that there is no upgrade planned for the D-02 for DSD over USB, however, it is not ruled out. I think that will make the D-02 a bit of a novelty, although still a better sounding set up than all but perhaps the new D-1/P-1 Grandioso. The D-02 owners hopefully can stick together and help each other get the most out of this awesome combo... settings, preferences, cables, footers, etc. We are probably disc spinners, mostly SACDs, although the D-02 is great with computer and servers too, but without DSD, everyone is over looking these babies. Anyway hope to hear a lot of sharing info and swapping experiences, let's keep this thread rockin'.