what are the Best Direct to amps Digital Players ?

Audiolabyrinth, I use Esoterick K-01 dirct to my krell 302e. Great sound. I tried ARC REF 5 and esoteric own
c-03 and preffered esoteric k-01 direct for its more intimate and more refined (purer) sound. The key is amplifier input impendance needs to be at least above 50K for this type of conection (CDP/DAC direct to amp) to work with good results. Of caurse if one want to add some tonal color to the sound, the good tubed pre-amplifier will do.
I had Waida S7i two years ago, no match to esoteric k-01, unlesss highly modified, and esoteric is build much better.

@ Denon1, Hi, I have a krell 700cx that is at Krell right now being totally renewed, inside and out!, its only 8 years old!, Ray Mulchler, the service manager there said that my amp will perform better than before!, they are putting better than the original caps in side of it, and be prepaired to do 500 hours of break-in or a little more!, Its costing me $3,157.38 to do all this!, I have an Ayon 2s now that runs direct to amp that I am not very fond of!, The entire sound of that player sounds good, as far as treble, and resolution!, I do not like the little forward sound that it does at all!, thats part of the reason of this thread!, this is my 3rd player since april 2012!, my Krell 700cx has 100kohm!, likly the same as your Krell!, I just bought a Taralabs cobalt power cord with the up-graded oyaide plugs to use on the ayon or whatever else, I will not be up and running till my amp comes back from Krell, so what do you think here?,, cheers!

@ Denon1, Didn't you own a Ayon player before?,, can you describe the sound of thr K-01?, does the k-03 have volume control?, cheers!

Hi Audiolabyrinth,
Yes I did own ayon 5s with upgraded tubes and did run it direct to krell. The overall sound threw huge soundstage but has been missing some focus and refinement and also had some noise because of its high gain on the output.
I hate to say it, but ayon 2s not on par with ayon cd 5s and not even close to esoteric k-01 and K-03. You are for sure missing what your krell can do. The reason I sold ayon 5s is because of looking for the more long term front end solution and more universal player (ability to play SCAD and better DAC) which esoteric K-01 and K-03 is perfectly represent.
Yes K-03 has volume control.
I love what esoteric K-01 can extract from cd/scad and its overall sound that after 700 hours of burning became liquid but so resolving with no digital artifacts. Plus its USB input and its DAC and volume control make it truly outstanding device. I would say the same about K-03 just in a little smaller scale.

The key here is the volume control technology. There are only three that compete with the very best preamps:
1) DACs that control volume by adjusting the reference voltage
2) Transformer-based line-stages added to DACs, such as this one:
http://app.audiogon.com/listings/solid-state-music-first-classic-silver-cryoed-transformer-line-stage-2013-06-29-preamplifiers-97759-black-butte-ranc-or

3) Line-out of a high-drive output DAC to amps directly and use digital volume control - least attractive and most dangerous.

All of these require that the output stage of the DAC be as good as the very best preamps on the market, including drive strength, output impedance and power delivery.

Steve N.
Empirical Audio