Any experience with Esoteric K-05?

Thanks Gordon and Mike. I have also read the commentary on AA including Mikes excellent overview. Looking for expanded input because the AA site seems to be a bit of fan club. Nothing wrong with that - but no product can be perfect for all systems and tastes and it is a very significant worry that there is vertually no criticism of the product. I have not been able to get hold of a K-05 for demo but have managed to get a K-03 to try and I am doing so at time of writting.

Thanks for the comments Zd542 and Ritmo.

I like the look of the Esoteric players - particularly the K-05. The K-01 and K-03 look like they have eaten too many steak pies :-)

Still, it is sound quality that counts and I will be auditioning.

Thanks for the comment Audiooracle. What player would you suggest?

Thanks for the comments Denon 1. My K-03 demo unit has over 500 hours on the clock. What filter settings are you currently using? 4x oversampling and no filter seems the most open in my system - but I find the presentation tonally cool. Remarkable resolution though.

Hi Jeffkad,

In my otherwise neutral playback system as described above
the scorecard on the Cary Audio 306 Pro vs. the Esoteric K-
03 reads like this.

The Esoteric trumps the Cary for outright resolution, sound-
stage depth and object edging, treble extension and bass
depth.

The Cary trumps the Esoteric for image specificity and
density, mid-bass weight, overall musicality and engagement.

I was very surprised at just how different these two fine
machines sounded considering they are both fully solid state
designs with large linear power supplies and both running
four quality DACs per channel.

There is much more to the story including a rather unusual
finding with the K-03 - which I will write up in due course
in my audio blog.

Hi Jeffkad,

Trumps as in plainly elevated above or prevailing...

Remember though, this is all subjective stuff; a comparison using my ears and my reference system does not mean one machine is better than the other.

All I can say is that located within a strictly neutral playback chain the Esoteric is simply not engaging enough. Little wonder then that many living with the machine are using either a valve pre-amp and/or warm cabling systems in a quest to connect to the performance.

04-14-13: Jeffkad
Kiwi, btw, where is your blog?

My blog is
here