Esoteric K-01 settings; any users out there?

I will hopefully hear K-01 at RMAF 2011. I will try to play with various sampling/filtering settings, and will report my findings.

G.

Great. TAS K-03 review wasn't too favorable with respect to redbook. I don't know how the K-01 could be much better on redbook. There must be a big difference between the two. Just guessing.

Have not read the K-03 review.... I'll try to find it.... but if K-03 did not have about 1200 hours on it, the sound would be unlikely to be good.... Esoteric players take a lot of time to break in. G

Has anyone compared this with the Playback Designs MPS-5?

the default filter (by-pass) is dynamically constrained with less than stellar bass. having re-read alan taffel's review of k-03, i switched to apodising 1 (S_DLY1) which was night&day better.

but i did not try all the filter and up-sampling options because there are altogether 20 combinations (5 filters times 4 up-sampling options) and each time, imo, one needs to play with the toe-in and speaker position to get the best sound. so it is a colossal work.

while the default options definitely are not the best, figuring out the right combo is something i found very difficult to do. so views and comments are appreciated.

my current setting are S_DLY1 with 2x and i continue to work on toe-in to tame too-pristine HF.

Try the Fir1 filter and 2x upsampling which is the best sounding combinaton to me so far.

I've got mine set at DSD- Fir-1.

Ive owned the Playback design MPS-5 before the K-01. The MPS-5 is slightly more musical whereas the K-01 have much more dynamics, resolution and botton end grunt.

i have been reading the forum a little bit and fir-1 seems to get the unanimous vote as the best filter. in all fairness, i compared it briefly to S_DLY1 late last night with a solo piano recording and could not be sure. i will test them extensively over the weekend.

anyways, it is said that each setting needs to be broken in separately (for 500 hours!!!) and i do not know if this is true or whether i will try this at all.

anybody ahead in the break-in curve?

Well, I'll toss a curveball in here. My settings are S_DLY1 and 4x on a K-03. Sounds terrific.

YMMV

Dealer disclosure

Changed a setting in my amps and tried Audiofeil's combination as my hours build up on the player, and i like it. When the player was not fully run in, i prefered the fir1 filter with 2x. The s_dly sounded flat then but not now.