Esoteric K01: What are the best settings for CD?


The Esoteric K01 has several up-conversion and filter options for CD play-back. Unfortunately, each up-conversion option and each filter option requires approximately 500 hours of 'break-in' to sound it's best. I have owned the Esoteric K01 since it's release. It is a superb SACD and CD player. I have 'broken in' some but not all filter and up-conversion settings. I am still unable to decide which combination I like best. I am currently using S_DLY1 (for digital filter) and 2Fs (for up conversion). I would like to know what settings other Esoteric K01 owners like best. It would be helpful if If you can explain why those settings sound better to you than other combinations. I wonder which settings the experts at Esoteric/Teac would recommend?
matjet

Showing 4 responses by washline

The first thing that struck with me about the K-01 was how mammoth the soundstage was--wall to wall, front to back. It was giving my vinyl rig a real run for its money.
From my experience and in my system, Slow Delay 1 with no upsampling sounds best. It was also the preferred setting specified on Arthur Salvatore's site. I tried all sixteen combinations, and my result concurred with that of his reviewers.
Yup. Guido up there turned out to be right, but I came to the same conclusion not after a massive break in of that particular setting but after the break in of the other setting. I think using the K-01 over a period of time with one setting does positively affect the break in of other settings as well.
I've just changed my settings on my player. As I reported above, I started with Slow Delay1 plus no upsampling. I became dissatisfied with the sound after awhile and I've now switched to Slow Delay2 with 4x upsampling. this combination currently sounds best to me. after about five months with this player.