Has anyone heard Esoteric K-01XS and K-01XD - or Grandioso K1X

I just upgraded from a K-03XD to a K-01XD se.  An audio friend just upgraded from the the K-01XD to the K1X se with the stand alone power supply.  He indicated it was an upgrade from the K-01XD and we think it was the power supply that added the most improvement.  The question is how much difference is there between the standard K1X se without the power supply and the K-01XD.  The K1X se has I think 7 more capacitors, probably a slightly different transport and the casework is a little more robust.  I don't know about any clock differences.  He did mention when he was using the external clock (the expensive one) with the K-01XD there wasn't a noticable difference in his system with it so he sold it.  I think the external power supply makes the biggest difference but that gets very expensive with the K1X se player.

The XD models have the new proprietary Esoteric discrete DAC on board, while the prior models use AKM D/A chips. They sound very different to my ears.

Personally I prefer the new discrete DAC. I always felt like the AKM-based models were beautiful in their way but not really to my liking in terms of balance. A little too lit up and almost cold in a way. You could build a system around them and make it sound amazing but for my gear it wasn't a great match.

That doesn't mean you will feel the same way as me though. Maybe for your ears and system the AKM-based players and DACs are superior. Really need to hear them for yourself to decide because again, the difference is pretty significant.

I haven't been able to compare those players but here's a thread where there was some discussion of the sound quality of a couple of those players.

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