One more thing, master clock generators or typically known as a word clocks don't speed up functions of the player but take the data stream, samples to an even higher rate of accuracy making for even better sound. Expensive? You bet, but the difference is not subtle. They're like the icing on a cake. I listened to one connected to a K-03XD and an all-out five chassis full-on Grandioso setup that I couldn't tell you the cost of but can tell you weighed in at two-hundred and seventy pounds, give or take a pound or two.
I heard a costly system from Esoteric.
2 days ago I was able to audition an Esoteric audio system. It consisted of the following:
Esoteric F-05 (Class A/B) integrated amplifier
Esoteric K-03 - CD/SACD Player
Over the years, I’ve been a vintage audio guy and I’m also into headphones. Someone told me that listening to an integrated amp with headphones (6.3mm) will give you an idea about how sound quality from the amp translates over speakers. I’ve found this to be very true in practice.
I gave it a go - with the NAD HP50, KEF M500, and some other (more) high-end headphones the store had. Currently, I only have the NAD’s and KEF’s, but I’ve owned dozens of high-end headphones in the past. Unfortunately, I was very disappointed. Please allow me to explain without calling me a liar. It’s nothing personal, just my impressions!
There was considerably less drive/power behind the headphones. For instance, you would literally feel the bouncing air on the cups on closed-back headphones. Literally the same as a headphone dongle with a small amount (in mW of output power). In each song I listened to, I heard familiar details, but it was glossed over by a very sharp and peaky midrange and treble. There was clearly a boost in these frequencies. Bass was anemic. Normally, with high-power headphone amps and even some vintage integrated amps (high-end back in the 90s with 0.09 or less THD etc.), I got the detail with the sonic finesse. In other words, everything the Esoteric amp and CD player did together, I’ve already heard before. It simply pushed mid-treble frequencies to the forefront.
And the cost for this system? 13 Grand for the CD Player. And at least 10 Grand or slightly more for the amp. So 23 grand or slightly more with taxes factored in.
For this kind of money, if they are including a 6.3mm port for headphone listening, shouldn’t it be optimized? Afterall, if you’re going to include that in an amp, make sure it sounds good! I’ve heard headphone systems costing much, much, much, less that sounded better.
My last disappointment was the CD skip - track seeking function. It was very slow. Even some vintage CD players had a skip function where you hold down the track change/skip button and the numbers move like a stopwatch. On the K-03, it was by the second, or a few seconds at a time. And I had to press the play button again, rather than simply seeking the part of the song I want to listen to.
Source: high-quality CD’s that I burned with .wav files (familiar songs, and original CD’s from my CD collection)
Don’t get upset, Esoteric owners. Feel free to share your impressions without getting mad at me. I know this is a touchy subject; since the object of one’s desire (especially after spending this much money) should be justified!
Showing 2 responses by vitussl101
@jackhifiguy, you are not here to learn, you're here hoping to find someone who agrees with you, a kindred spirit if you will, to justify your apparent dislike of Esoteric products but it seems to go deeper as if you were dissed, hurt, by a woman or a friend. "Egregious flight from truth"? Those lying copywriters at Esoteric, sheesh! Esoteric knows a lot about dual-mono designs and their top DAC is even built with separate chassis'. You can use a single transformer and chassis and be a dual mono design. I'm not sure about the slow read times for the Esoteric K-03, but is that as important as the fantastic sound quality that the player produces? The replacement player for the discontinued K-03, the K-03XD has been improved in every way. It can process any digital signal out there. From the comfort of the listening position you can do all sorts of things, besides being able to play either layer from cd/sacd as most machines default to sacd, you can upsample cd's 2x, 4x, 8x, 16x, all the way to DSD before converting to analog, and do this in real-time from the remote. The entire signal path is discrete from input to output and that includes the dacs amplifier (I/V) which probably explains the un digital music that comes out of it. Even just plain Redbook CDs sound fabulous. And frankly, that goes for any Esoteric player of any vintage that I've heard. The F-05 on the other hand is another amazing product. I own a Rega Elicit-R Int amp and on paper, they look similar but when driving my ATC 19 v2, do not sound at all the same. Don't get me wrong, I think the Rega is great but compared to the Esoteric, sounds somewhat anemic ( maybe too strong a word). The F-05 uses some of the latest output devices rated at 30 amps. This amp takes control of the ATCs with aplomb. Some of its features include being able to adjust the output level, separately of every input plus a nice feature when changing inputs from various sources, the volume goes down then ramps up again, nice. I know this because I own an F-05 and K-03XD and you know what, I never tried headphones with it and to judge its sound only through headphones sounds ridiculous. |