Upgrade Esoteric K03XD to K01XD?

I don’t know what you use for a streamer, or what the rest of your equipment is, but might a bit perfect rip and the correct streamer compete with the K03XD? Not answering your question, but such a streamer also will improve what you do the most…stream.. Of course, I have no idea what the rest of your system looks like and based on the cost of the Esoteric, you probably have a killer streamer/server..

I understand that the above approach is more difficult with SACD in that there isn’t an easy way, that I know of, to rip SACD, but I suspect that high end streamers that cache the stream just might compete, but there might be some SACDs that are not readily available to stream.

BTW… The server/streamer that I have in mind would be the Aurender W20SE.

Thanks for your response.

I use an Esoteric N03T for a streamer, connecting with a USB cable to the K03XD.  I have a Roon NUC with an SSD inside to which I rip some CDs via the network using Anyburn.  So far, I am quite happy with that.

I considered Aurender but liked Roon so went another route.

If you don’t care much about spinning CDs, and your focus is streaming, I would recommend upgrading to the N-01XD. It’s a streaming DAC. No need for a separate streamer. You would then get rid of both K-03XD and N-03t

P.S: the streaming module inside the N-01XD is certified Roon Ready endpoint 

thyname has a good suggestion.

There are some threads about the Esoteric XD series on the AudioShark Forums:

Esoteric (audioshark.org)

Here is a quote from a dealer posting there (Mike from Suncoast Audio):

The historically speaking there wasn’t always a major difference between the K1 and K3. But with the XD series, there is a significant difference between the K-01XD and K-03XD. I believe the K-01XD carries triple the number of delta-sigma chips over the K-03XD. Sonically, there is greater layering and a smoother presentation with the K-01XD. That being said, the K-03XD is a super performer at $14k and it’s the product that got me hooked.

I think that you would need a very transparent system to get a big upgrade in sound from the K-01XD, but that’s just my guess. I know that Mike from Suncoast has a lot of really good gear at his disposal.

How do you like the.N03T streamer?