Esoteric K-03 or K-01

JON202, I think the Vienna music arequite efficient speakers and that the reason (yours and partially mine) that you have to set volume control almost to the max on your K-01 because Bryston has low input impendence and K-01 does not have enough juice to drive Bryston direct. My krell has much higher input impendence, but still I feel that I have to compensate with much higher volume setting to get better dynamics, bass and soundstage.
And you know that both Bryston and Krell are great with dynamics and bass.
So I think I have to agree with Guido advice and we have to get active pre-amp to get full potential from our gear. It will come with the price so.

Denon1,
You are correct about the Bryston"s impedance. Also, my listening room is rather large and the VA Die Musik speakers are not super sensitive, ca. 87 dB, while their impedance can drop rather low at times. So, they need to be cranked up for optimal sonics. But, since I am not losing much resolution(bits) at these digital volume levels, I might be happy to just carry on without a pre-amp for a while.

I am getting ready to pull the trigger on a new CD player. I've had an Accuphase DP-78 that sounds wonderful, but has developed some mechanical issues, so I think it's time for a new player. I've been offered a great deal on a new Accuphase DP-600, but also very good deals on an Esoteric K-03 or K-01. The only one of any of these I've heard is the K-03. I have a friend who has one, and we auditioned his against my Accuphase side by side, and found them roughly equal in sound quality, although they were different and we preferred one or the other, depending on what was playing. I'm interested in whether anyone has heard the Esoteric against the Accuphase, and also how much better the K-01 really is. The Absolute Sound review was pretty unequivocal, but I never know what reviewers are thinking, and there is a big price difference. Any advice would be very much appreciated.

Hey Skreich, I had a K-01 in my system and it performed flawlessly, though I could here the transport when I was right next to it , I can't say it effected the sound of any music I played, no matter how quiet the passage gets! As far the sound, detail, detail, detail! This deck is awesome , especially with good recordings. The delineation of instruments and sounds are so good they sound in the room at times. I have the X-01/D2 I use for multi channel, the K-01 is a big step up from the X-01. As far as the price goes, the K-01's are out there near 12K and thats not that far off from the K-03.

Thanks, but I haven't seen a K-01 for much under $14K.