[Colekat]

Originally Posted by jameslrock

I will defer to Ivan but my thinking is that I would strongly consider a gently pre-owned K-01 first, then a K-03X second. That is until I saw the deal Ivan has on a K-01X in the marketplace

https://www.audioaficionado.org/showthread.php?t=39531

You are right on the money, the K-01 would be a much better audio option over a K-03X unless your into DSD .... and that's only because the K-01 won't stream DSD ! In my experience with the Esoteric players, and I've owned 5 of them, the K-01 sounds as good as any "x" or better for a lot of reasons ! I haven't heard the K1, now that is a totally new player and probably has a different tone to it than all the players from the K series , but I haven't heard one yet !
If someone is looking to upgrade into the Esoteric sound, a used K-01 at $7K would be a steal !