New K-03 owners conference!

[Matt Lan]

Lots of new K-03 owners over the last months. Here's your chance to share your experience in an aggregated post - many of us I am sure are still on the fence, and would love to hear:

1. How long have you had yours, how many hours of listening?
2. What did it replace?
3. How does it compare?
4. How happy are you with your purchase decision - any regrets?
5. Any surprises, downsides or things you are not pleased with?


Let 'er rip!

Cheers

Matt

[Masterlu]

Matt... I expect this thread to have lots of input.

That is if the K03 owners can tear themselves away from listening to it long enough.

[jdandy]

Matt.......Well, I ordered a second Esoteric K-03 last week. I'll have one in the living room system and one in the studio system. It should arrive in the coming week. That should pretty well sum up my point of view on this exceptional SACD/CD/DAC.

[Masterlu]

I bought a K03 then sold it, since I upgraded to the K01. Then I bought another K03 for my all Esoteric system.

The K03 is simply a Game Changer; nothing I have heard can touch it at it's price point.

[jdandy]

Ivan.......Had I not moved the K-03 from the studio to the living room system to see how it sounded there, I might not have ordered another K-03. All the things I discovered when I wrote the review http://www.audioaficionado.org/esote...h-mcd1100.html were audible in the living room system, too. I was very pleased to hear my PMC EB1i speakers easily rise to the occasion reproducing the improved resolution and detail the K-03 so effortlessly delivers. It only took a few hours with the K-03 in the living room system to make the decision to purchase a second one. I really like what the K-03 has done for the living room system. I am anxiously waiting for my second K-03 to show up. I need to get the break-in process started.

[djwhog]

After Dan's review and others, I pulled the trigger and have about 700+ hours now; so it is a month old there about. The sound stage is so 3dish, the depth and details of the most slights overtones are right there hanging timeless in space. Maybe 3dish is not the best decsription, it is more like a martix wall of sound in front of you. Each block of notes, the temp, the harmonics, the frequencies all stacked front to back, top to bottom and right to left as they should be.

In fact it seems on many tracks to me that the voices in the mids are so balanced in the middle spacing of the speakers, yet all the sounds that should be either right or left are still in the right and left speakers. At times I mentioned in my 1st review i thought my center speaker was on, but the amp is not.

I feel like if one can see the music notes the K-03 paints them in a perfect recreation the way that the studio engineer meant it to be heard. If a recording is flawed, well you can pick up that too. No masking in any way, and no coloring either. You you can play a recording and if is has a few poor tracks, well you will get that.

Case in point, yesterday I was listening to a Marvin Gay SACD and a few of the tracks, great sounds, but tonal wise they are very lacking, yet some of the tracks on the same SACD are as good as it gets. On my Oppo 95 they all just seemed OK to very good, not great.


It is like all my audio is new again. I have more subtle overtones than i ever thought were recorded on almost all the music I own. I have spent time with the HD 700 cans and the sound is in a league of it's own too in the headphones while listening from the K-03. I am sure it will get even better since it has inspired me to purchase a better Woo Amp to drive my HD 650 and HD 700s

Of course I am impressed with the DAC too and the SACD playback. But I have to input that the red book cds, weather XR, HD, HQ, SHM and all the other versions sound so darn good it is most impressive! I have never heard any other player that comes close. In fact I think it is for sure better on a CD than the Oppo 95 was on a SACD, it is that good folks

I have had about 6 friends that are IMOP non-audiophiles and they all instantly are ear to ear grins, completely blown away at how good the system is.

One buddy said I must have also rebuilt the speakers too

To conclude the accuracy, overall clarity and timing are spot on. It adds an air to the music that if ever you felt your system suffered after long or loud sessions from listener fatigue, well there isn't any.

In fact I find myself so engrossed in the music most of the time I am ratcheting up the volume.

Only down side for me, I get less sleep these days.. is that a bad thing

[iamhifi]

50 hours on mine and is mind blowing

[Masterlu]

Ok, just 29 more K03 owners to check in here.

[budt]

Over the past 2 years I have had a number of dacs in my system which included Bryston bda-1,Weiss dac2 ,weiss dac202, Invicta,Meitner MA-1. The Esoteric K-03 easily bests any of these in my system.If I ever sell the K-03 it will be to move up to the K-01.

[Down Under]

[QUOTE=djwhog;482036]






Of course I am impressed with the DAC too and the SACD playback. But I have to input that the red book cds, weather XR, HD, HQ, SHM and all the other versions sound so darn good it is most impressive! I have never heard any other player that comes close. In fact I think it is for sure better on a CD than the Oppo 95 was on a SACD, it is that good folks

I am very interested in your findings with the Oppo 95 comparison.This is increasing the desire to audition this product.....