My new Esoteric K-03

[socfan12]

Congrats on the K03 and welcome to AA! I am certain you will love both immediately like I did!

[djwhog]

budt Congrats, it will get even better even though it is hard to imagine. I am at just about 300 hours of listening / breaking in. It is an amazing machine and sure got rid of a HUGE bottle neck in my system.

Enjoy as you surely will the K-03

[budt]

Originally Posted by socfan12

Congrats on the K03 and welcome to AA! I am certain you will love both immediately like I did!

Well, I have a funny story about that. When I first listened to it I was beyond disappointed. In fact it sounded so bad it practically drove me from the room. I checked everything 3 times over,tried disc after disc to no avail.I even tried it feeding the bryston monoblocks directly but was even worse. It had plenty of highs, tight bass and grain like the sea shore. It was horrendous. Then I did what any other person in my position does. Yes, that's right, I went outside for a smoke and contemplated selling the entire system.
Then I went over it in my head. I had let it burn in for 18 hours but I momentarily UNPLUGGED the unit to move it over near my preamp.
So in a last ditch effort I rearranged everything , plugging the unit back in and went away for about 6 hours. I then came back sat down. I hit the play button expecting the same grain but to my amazement it had vanished entirely. It went from being the worst I have ever heard to the very best. I know it sounds crazy but it's true. I am still in shock as to the change and not sure why it changed so much but can only surmise it became unstable after unplugging and plugging it in( I honestly don't know why but am just thrilled that all is well). Perhaps a relay was stuck or something.Anyway, I am one very happy camper with this unit and the entire system.

[budt]

Writing the above post made me realize something. When I had initially moved the K-03 over to my main system the plug wouldn't reach.So I grabbed an old power bar that had been lying around in order to give a little more reach.
It must be defective or corroded inside cause I just tried it again but with the power bar again and all the grain came back in spades.
Moral of the story is to make sure your unit is getting clean power.
It also shows how easily we can come to the wrong conclusion about a product.

[Car commander]

Everything you do makes a difference.

[Washline]

Yeah, I did this once in a room rearrangement about seven years ago. The power strip completely destroyed the dynamics of the system. I detached it and rearranged my entire system back to its original position. Avoid cheap power strips.

[Eisener Bart]

Originally Posted by budt

Writing the above post made me realize something. When I had initially moved the K-03 over to my main system the plug wouldn't reach.So I grabbed an old power bar that had been lying around in order to give a little more reach.
It must be defective or corroded inside cause I just tried it again but with the power bar again and all the grain came back in spades.
Moral of the story is to make sure your unit is getting clean power.
It also shows how easily we can come to the wrong conclusion about a product.

And the most problems with electronic at all come out from faulty PCB.

[iamhifi]

Originally Posted by budt

For those interested

I received my Esoteric K-03 a few days ago. It easily bests the other digital sources I've tried in my system over the last 18 months which include Bryston BDA-1, Invicta Dac, Weiss 202 and Meitner MA-1. In fact it is an order of magnitude better than any of those mentioned. I am one very satisfied customer. It's hard to believe the K-01 can improve upon this as what I am hearing sounds absolutely stunning.
The rest of the system is comprised of the latest B&W 800 diamonds, Bryston 7B SST2 mono blocks and Bryston BP26 preamp.

Congrats the K-03 is a great machine and I loved the sound, again this exactly why my K-03 has to go I need to know what the K-01 is all about.

[PMCH]

budt, congrats on the new K-03. I am glad it is working fine for you now. I have about 300 hours on mine and it is getting better and better. I replaced my MCD500 with the K-03 in the same location so the PC and interconnects didn't change.

[Car commander]

Originally Posted by iamhifi

Congrats the K-03 is a great machine and I loved the sound, again this exactly why my K-03 has to go I need to know what the K-01 is all about.

The K-03 is a great player. I would say my K-01 now with around 300 hours on it is about 10 percent better. If the money doesn't matter that much do it.