Esoteric K-01 vs K-03

[Yardbird]

Originally Posted by PlanarSpeakerFan

Great review, Ted, thanks so much for posting!

I have spent a good deal of time listening to all the filter settings and I always come back to S_DLY2. It just sounds the most natural to my ears. The choice of native, 2x or 4x oversampling seems to come down to the quality and/or brightness of the recording. On the plus side, oversampling can make a good recording sound more holographic and lifelike. On the minus side, it can sometimes expose information in old recordings that you don't want to hear and make bright recordings sound brighter.

Best,
Ken

Ken,
I agree. I prefer the SLY_2 slow delay setting, and use the 4x oversampling as my default sampling setting and have not spent a lot of time playing around with the settings with different recordings. Your point about some recordings sounding too bright echoes my experience. Some great performances, but less-than-perfect older recordings are staying on the shelf as I reach for pristine recordings that show off the abilities of my new system. My new system is very revealing, and I know I'll tire of the steady diet of the perfect, and want to visit my older performances of classical, jazz and rock, but I'm going to have to find a way to set my system up to best advantage for that type of use. My older system may have been ultimately less capable, but it was generally easier to live with. I'm not complaining, just saying that there is a learning curve there that I need to address. Ted.