Esoteric K03XS Upgraded first listening notes

[John57]

This is my very first Esoteric purchase, of three planned. Second will be the F05 Integrated followed by the Rubidium Master Clock I hope.

Esoteric K03Xs
Internal upgrades to rid of noise.

Listening notes ...

“Just finished taking a first listen after most of the SE upgrades & RFI EMI RIDDANCE have been fitted. Sound is really good, exceeding my expectations already way beyond the K-01x we did. New stuff I’m come up with and the “s” Series is improved This is your best player & DAC. [Vs. PerfectWave Dac similarly upgraded) Going to be State of the Art Sound in your home once we get you the SE’d F-05!!
Just placed the sticker on ”

Also ...
“Blows away all Mcintosh’s”

Woo hoo ??

I'm sharing this not to convince anyone of anything. I'm just sharing what I am looking forward very much to hearing for myself later this month on my shelf.

Ultimately one of the comparisons I am keen to hear will be the F05 against my PassLabs XA25 (similarly upgraded version). And then the improvement by the Master Clock...if this comes to fruition.

 

[Phillyb]

Not a fan of his work or most any mods, I saw some internal pictures of his work. He wrote me the same hype after he was done with my old Marantz SA1 SACD player it would beat the 2 box top of the line Grandiose Esoteric and on and on his long email went. Too much over the top hype for me, But if it sounds good then you did well using him. Enjoy! How it works out for you, did you listen to the K-0xs before he did his mod on it? Or did you buy this from David already modded?

 

[John57]

Not a fan of his work or most any mods, I saw some internal pictures of his work. He wrote me the same hype after he was done with my old Marantz SA1 SACD player it would beat the 2 box top of the line Grandiose Esoteric and on and on his long email went. Too much over the top hype for me, But if it sounds good then you did well using him. Enjoy! How it works out for you, did you listen to the K-0xs before he did his mod on it? Or did you buy this from David already modded?

How was your SA1? Could you do before and after listening?

 

[Phillyb]

How was your SA1? Could you do before and after listening?

Hi John, I never tried to mod it, so I enjoyed it for several years until I decided to make a big investment is the Esoteric K-01 that I sold it, and it is still running strong in the system of the guy in HI who purchased it from me. The only thing I did was put some upgraded fuses in it.

I worked for large manufacture of Audio/Video gear and when I ran mods past the technicians they said in a nutshell you trade one sonic signature for another, which you may or may not like. Another thing they told me was when a sonic circuit is designed with given parts if you replace some in that circuit with some that were designed later you could very well throw off the sound due to that part(s) doing something sonically that the parts before that were used were chosen to work with the design parts at the time of design. So parts A and what they used after part B were sonically designed to work together for a result they designed into the unit. Just throwing expensive parts in means little if they don't work well for that curcuit.

I did try a mod once on my preamp, it came back and sounded like a transistor radio, no mid-bass, or full bottom end or upper mids and highs stood out in stark relief. It was worthless, I never could sell it to anyone sounding that way. So I was one and done. I've found a power cord change can make a dramatic difference. I hope it works out well for you. If you never heard of the unit as designed by Esoteric Technical designers, and you purchased one of his models already modified, that will be a good thing, because if you like it your good to go, no difference than if your purchased one stock, once you hook it up and let it burn-in only then do you know if it is your cup of tea. For my K-01 I liked the Org. setting and FIR1, no upsampling, which I felt did nothing but color the sound. Good power cord and I heard no hardness, brightness, etc. It was a sledgehammer is the presentation was just superb bass, natural full body mid-range and highs. Let me know how you like your new unit, hope you love it!