I have done business with a guy for over 20 years who has always been forthright with me...even telling me when other products he does not sell are better than competing products he does sell. He is an Esoteric dealer, and I think (providing he has compared these two) he might be worth speaking to. He is a seasoned audio veteran and again is very straightforward. Very easy to speak to. Happy to put you in touch if you like.
Roysen, I do not have experience with the 01s. HOwever I do own the 02s for a time now. Not sure if your question is how the 01 compare to the 02s (in which I can not help you), or how the 02s with no clock compare to the 02s with clock.
If the later I can give you my experience and what I did. I had the 02s initially with no clock for a few months. Likd them very much. At some point decided to try the clock. Before the 02s I had the 03s. WIth the 03s I had tried the clock home. But could not justify the price vs the improvement, which was to me very hard to pick up...
So was not expecting much with the 02s. I borrowed the same clock that before (the older model). I was very surprised to note a big difference. It is true that the system i had was very changed for the better, in between comparations, but still it got me by surprised. Improvements all over, but I guess most important ones had to do with imaging and 3D, which was greatly improved. Also bass more extended and articulated and highs more refined while equally extended. But improvements all over really. It was a big improvement, so I decided to order the new model (G0) without hearing it. I have to say that the new model sounded better than the old, but the difference was nowhere near as the one I heard when going from no clock to the old model clock.
I have not compared the 01VU or new 1 series with the 02 due to lack of any place nearby to obtain a 01VU or new 1 series.
I do own the 02 Transport, DAC and Pre-amp and can say they are a huge upgrade over the prior generation 03 units even without
the separate master clock (using the improved OCXO clock in the 02 DAC). About 2 months ago though I did add an external 10Mhz
dual-master clock (Rb & OCXO outputs for 10Mhz) to my setup from Cybershaft.jp. This vendor makes high-quality, reasonable cost
RB and OCXO (and dual) both with GPS-sync and without, 10Mhz master clocks for the Asian home and pro audio and video markets.
The difference in refinement and musicality that this reasonably priced (compared to SRS, Antelope and Esoteric) clock made to my
overall system is not subtle and it did alot of great things for my soundstage and overall musicality of my system...write me for
more details.....