Esoteric K-01/K-03 Owners

Just to add, if you want to play from your large SSD drive via your computer, you need to use the internal dac. All computer usb connections need to go through the internal dac and then via analog outputs to the preamp.
To connect directly to your own dac, only usb flash drives plugged into the front or rear panel ports allow digital output.
Another very big plus in ditching the computer is the handheld remote that allows you to scroll through all your music folders and files instead of having to get off the chair and use the mouse to open them. Of course you can use the app on your smartphone or tablet to control the player but then you need a wireless connection to your computer for this. The purist way for pc audio would be to turn off all wireless connections during playback.

Hi John, I hope that at some point Esoteric will see it fit to add a mass storage bay to its players... Imagine a hypothetical K-01Y, similar to K-01 and K-01X, but with a user accessible slot where an arbitrarely large SSD can be inserted.... Redbook would be loaded onto the SSD from this player's own transport, while Hi Resolution material would be loaded from an external source via USB, SPDIF, Ethernet, or something else.

G.

Guido,
That day will surely come and I will patiently wait with you for it.
Meanwhile, the NA8005 is doing very nicely right now for me.
What flabbergasts me is that a product like this that costs about 1% of the total system cost can elevate sound quality by one third! Kudos to the march of technology. In this case, it is indeed the law of diminishing returns in reverse! - the new law of accelerating returns.

there is a review of k-01x k-03x in the latest issue of the japanese Stereo Sound magazine http://store.stereosound.co.jp/products/detail.php?product_id=2003

any japanenese speaking subscriber care to translate?

Mcduman,
If you use Google Chrome, it will translate any language into English on the fly. I have read the short intro to the x models, their improvements over non-x, and the modifications avaialable for non-x, but no full review yet.
Jon.