Esoteric K01: What are the best settings for CD?

Hi Matjet,
I am another K-01 fan, having just acquired it a few months back.
I concur with your experience regarding warm-up time. I leave mine on all the time and put it on repeat play for 2 hours before serious listening.
I run it direct to my power amps via Kimber Select 1130(one notch below your 1136) balanced interconnects.
The thing about choosing the "right" filter and/or upsampling is about personal taste, your system context and the recording. My personal preference is FIR1 with no upsampling but with certain recordings, I use FIR2. When I switch from no upsampling to 2x or 4x, I notice a grainier texture to the sound. The difference is more obvious when you switch from 2x or 4x to no upsampling. Of course, this is all in the context of my system.
With regard to recordings, the following labels have their own "house" sound - ECM, Impulse Jazz, Telarc, Mercury Living Presence SACD, Concord Jazz, JVC XRCD, to name a few. So, you can tailor the options accordingly.
The observation by Guido about AC power conditioners, cables, etc, is very true. The K-01 transforms in very significant ways with changes to these ancillaries. When I placed my Shunyata Triton power conditioner on an isolation platform and ball bearings, the K-01 expanded the soundstage in depth, width and height, enriched tonal colors, and lowered the noise floor even further such that its already fine resolution becomes more appreciable.
The K-01 is a technological marvel and a delight for the hobbyist to experiment with all the different settings. Enjoy!

Hi Matjet, hoping the system cooperates with me today, here is my post from yesterday... am not at all surprised if you find that warm up time is necessary on K-01. I always left K-01 on all the time, and if I wanted to do some critical listening, I put it on repeat play for a few hours while listening to my favorite radio station to pass the time.

I did not "get rid" of the K-01 at all... But resources being limited under.... uhrn, marital concerns.... I had to choose between purchasing the Vienna Die Muzik and the marvellous K-01... So the K-01 review unit had to go back to TEAC *sigh!

Concerning PCs, my absolute favorite PC for all my equipment has been the Shunyata King Cobra CX. However I have heard that some of the members of the newer Z-Tron series from the same company may outperform it. Reason for liking King Cobra CX... the usual.... That marvellous sense of sinking into musical reality with revealing detail, depth of field, and no listening strain.

K-01 performs best fed from a dedicated outlet.... better staging and imaging in general, and I have some tracks that can otherwise show traces of brittleness in chorded higher bowed strings.

power conditioning... My favorite is the Shunyata Triton... have not found one that can yield the same magic yet, consistent with what Shunyata cords do for living, and what I deem to be music.

Footers/spikes.... I have tried Nordost Kones (Aluminum, Bronze, and Titanium)... I was conjecturing that I would like Bronze Kones best, but the most elegant sound with exposed rippling harmonics and lack of glare was from the Titanium variety.

Saluti, G.

Matjet, I have K-01 and still go thru the same choices. For a while I settled with well burned-in 4x and S_DLY1 combo. The 2x is also good (sometimes sound more natural than 4x) but 4x is more dynamic and results in bigger soundstage. But recently I decided to follow Guido recommendation and tried S-DLY2 option and I think Guido is right on with this one and his description match my findings. I think I will stop driving myself crazy and use 4x and S_DLY2 combo from now on as best sounding in my system.
Important thing is all combos MUST go thru long brake ins.
Again, as other saying, the great ICs, power conditioning, and great isolation will show true potential of this marvelous player.

Are you serious?..is it that difficult to push buttons and
and select filter settings and listen to your speakers's
and make a choice?..Really!!

From my experience and in my system, Slow Delay 1 with no upsampling sounds best. It was also the preferred setting specified on Arthur Salvatore's site. I tried all sixteen combinations, and my result concurred with that of his reviewers.