I have the accuphase 800/801 combo and the Esoteric K-01.The esoteric I have installed less than a month ago,it is fantastic far Superior to the Accuphase K-01.The esoteric has many options for playback and takes a while to break in.I strongly recommend the Esoteric,the sacd sound fantastic on it.I also feed the digital output of the meridian Sooloos to the Esoteric great,also the analogue output of the Meridian 861v6 into the esoteric with the Sooloos downloads as the music source,major improvement.
Accuphase or Esoteric?
I am getting ready to pull the trigger on a new CD player. I've had an Accuphase DP-78 that sounds wonderful, but has developed some mechanical issues, so I think it's time for a new player. I've been offered a great deal on a new Accuphase DP-600, but also very good deals on an Esoteric K-03 or K-01. The only one of any of these I've heard is the K-03. I have a friend who has one, and we auditioned his against my Accuphase side by side, and found them roughly equal in sound quality, although they were different and we preferred one or the other, depending on what was playing. I'm interested in whether anyone has heard the Esoteric against the Accuphase, and also how much better the K-01 really is. The Absolute Sound review was pretty unequivocal, but I never know what reviewers are thinking, and there is a big price difference. Any advice would be very much appreciated.