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Esoteric Grandioso K1 "Disc Error"

Recently I am getting random Disc Error on my Esoteric Grandioso CD/SACD player. It can play songs but suddenly it stop and show “Disc Error”.   I try different CD and some disc are almost completely new. Sometime it can play for 2, 3 hours without any problem.  But sometime it happen a few times in a listening session (2-3 hours) and it hangs up.   If this happen, I need to open the tray then replay the disc again. But occasionally I can’t even open the tray, it seem like the belt lose it’s strength.    I need to turn off the player,  wait for 30 seconds or a minute then power on again to open the tray.

 

I owned 2 Esoteric CDP before (X-03SE and K-03X), each of them I use almost 5 years without any problem. And this K1 is only 3 years old, I‘m disappointed about this. A friend told me maybe there are some mechanical parts problem on the transport system, it can’t read the disc properly and sometime unable to open the tray.    I will call Esoteric’s distributor next week but want to know if anybody has similar experience, what reason to cause these problems? Thanks.






mmbl622
mmbl622 OP
58 posts
 
I play CD 4 times a week, each time 1 to 2 hours, then I will use my K1 as DAC to play music file with my Lumin streamer fro another 1 hour. 

On the other hands,  I  clean my disc quite often (use Furutech CD cleaner spray). And remember I said in my post, I have some new CD just bought a few days but has same problem (I even clean it before play this).  

And what about the tray cannot open? Does it related to the reading lens dirty or not?


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1stump's avatar
1stump
31 posts
 
I had a similar issue with a Esoteric ux-1 limited showing disc error during play then tray going slow then stopped.Problem fixed with a replaced belt.Have not had a issue with disc error and the tray works like new...
jafant
18,802 posts
 
mmbl622

hope that you are able to seek repair for your K1 player.
Can you talk about the sonic difference(s) from the X-03SE and Grandioso K1 ?

Keep us posted on Esoteric customer service regarding this issue.

Happy Listening!
mmbl622 OP
58 posts
 
Esoteric's distributor already collect my K1 and waiting for their inspection result. Mots likely I think need to replace a new lens or belt.

jafant
I never compare my X-03SE with my Grandioso K1 because I owned X-03SE long time ago ( 2010 to 2016).  And I owned K-03X from 2016 to 2019.  I can only tell you the difference is huge in my memory.

K-03X sounds much better than X-03SE. Compare to K-03X, X-03SE sounds more dry and hard.  And K-03X sounds more silky, more texture and more transparency. 

Grandioso K1 also sounds better than K-03X.  If I can use quantitative to compare these 3 players, here is my number:

Supposed 100 is the highest score

Grandioso K1 = 100
K-03X = 80
X-03SE = 70

I can see Esoteric really improve their sound quality in each product's generation.  But same as many Esoteric's user, one thing I don't like is they change new model very fast.  For example:  K-1Xs comes out in 2018, then they have a new model K-01XD comes out this year to replace K-01Xs, 

BTW, if you want to buy Grandioso K1, K1X, K-01XS, K-01XD......, I will suggest to choose DSD in Up conversation setting, then select "On" in   Digital filter setting during DSD playback. It sounds much better than the original input signal without upconversion in my opinion. 


Here is a detailed review about Grandioso K1:
https://www.soundstageultra.com/index.php/equipment-menu/778-esoteric-grandioso-k1-sacd-cd-player-da...



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