Esoteric K03XD

I bought one about 6 months ago to replace a K05X.  I found it was indeed more musical and organic, yet has great detail. It also creates an excellent sound stage.  I can easily hear where the different drums are in a drum set.  It is quite large and heavy.  With a very few rock recordings, I found the sound to be still a bit bright.  I assume the player would have to be extremely warm to tame those discs.  I solved that problem by putting a Schiit Loki in the tape loop of my pre-amp, though I find I almost never use it. 

Since I bought the N03T streamer, and connected it to the X03XD via USB, I use the player mostly as a DAC.  That works also very well.

The DAC in the new XD Line is what makes all the difference in the world over the older players that used Chips.

If he is a good friend, he will let you send it back if you don't care for it.  Won't he?