Esoteric K-05 or K-07?

Yashu, if you have a rack with the shelves vented on 4 sides, there should not be a problem with ventilation of K-03 or even K-01. My X-01, which runs a little warmer than K-01, has about 2" of top clearance... The player's top is warm, but never hot, even during summer months. If you like a highly textured and lush sound that never locks you into the syrupy arena, Esoteric is a fabulous way to go... K-01 is more textured/refined than K-03, which is more textured than K-05, which is more textured than K-07... You get the idea. Either way, as I mentioned in your other thread, break the player in with a lot of patience, and you will be rewarded by its sound. G.

I run my K-1 in a 10" open Zoethecus rack above a very warm Cary v12 amp.

It has 4 " clearance and never heats up.

Agree with others posting on the sound. Esoteric is more neutral than my previous Wadia which I loved, but I like the k-1 even better.

There are pretty good deals out there so I would go for a lightly used K-3 vs a new K-05 or 07.

K-01 is really world class, and the K-03 is supposedly 80- 90% of the K-01

I owned an X-05 for about 6 months and it was anything but warm or lush. Perhaps their more expensive players have a different tonal balance.

My Esoteric experiences echo Chayro's post above. I have listened to a couple of Esoteric CDP's, but I was never tempted to buy any of them. Yes, they do provide dynamics and detail, but none of the models I listened to were even remotely close to being warm or lush sounding.

@ jmcgrogan2, Hi, How would you describe the sound of the esoteric models you did listen to?,, cheers!