Grandioso K1X - the two Esoteric "Revolutions" installed!

[CKKeung]

It's debuted at the Hong Kong High-End Audio & Visual Show 2019 today.

Both the two new "Esoteric Revolutions" of VDRS-Atlas and resistor-arrays dac section are installed.
MSRP is ¥2.8M

The gold colour version looked gorgeous!



Its brochure to share :

(From http://www.avcat.jp/)

 

[CKKeung]

There are two DC input sockets.
For future optional external psu?
Will ask the HK dealer at the Show today.

 

[dan31]

Nice to see Esoteric making efforts to improve what they have. I will be interested in reviews as I use a disc player when not listening to vinyl lp.

My Ayre C5xe is getting long in the tooth. I have a backup transport. After that it’s Spectral, EMM Labs or Esoteric.

 

[moby2004]

I am also very interested in this unit ( the P1X / D1x is quite a thing!) Too bad that only Esoteric is still interested in improving in CD/SACD gear...

 

[brodricj]

It's debuted at the Hong Kong High-End Audio & Visual Show 2019 today.

Both the two new "Esoteric Revolutions" of VDRS-Atlas and resistor-arrays dac section are installed.
MSRP is ¥2.8M

The gold colour version looked gorgeous!

View attachment 55831

What do you mean, gold color version? It's the standard Esoteric Grandioso finish, no? Or, you mean the gold color trim on the tray facia is new?

 

[CKKeung]

This is the standard external look of K1X on Esoteric website :
http://www.esoteric.jp/products/esoteric/k1x/indexe.html

 

[Mike Lavigne]

any idea on how this new Grandioso disc player might compare to your MSB Select transport?

obviously you have a separate dac so it's not really a fair compare, but it would be interesting to know the difference.

 

[CKKeung]

Hello Mike,
I guess a more appropriate comparison should be the new Esoteric P1X & D1X vs MSB Ref stack or Select stack.

The Esoteric K1X sacd player got only coaxial & aes/ebu spdif digital outputs.
If acting as a cd transport, its spdif digital outputs must be way inferior to the ES-Link of Esoteric P1X and the ProISL or ProI2S of MSB, bcos the two latter connections are adopting I2S config.

Anyway the sound character of Esoteric digital components in the past are not my cup of tea.
I only briefly listened to P1X & D1X and noticed that they are warmer/richer than the previous editions.
I shall try to arrange auditioning them more seriously in future.

 

[Sammy T]

I gave my K1 Mu metal ( shielding ) treatment on all 4 of the power transformers, along with a few other mods... Made a big improvement. Looks like the new K1x has the same 4 transformers , and no shielding...

 

[thedudeabides]

Too bad that only Esoteric is still interested in improving in CD/SACD gear...

With all due respect, your generalization is simply not true. Other manufacturers, including Luxman, dCS, EMM Labs and TAD (amongst others), are still involved in improving the technology.

And FWIW, I had a Esoteric K01 and the transport on my Luxman D-06u (made by Luxman) is clearly quieter and better damped than the lauded Esoteric transport.

 

[CKKeung]

The gold version of K1x is K1xN, limitied edition and only 50 of them will be made.
Available in Feb 2020.
MSRP is 3M yen.
Even the display is gold in colour!

https://www.esoteric.jp/jp/support/news/62

 

[SCAudiophile]

Nice...hopefully they will do this with P1X, D1X, C1, M1, S01, P02X, D02X, etc... (or C1X and M1X that hopefully they will surprise us with!)

 

[CKKeung]

I think the coming external power-supply for the K1X will surprise Eso fans most!

 

[moby2004]

I think the coming external power-supply for the K1X will surprise Eso fans most!

Looking forward to it but if price of Grandioso K1X+ external power supply is getting too close of P1X + D1x...

 

[John57]

I gave my K1 Mu metal ( shielding ) treatment on all 4 of the power transformers, along with a few other mods... Made a big improvement. Looks like the new K1x has the same 4 transformers , and no shielding...

I had my K03Xs treated completely inside for shielding and damping. Transformers boards signal and power leads, the works. Unfortunately it did nothing to subdue the high pitch sharp signature sound. Maybe worse actually cos it’s so black no noise background. Funny I love the transparency and hate the sharpness.
I’ll try the Luxman and maybe the Ayon CDP 35 as alternatives. Even the new K1X whilst better remains sharp to my ears.
My Hi-Fi guy suggests removing all rhodium terminals to replace with gold. And replacing all Furutech fuses also.
But in my view this will not change the source sound. I’d love to know exactly where this house sound derives, exactly which components of design are creating this sharpness. Then why hasn’t there been any after market wizard to solve this problem with mods?

 

[Sammy T]

How was the shielding done? What interconnects are you using ? Power cord ? Also modded my friends K03... did transformer shielding and a few other tricks, sounds much better . PM me .

 

[John57]

Yes mate...? Hope you all are keeping safe.

 

[Audio_Dog]

machined aluminum internal construction is amazing.

 

[diaZ]

To John57:

The K03Xs has in total 6 Muses dual Op Amps in the output stage, two Muses 02 and four cheaper ones.
Very interesting: this Op Amp configuration is very similar to the output stage in the new K1X Grandioso which uses 12 single Op Amps
Muses 03.
In my K01Xs ( with the same pcb except the second level with two more AK 4497 )I have exchanged all theese dual OpAmps via brown dog adaptors and switched to BB OPA 627 single OP Amps.
The BB OPA 627 are spec-wise very similar to the Muses 03, even a bit better, and soundwise extremely similar.
And you can bridge the output electrolyt capacitors, there will be no DC offset.

 

[John57]

machined aluminum internal construction is amazing.

Just CNC machining... straight forward really...not sure why it’s so exciting ??