I have the K-01XD, and owned the K-01XS before I traded it in for this new SACD player.
I agree with justubes that the "warmth" of the sound really depends on your system.
I have a tube-based Luxman CL1000 preamp, ARC Reference 250SE monoblocks and Wilson Sasha 2 speakers.
That being said, there are different settings in the K-01XD that may be used to change the sound from organic (or "muddy") to higher resolution in the midrange. Having owned both a MSB Tech Discrete DAC and spinner and different DCS players, the Esoteric seems to me to be the best of this group of software-upgradable ladder DAC/transports. Of course, to each their own!
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