05/01/2023
This past week I had the opportunity to work on a $20,000.00 CD player. An Esoteric K-01. The first thing you have to do when working on a costly unit is ascertain the availability of parts and service docs. After searching the web extensively I determined that Tascam/Esoteric had given exclusive rights of service to a single third party in North America. These people were not going to give me the sweat of their knackers. Knowing now that there was no infrastructure support for me I had to work very carefully because there is no room for sloppy mistakes. As you can see from the photos this CD Player is unlike any typical CD player. It is literally built like a tank. Where a 1/8” steel rod would do, Esoteric used a 3/8” steel rod. The entire unit is built like this, making it so heavy I almost broke my back getting the unit on the bench. So I examined the unit closely trying to determine what the correct disassembly procedure would be. I started by removing the Platter motor. (It must have weighed 2 pounds by itself.) Then I removed the CD tray and under there I found a rubber drive belt that was badly stretched. This belt drove the tray. I found a snug fitting belt in my inventory and installed it. Tested the unit and walla the unit worked. Now I had to find a “GOOD” belt. A factory belt would have been excellent but there was no way to get that. So I sourced a selection of belt sizes from Bob at Vintage Electronics and ordered them. Then I got a call from someone who claimed to represent the only authorized service center for Esoteric. Weather this was true on not I have no idea. I did not catch their name so I will just call them “R**e the Consumer Electronics”. They told me they wanted to help me with the K-01. I said “thanx but there was no need” because I had found the bad belt and was well on my way to having the unit fixed. RCE told me that replacing the belt would not fix the unit. They said that the CD transport was so fragile in this unit that when the belt wears out the entire transport has to be replaced. In fact according to them the reason this unit is so heavy is because Tascam has to build the case this way to secure this fragile CD transport. As you can see from the photo, this is completely ridiculous. The weight of the transport itself is clearly a significant part of the total weight of the unit. There is nothing fragile about this transport. In fact I have never seen a more rigidly built transport in my life. Clearly this guy was telling huge lies. Why? Because according to him, his company we the only organization that had the replacement transport and they would be very happy to install it for me if I would only ship this unit to them for service. I could tell that this guy was absolutely salivating over the idea of getting this CD Player from me. If he had drooled any more he would have spit in my face right over the phone. I thought how odd? This guy know he is talking to a technician. He knows that I have opened the unit and seen the transport in side. Why would he try to tell me such obvious and stupid lies?? I think this is connected to the fact that this is an Audiofile product. I suspect he has told this same fiction many times before to other owners of K-01 CD player and as a result has convinced these innocent consumers to give him thousands of dollars just to change a $10.00 belt. The sad truth is that the Audiophile industry sits on a solid foundation of bu****it. Just read any audiofile magazine and you will see that the grander and more remarkable the lies the more the customers will rush to the store to buy the magic item. So here we have “R**e the Consumer Electronics”. They have figured this out and have immersed themselves so fully in this culture of lies that their judgment is completely impaired. But what about Tascam/Esoteric? If it is true that they have made the scoundrels at R**e the Consumer Electronics their sole representatives for Esoteric products then they should be shot and pi**ed on. (Not necessarily in that order) It is unconscionable that Tascam would allow their customers to be ravaged by greedy wolves. Audiophiles may be willing foolish believers of sensational technological fictions but that does not give those of us who know better the right to take advantage of them.
