Apologies, total change of subject- I’m really interested to hear from someone who’s heard a K50 original and new, how the SQ compares? Curious.
Now you’ve dropped me in it. 
I think it better to at least attempt to kick this question over to NickBacon (sorry Nick), on account that I’ve never been entirely convinced that my 1st generation model was truly representative of the breed. & I didn’t keep it long.
Nick also has experience of both 1st & 2nd generation K50’s & I believe given the above is far better positioned to answer this query.
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@Tintin it is a difficult question because I had my original K50 for over a year and when the new one arrived it was obviously not run in and sounded worse to my ears (more forward) than the older nicely run in one. I no longer have both to compare but over a number of weeks the new one gradually improved to the point where I am happy that it is at least as good as the old one I had. Without having them side by side it is not possible to say whether it is better than the K50 Gen 1 that I had (audio memory is far too short for that) so all I can really say is that from my experience if one buys one of the current K50 or if one buys a second hand original version then sound will be very very good. Of course the current version has more digital output options but having tried most of them I have reverted to USB as still being my favourite albeit that I take it through an SRC.DX usb to BNC convertor to output to my Mscaler/Dave combination.
I also stick to Squeeze/Squeezelite server and player options on the K50 for the best sound quality.
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Thank you Nick & sorry to pass that over to yourself. 
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Thanks Nick, very diplomatic! I’m an early adopter…
Nick
Nice reply, interesting that you in your setup, you like the USB output the best.
I would have thought the AES would have won.
Brian
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