are there more k5 pro ess owners happy after getting k7, rather than unhappy / no difference?
It definitely has more power out of the balanced although this is only really evident with the likes of the HE6SEV2.
Almost all of my stuff is wired balanced so nice to be able to just plug the 4.4 stuff in without an adapter.
Volume knob is a mixed bag, the slow ramp up does give more fine-tuned control for very sensitive stuff and would be a huge boon for IEMs, although I don't tend to use IEMs with it as I have other stuff for them (Qudelix, dongles). The lag is annoying and the K5 Pro didn't have that.
The version with BT, that would have been nice and I sort of wish I'd waited longer until that one came out as I use it with BT anyway, just via a Qudelix. Would have been very neat just to have that function built in.
I do think it's better... swapping between any amp though, sound differences will be pretty marginal, what difference do you expect? You should not expect radical differences going from one reasonably competent solid state amp to another.