Any opinions on the AMR Digital Processor 777 Dac?

Yingtonggao: Hi, I have never had the privilege of auditioning an Off-ramp 4 or any Empirical Audio gear for that matter. I did compare my (former) Sonicweld Diverter HR and Kingrex UC192 to the USB port in the AMR DP 777. To be succinct it was the only time I preferred another interface to the Diverter HR. It is very good and though the XMOS chip is used it is not that simple. AMR wrote their own USB code, it is not licensed from wavelenth as so many others have done.

Also the I2S is a definate plus as it is one less conversion to be done.

The Diverter HR was close when feeding the HD-VDi input of the AMR but at the end of the day I thought USB direct in the AMR was best... that's why I sold my Diverter HR.

Having a direct USB implementation inside the DAC is superior (in theory) to an external box like the Stello U3. Converted USB can go direct to chip set as i2s without having the need to get converted from SPDIF again. SPDIF as you know is jitter-prone. XMOS chip set is the industry standard for asynchronous transfer and now used in most of today's asynchronous USB dacs/converters.

Audiofun, after fully break-in your AMR, do you leave it on all the time? If you turn it off, how much warm-up time do you need to reach the optimum performance? I have a big class A amp that takes 1~2 hours of music play to sound its best, and can't be left on due to the heat it generates, so I bought a class A/b amp that can be fired up cold and sound great right away. In reality most of us live a busy life and when you get a chance to listen you don't want to wait an hour. Normal people with iPod and Bose docking station don't have this problem, why should we audiophiles suffer it? Do we pay extra premium to suffer or to enjoy?

Yingtonggao: After 500 hours I "sometimes" leave it on for days at a time, but then again (like this morning) I sometimes place it in standby. On the wknds, I usually just leave it on. As to warm up time, a cursory listen while being attentive to that very point last night indicated around 20 minutes, so not long. In standby I think the low level circuits remain powered.

"Normal People" will not know what reproduced music is capable of sounding like unless they are privy to an exceptional high-end system... so yes, you have to pay to play :)

This reminds of about 13 years ago when I owned the Legacy Whispers and a Tube Research Labs amplifier and preamp. A friend came over (a lady friend) and looked at my system and commented "That is ridiculous, it does not take all this to listen to a song). She listened and commented, my Sony stereo sounds just as good. I replied.., ok cool.

Three days later she knocked on my door, I answered.., she had an attitude with me. Her comment was that she turned her Sony (not picking on sony) on and immediately had to turn it off as it had become un-listenable after hearing the Whispers and company :)

So... yes it is worth the wait :)

If I continue to write your story above, that lady friend would later on become your wife. LOL.

Well, I plugged my preamp in a PS Audio P300 all the time, and now the P300 has stopped working -- no lightening strike, no insufficient ventilization, no coffee spill, no nothing.

Art Dudley used the word "warm" to describe the sound of DP-777 (he originally used "liquid"). What is the word you would use to describe it? is it very much on the warm side of neutral?

Are you still using a preamp or just the DAC's own volume control? I know this is a classic debate and I've tried a lot of DACs with volume to different levels of success. I normally prefer a good (should I say really good) preamp.