Any opinions on the AMR Digital Processor 777 Dac?

I just hooked up my 777 last week. This is after ~550 hours of burn-in. I am using an Audio Valve preamp & Symphonic Line Kraft amps (will be trying the "direct" to amps option this weekend - remove preamp....I want to hear "exactly' what this DAC sounds like). My initial impression is very favorable but too limited to comment extensively. I will say that it is on the "warm' side (tonality). I would say it is a "6" on a scale of 10 (5 neutral..10 too warm). This leads me to believe that it will work best with associated equipment that is not overly warm. I will say that it is extremely dynamic and frequency extension is superb. Imaging is outstanding -- particularly front to back layering. So, first impression is that this is a very good DAC and a superb value at its price. More to come....

Keep in mind if you are going to use the AMR DP-777 as a preamp, the preamp section requires close to 500 hours of breakin to sound its best.

The DAC section will break in independently of the preamp section and vice versus.

Audiofankj: I know you are right and it has steadily gotten better as I run it in more and more (I am speaking of the attenuator/preamp stage).

Ok, I can report that with probably 350 hours on the preamp section that the anomoly (I observed) of making the music seem somehow smaller than that of my MFA preamps or the Pure Music used as the pre has completely evaporated. The difference between PM used as the attenuator is much closer to the sound of the AMR using it's own line stage. I still think PM has the advantage at this point as the sound is a little more tonally dense. The MFA units are just better but the entry level Copper Classic at the time was $3K so I would say the AMR is in good company. I could understand if someone drove their amps direct. I still need about another 100 to 150 hours on the pre section before I am sure. The transparency of the linestage is as good as anything I have heard at ANY price. It is just when it comes to the density of tone at this point that I would say some may prefer a stand-alone pre.., but it is not done breaking in and I am just reporting as I go... sorta like a ships log LOL!!!

Have a good wknd, back to listening the music David Garrett for now.

Strange -- When I play 16/44.1 redbook CD ripped into apple lossless format in iTunes (Windows XP), the USB-connected DP-777 automatically goes to "96/96 organic". This happens even if I put a redbook CD in the CD-Rom and play it directly through iTune. I really want it to do to "44/44 BitPerfect" mode using classic DAC, but it won't. Anything from my PC/iTune is "96/96". Are there any settings I need to change?