AMR CD-77

Well reviews say absolutely nothing about the performace of a piece of equipment. I now beleive that all reviews are sold. The more a brand advertises and the more it pays the reviewer the better the review. I know some reviewers got very expensive hifi in order to get good reviews.

So what is left is forums like audiogon and audioreview which gives real reviews of people who actually owned the equipment.

My friend also was interested in the AMR. He tried the Wadia 581, the AMR and the ARC CD7. According to his opinion the AMR was very good but not as liquid sounding as the ARC CD7. He also choosed the ARC CD7 to be the best player. However he bought the Wadia 581 because of it's well known reputation and the high resale value after two years.

To me and my friend there are also other criteria than only the sound. In this range most CD players are close and it comes down to personal taste. He liked the AMR almost as good as the CD7 and it costs less than the CD7. But if you invest 50.000 euro in a hifi system and want to upgrade later you want to get back a reasonable amount of money. A 10.000 euro CD player which has a value after two years of 6000 costs less in the end than a 7000 euro player that is worth 2000 after two years.

But a small company that just started has it's problems. For example there are no known delivery times. What if the new player has problems after a while or the company will go bankrupt. In that case your investment is useless. So that would be a reason to choose for a known manufacturer.

To me the CD7 is the most liquid player I ever heard and that's why I just ordered one also.

Peter

peter,
where do you guys live? I am also intersted in both the arc and the amr. Did you hear the actual production unit or the beta version? It is my understanding that there are no amr cd77's in the USA yet and all the dealers domestically and in Europe have the beta version that has been updated to the current level that will be shipped out this month. This is according to the importer. How was the base on the audio research player. I know that the reference 3 pre-amp is awesome. Is the cd player as good?

Hi Optarchie,

I live in Holland. The bass from the ARC CD7 is awesome. It is even better than my Krell CD player and also better than the Wadia 581 which is known for ts good bass. It goes deep and hes control and speed.

I have the reference 3 as well and yes the CD7 is as good.

The ARC CD7 is the most fluent CD player I ever heard. The Wadia shows more detail but is also brighter. On my system it will sometimes be to bright. The ARC has all the details to but without the brightness.

The ARC uses a Philips transport and has 7 tubes inside. The components used are first class and so is the build quality.

Well if AMR has only a beta version it should be as good as the final version. Why would they demonstrate with it otherwise. When there is now a new version coming out this proves only what I said in my previous mail. They must have had problems in the beginning or the CD player was not yet fully developed. Even if I wanted to buy the AMR CD77 I would wait another year to see if they solve all the problems.

The first Audio Aero CD players also had lot's of problems and that's why you saw a lot of them on the used market. The new versions however should be reliable now.

Peter

I was in Munich show and heard the AMR stuff and seemed normal stock pieces. I can not say about the sound of the cdplayer because the room , the system especially the speakers and the overall conditions were unknkown to me.
Actually I prefered the 2nd combination of Lyra Conoisseur 4.2 with Karan amp than Amr amp (cdp propably the amr cd77), which is logical since more expensive.
The overall sound was more fluid, warm in the full AMR electronics system. In generall good sound for the money unfortunately hadn't too much time to listen (Gryphon room, CAT+Ascendo+Audience room,, MBL room took too much of my attention as my personall top3 among many good others).

The AMR demo room also had room correction from German Fast audio and resonators on the walls from Acoustic system (http://www.fastaudio.com/INT/acsys000.html).

Has anyone that has this player on order gotten word as to when you will be receiving it? I would like to hear from an owner receiving a new production unit...

Keep us posted! Thanks.