bwalsh

Joe, 50 hours isn't enough to know the direction it is headed. 500 hours or more is more like it. You didn't indicate what settings you are using. Try Digital Master II and Organic. Try music that's more full range than vocals for the purpose of break in.

Thanks, Alex. Very useful, accurate information. For those attending THE Show next month in Las Vegas, the AMR DP-777 in combination with the optimized HP Touchsmart PC on loan from here will be used in Room 4004 at the Flamingo (Sound Lab and Teo Audio hosting). Thorsten Loesch of AMR plans to be at the show with Darren Censullo of Avatar Acoustics, at the Venetian CES exhibits.

Will, the DP-777 works well with the JC 1 monoblocks here, which are similar enough to the A 21 stereo amp.

I agree. The DP-777 here is typically going to an Atma-Sphere MP-1 preamp, to MA-1 OTL monoblocks, to Sound Lab U-1PX full range ESLs, with top of the line Teo Audio Liquid Cables for the most part. It's likely a very similar system will be on demo at THE Show next month, in Room 4004 at the Flamingo, so people can judge for themselves.

For the life of me I can't fathom that, but I guess it takes all kinds. This may sound self serving, but the best thing to do is go hear it for yourself instead of believing everything you read on the Internet.

The Classic DAC section (44.1/48 kHz) of the DP-777's Gemini Digital Engine uses the Philips UDA1305AT Multibit chipset, I believe. I do not recall any disclosure of what the HD section uses.

Regarding your second question, yes, the preamp section is optionally enabled, with or without the additional line inputs enabled, via a 3-position switch on the rear panel. However, if the additional line inputs are needed the volume control must be enabled.

I've been running it with the Atma-Sphere MA-1s but will be demonstrating it with the JC 1s as well. You made a solid choice. I don't know how the optimized HP touchscreen server that I'm offering as a $1500 option with the DP-777 compares with the CAV unit, but I'll get lots of feedback from people attending this Saturday's open house here.

Randy, I am using a 20m active USB extension cable and the 1m cable that came with the DP. The sound is so good I don't feel a need to experiment, but at some point I may. The homebrew cable wasn't mine and for all I know isn't available. In any event the present cabling works perfectly for all resolutions including 24/192.

The system has been running for a few days, and I've been quite sleep deprived as a result. Let's just leave it at that. There is an open house planned for a week from this weekend, on Saturday, December 3rd, during which the system will be demonstrated and questions answered.

The hotrodded touchscreen music server arrived today, to be hooked up momentarily. I'll post reactions, my own and others', in the next couple of days.

Great to hear you're enjoying the heck out of your DP-777! Yes, the built-in preamp is pretty neutral, so the usual apologies aren't necessary. The DP-777 here is now broken in. The optimized touchscreen server is being shipped today, most likely to arrive on Friday, and I can't wait! More importantly, I can't wait for people's reactions :-)

Not till I receive the server system, either next week or the following week. I will be using the active USB cable provided with the server. The server is an HP TouchSmart PC with some modifications and tweaks, available to distributors and select dealers, although I will be offering a similar system to customers.

I assume that's what you meant. This is in progress. The stock cable isn't bad, but another which was sort of a homebrew was quite a bit better sounding.

The two main lines of electronics on demo here are Atma-Sphere and Parasound Halo, going to Sound Lab ESLs.