Abbingdon Music Research CD-77 impressions?


Now that it's been out a little while, anyone care to post your listening impressions?
triode
Phaelon, I am the AMR dealer in the area, currently covering a broad area in the midwest with satisfied customers who have purchased them. David and I have been in touch over the past few months, and as he said he felt like investigating the competition in his system. It's the right thing to do.
Brian Walsh
Hi Phaelon,
"Hi David,
I seem to recall from earlier posts that you're in Chicago; where did you get the demo? Also, does this suggest some dissatisfaction with the Crimson?"

The local rep, brian Walsh is bringing it over and leaving it for a few days. I love the Crimson. I just thought that I'd try the nearest competition that I can find. The other competition, Empirical Audio products, aren't readily available in my area for a demo.

David
Plus, it kills 99.9% of all SACD players.
Exelchuck


No offense, but what are you, about 17 years old? I see you just joined AudiogoN in 11/07, welcome.
Most of us have been audiophiles long enough to know that phrases like 'XXX kills YYY', or 'ABC totally slays XYZ' is enthusiastic, but meaningless drivle. Everyone has their own personal favorites, but at this level, nothing kills anything.......Sheeeesh.....I hope this doesn't decay into another D&K thread....

Cheers,
John
Slowhand,
On an dual layer SACD/CD, a straight CD will always sound much better than the CD layer of a dual disc. Please don't ask me why, but it's the truth. I own a AMR CD-77 and would not trade it for any one box player. Plus, it kills 99.9% of all SACD players.
Slowhand, you're right the AMR isn't better, but close enough that now my listening will probably be equally divided. Before it was at least 75% analog.
Hi David,
I seem to recall from earlier posts that you're in Chicago; where did you get the demo? Also, does this suggest some dissatisfaction with the Crimson?
Has anybody used it as a DAC for computer-based audio? I'm getting a demo unit this week to have for a few days. I currently have a Wavelength Audio Crimson DAC. It will be compared to that, running Itunes off of a Mac-Mini.

David
Thanks to everyone for their impressions...sounds much like what the 6 Moons review concluded.
Waldo51,

If you want to junk that SME30/2,V,Jan Allarerts, I will be glad to take it off your hands! The AMR CD-77 is very good, but I would find it very hard to believe that it would sound better than your analog setup.
I just took delivery of the CD-77 last night - a demo from RMAF, but not fully broke in. Karel really nailed it on the character of this machine and it's hard to believe futher improvements are in store with more hours. At CES last Jan. I spent four days scouting all contenders for my next digital, and to my ears the AMR CD-77 was unparalled in both sound and build quality. Don't think I'll be listening to my SME 30/2,V, Jan Allaerts setup nearly as much anymore.
Thanks Bar81. I read AMR's format assessment and see they chose redbook only. Can't say that I agree with them, so I'll just move on.

Cheers,
John
The CD-77 is a redbook player only, but when I heard it with the EMM Labs, we played an sacd on the EMM Labs and the redbook layer of the same cd on the CD-77. The CD-77 still sounded better!
Lazy by nature, please bear with me if I just quote what I wrote in my system thread last week.
I have the CD-77 in my system for 4 months now and am extremely satisfied. I love its effortless, melodious and deeply saturated tonal character. It is at the same time very finely detailed, yet musically fluent. Absolutely controlled even facing the densest apocalyptical wall of sound. Fast and with very firm bass. What really made me fall for this machine, is that it is one of very few that completely lacks that subtle haze (for lack of a better word) that has irritated me with most digital gear and makes listening tiresome after a while. I had auditioned a broken-in machine and found that mine - even if it was very enjoyable from the box - needed about 60-80 hours to go about its task with the same self-evidence but I felt it continued to get better after that (improved coherence, I'd call it). There was the combined effect of further system upgrades, in particular the PS Premier, though. Btw after the initial playing with the choice of sampling filters one is given, I now firmly remain with Master II.
Cheers
Karel
Best cd player I have ever heard. I heard it head to head against a EMM Labs trasport and DAC, and the CD-77 was better in every respect.