I also had the pleasure of participating in the AMR demo at Essential Audio last weekend. I had very high expectations for this player. Minor operating quirks aside, I can confidently say that my expectations were met. This player has an absolutely stunning bass reproduction with plenty of weight and real slam. Very, very wide soundstage with nice layering, lots of detail and very palpable images. The top end was very airy, perhaps a just a touch too ethereal and dry for my taste (and compared to Brian's state of the art analog), but I am sure this can be easily tweaked with simple tube rolling.
To sum it up, my first impressions were very positive, now I'd love to hear it in my own system side by side with my reference (Exemplar 5910).
To sum it up, my first impressions were very positive, now I'd love to hear it in my own system side by side with my reference (Exemplar 5910).