I have had the 777es for 3+ months now and am still receiving benefits from burn-in. The cd side was indeed awful for at least 200-250 hours but has opened up nicely at around 300 plus - same for sacd. Simply let it run 24/7 - don't waste your time listening until you have logged in the time. Many have bad mouthed the cd side but I suspect they simply have not heard it properly burned in. To my ears it equals players up to the 5k price point. Also, don't worry about not using the "custom" setting on the cd side - it works well and I have not read of anyone having problems to date. This is remarkable player for the street price. I have owned all the NAIM players (excepting CDSII)and now only have the 777es for digital. The upgrade path here seems to me to be dac's and upsamplers as technology improves and costs come down.
Sony SCD 777es burn in
Installed a new one in my system yesterday. Is the recommended time 200 hours and is that 200 hours for regular cd's and 200 hours for sacd's? Please let me hear your experience. Regular cd's sound awful right out of the box. Hard to tell with sacd since I have no prior experience.