[gavtorn]

Greetings,

in my hunt for a used Dp-777 I came across a really good offer for a new unit.

How will I best go about with this burning in process? Just leave it turned on or do I have to actually play something on it and what about the different inputs? Does that matter?

The 777 came with an AMR demo cd - I used track 5 which was noise and sine sweeps...

 

[DefQon]

   
Interesting article. When did he write it?

That's an old read and I've read through all his projects before his Lampizator DAC business was formed, the man did give me the inspiration to go absolutely nuts with spinners and just mod tube output stages to every spinner I see. 
 
But there is a page of ranking of DAC's Lukaz has tried and his Zero rank is for the best DAC's his heard, I think the AN DAC and the Lampizated Buffalo DAC (first PCB revision) are the best DAC's his tried. Having exchanged personal messages with the man himself, he doesn't design his DAC's to be the most accurate or neutral like the highly priced MSB Diamond and DCS playback systems, but he designed his DAC around suited with the TDA1541/3/7 family sound signature, analogue, lush, smooth and as he describes it best musical as that is what music is all about.

 

[Frihed89]

  Glad you're enjoying the DP-777.
 
I previously owned the AMR CD-77 which is the one-box version of the DP-777 DAC with a transport.  About a year back I did a comparison here on Head Fi of the CD-77 with several high-end DACs and it held its own against some very well rated competition.  In its favor was the impressive physical presence and visual bling,  it had a very neutral presentation and great detail.  My drawbacks were its somewhat unreliable USB input (had to have it sent back to AMR for repairs twice), and in two channel set-up, it's soundstaging was acceptable, but was blown away by two units, albeit ones which would be more expensive than the DP-777 (but not the CD-77).
 
AMR deserves to get some good press and the DAC stage in the DP-777 is well worth listening to if you get the opportunity.

I have an audio friend who had nightmarish problems dealing with Abbington when his unit went sour.  The design is by Thorsten Loesch, so I think the problem lies with the company and not the design.

 

[antonyfirst]

  Hi AF,
 
How do the JCat and RAL compare?
 
Thanks,
 
gav.

Hey Gav
 
they are about on the same tier. The RAL is slightly more neutral in the midrange. They tie pretty much on everything else.
I think the JCAT pairs a bit better with the AMR specifically.

 

[Currawong]

 

D,

This is an interesting link where the founder of Lampizator admits to the Audio Note DAC being the best he's ever heard and a direct source of his inspiration. It paints a nice picture of the type of sound these designers are striving for.

http://lampizator.eu/lampizator/references/audioNote%20DAC4/audionote_dac4.html

 
Yeah that's a very interesting read.  The Audio Note prices are out of this world.  Good to see Lukasz Fikus and Thorsten Loesch making more affordable options of the same type of sound.

 
Not if you buy one of the kits. I was thinking of doing just that actually, if not an Offramp to use with the Master 7.

 

[preproman]

  That's an old read and I've read through all his projects before his Lampizator DAC business was formed, the man did give me the inspiration to go absolutely nuts with spinners and just mod tube output stages to every spinner I see. 
 
But there is a page of ranking of DAC's Lukaz has tried and his Zero rank is for the best DAC's his heard, I think the AN DAC and the Lampizated Buffalo DAC (first PCB revision) are the best DAC's his tried. Having exchanged personal messages with the man himself, he doesn't design his DAC's to be the most accurate or neutral like the highly priced MSB Diamond and DCS playback systems, but he designed his DAC around suited with the TDA1541/3/7 family sound signature, analogue, lush, smooth and as he describes it best musical as that is what music is all about.

I have a few question about the Lampi's:  How do they measure?  What the output impedance? What's the THD? and so on..

 

[antonyfirst]

   
Not if you buy one of the kits. I was thinking of doing just that actually, if not an Offramp to use with the Master 7.

 
If I am not mistaken, the kits are said to not sound as good as the real deal.

 

[Brian Beck]

...he doesn't design his DAC's to be the most accurate or neutral like the highly priced MSB Diamond and DCS playback systems, but he designed his DAC around suited with the TDA1541/3/7 family sound signature, analogue, lush, smooth and as he describes it best musical as that is what music is all about.

There seems to be a prevailing notion that "the most accurate or neutral" sound must necessarily involve the kind of wispy, over-etched sound of devices like the DCS or of many solid amps, or of something like the Sennheiser HD-800 (sorry about stepping on toes here). The same line of thinking continues that tubes add a lovely but inaccurate lushness. Almost a patronizing pat on the head for tubes. I don't necessarily buy that. The greatest failing of high-end audio, IMHO, across the board, is excessive edge and attempts at hyper-but-false detail. Real live un-amplified music just does not sound that way. Every time I hear a string ensemble or full orchestra or even a singer with an acoustic guitar, I'm impressed by the softness, the smoothness, the lack of edgy texture. Perhaps as we age we unconsciously seek to restore some lost high frequency response or maybe some people just would prefer that music sounded more edgy than it really does. If so, that's fine, but don't paint it as "more accurate" because it just isn't. If by "more accurate" you refer to meter readings, I say you're measuring the wrong parameters. Only your ear can determine musical accuracy.

Now, tube gear can sound excessively lush, but it doesn't have to. The Lampi stuff may err on that side. But from what I've heard of the big DCS stack versus the AMR, for example, I'd offer that the AMR is the more accurate-to-live music DAC. Heresy perhaps, but I'll stick to my guns. No flames intended. Getting off my soapbox right now...

 

[antonyfirst]

It's not heresy. In fact it's like you said.  It's been pretty widely recognized.
The industry likes to make people think differently.

 

[froger]

There seems to be a prevailing notion that "the most accurate or neutral" sound must necessarily involve the kind of wispy, over-etched sound of devices like the DCS or of many solid amps, or of something like the Sennheiser HD-800 (sorry about stepping on toes here). The same line of thinking continues that tubes add a lovely but inaccurate lushness. Almost a patronizing pat on the head for tubes. I don't necessarily buy that. The greatest failing of high-end audio, IMHO, across the board, is excessive edge and attempts at hyper-but-false detail. Real live un-amplified music just does not sound that way. Every time I hear a string ensemble or full orchestra or even a singer with an acoustic guitar, I'm impressed by the softness, the smoothness, the lack of edgy texture.

Well said Brian, HD800 can sound so wrong with the wrong upstream gears. I really disliked the sound when I first heard it, full of details, good imagining and soundstage, yet with the wrong tonality, it just didn't sound realistic and believable at all.

 

[gavtorn]

  Hey Gav
 
they are about on the same tier. The RAL is slightly more neutral in the midrange. They tie pretty much on everything else.
I think the JCAT pairs a bit better with the AMR specifically.

Thanks for the info - have you tried the Light Harmonic Lightspeed USB cable?  I wonder if it's better than the JCat / RAL..

 

[antonyfirst]

It's very expensive. I actually never heard of it. I have just looked quickly at the 6moons review, I see that it came out before USB3.0.
For what is worth, I think the JCAT is optimized for USB3.0, or at least, Jplay is putting out a PCIexpress card with all USB3.0 outs.

 

[00lunar]

Well said Brian, HD800 can sound so wrong with the wrong upstream gears. I really disliked the sound when I first heard it, full of details, good imagining and soundstage, yet with the wrong tonality, it just didn't sound realistic and believable at all.

So true. Those are very picky, but with right rig, well, they are excellent.I wrote here and there that current mode amplifiers work with HD 800 like a charm. Going to grab that DP-777 soon, though, if fits perfectly to those Senns.

 

[SleepyOne]

Note new version DP-777SE will be coming out very soon. Check with AMR on exact date.
 
http://www.stereophile.com/content/amr-dp-777-dacpreamp

 

[00lunar]

  Note new version DP-777SE will be coming out very soon. Check with AMR on exact date.
 
http://www.stereophile.com/content/amr-dp-777-dacpreamp

Isn't this something which is already on the market?