My full-time sources is an Abbingdon Music Research CD-77 in use with my SR-009s. My experiences are for the CD-77 only, but since it has the same DAC as the
DP-777 which just got a strong recommendation from Stereophile, they should still be relevant. The DP-777 prices in just at the US$5k limit.
With the AMR products, they use tubes in both input stage (6H11 triodes) and output stage (6H1n-EV) so there is a rich texture, even from the USB input. AMR also employs 2 separate DAC chipsets, one dedicated to 16-bit recordings and a completely separate DAC for 32-bit. USB input processing peaks at 24/192k. The build quality is tank-like as the DP-777 weighs in at over 25 lbs and the chassis is quite large and will take up a full shelf on a standard equipment rack.
Sound quality is, again, very liquid and rich; it's warm but not in a cloying, fake way. There is plenty of detail, as much as your source can generate, but there is a shortage of rough edges on all but the worst recordings. I have hundreds of early 2000's era mp3s, and the CD-77, while not sugar coating or editorializing the tracks, makes many of them sound much better than they should at 128k sample rates, especially considering I am listening on ultra-clean gear like the SR-009s. Soundstage on headphones is misleading (well, to me it is), but in a 2 channel system (with Maggie 3.7s) the CD-77 soundstage is fairly normal (as wide as the speakers themselves) but very solid. Well recorded music has instruments solidly in place and it feels like they are actually occupying that space. System noise and the sound floor is virtually non-existent, even with the SR-009s set at high(er) levels. If music isn't playing, I wouldn't know the system was even on.
For me, the AMR stuff with the SR-009s is "set and forget", as in it's hard for me to skip around from track to track. Once i put on one album, I pretty much just sit through the entire thing, rather than jump from track-to-track, album-to-album. Very much an "enjoy the music" experience.
Other DACs I've recently played with in my system around that price point were the Antelope Gold w/Voltikus and the Aesthetix Romulus CD player (same DAC as the Aesthetix Pandora). The Aesthetix also generously employs tube in the circuit design and was great through all headphones (including HE-500s). The Aesthetix also put up the widest, deepest soundstage I've ever heard in my 2 channel system. Simply amazing. The Antelope is fast and detailed but really sounds like a piece of professional gear. There was no place for bad recordings to hide with the Antelope gear. If you're an aspiring sound engineer or really a fan of the "I wanna be in the control room" sound, then the Antelope is for you.
I am demoing a Berkeley Audio this week and may have more info on that later is that's of interest.
