Any opinions on the AMR Digital Processor 777 Dac?

On audiofun's endorsements, I ordered the iTube, got it today and will evaluate it more for a couple of weeks.

Between my NAD M51 and ATC P1 power amp, these are my initial findings: after level-matching from going balanced to single-ended, I do feel some transparency is lost with the iTube as a straight buffer with no gain (so am glad to confirm the M51 preamp is doing a good job). This is also the case/worse when using it as a preamp with gain.

The "digital antidote" feature is subtle. It mildly softens/rubs out the sharpest leading edges of treble notes, like layering in a low-powered unsharp-mask filter in Photoshop. Tried this on some songs that have clear peaks but the M51 doesn't need this affect as it's not screechy-sounding in the first place, and honestly, where sections of music do have piercing notes, they should be reflected accordingly! If your gear is sounding annoyingly peaky all the time, then maybe something else needs fixing rather than attenuating transients.

The last feature - the 3D HolographicSound - works as described and is novel/fun to play around with, in both "normal" and "desktop" mode. I need to listen to less electronic music to get a full take on it.

Don't get me wrong, I am NOT an accuracy above musicality freak at all. I do favor naturalness and fidelity.

Guess I'd put it like this, when we're all following the same JRiver setup guides, turning off all DSP and playback options, and eschewing treble or bass controls in our pre-amps...but ignoring say room acoustic treatments which are much more dramatic, what are we doing?!

My summary of the iTube is that it's really only suited for single-ended DACs with pre-amp sections that are bad in all the areas it addresses!

@audiofun, your gear is higher-end than mine and I don't doubt your claims about the iTube's performance in your system.

But I'm sending my iTube back as it's not adding enough value for me. Having to go from variable balanced to fixed output single-ended may be a factor in my evaluation (different output stages, different cabling, voltage levels, SNR, CMMR things), though.

Fiddling with the wallwart connector thing sounds bizarre; not quite what you're onto there.

My last comment is I know iFi are coming out with the iTube mini, where we should expect higher performance (for higher outlay). That in itself may also suggest the iTube's most obvious use-case is computer/desktop/second-systems. I'd be interested in that if it supports balanced inputs/outputs and/or I switched to a fixed output DAC.

Cheers.

Hi Audiofun, I played around it with again last night. I agree with you; in Preamp mode (both 0 or 6db gain), it's deleterious. The loss is much less detectable when in buffer mode, but here I preferred 0db to 6db. I also agree the Digital Antidote feature is not really my cup of tea and that the 3D feature is pretty neat. So I think we're on the same page, except for me, going from balanced to single-ended is too much of a net loss. I may wait for the iTube mini.

I'm no E.E. but I still don't quite get why switching the orientation of the wallwart will make any difference -- I mean, it's converting AC so electrically, how can it matter?