I should probably file the following under ‘Housekeeping’. I received an email the other day from a visitor to this website. He’d noticed a blurb on our homepage almost a year ago announcing an upcoming review of 
the Abingdon Music Research AMR AM-777 SE Integrated Amplifier. Since reviews of this amp are in short supply, and he had an interest in purchasing the unit to sit alongside his AMR DAC, he wrote to us asking for an update on when the review would be released. Fair enough. Then almost a year later in February 2022, he emailed again, pointing to the fact that the “upcoming review” announcement was still sitting there on the homepage, yet still without a link to a finished review. Pest!
OK, you caught me. As with most of our reviews, the process starts with me finding something on the used markets that I like the look of, purchasing it and playing with it for anywhere between a couple of weeks and infinity, then at some point, getting around to writing down either a set of ‘Listening Notes’ or something approaching a full-blown review. That’s how the announcement for the AMR AM-777 SE came to be. I bought a unit, went through the process of installing it in my system for several weeks, took the listening notes, and made the upcoming review announcement, but just never got around to finishing up and publishing those notes as a review. It just slipped through the cracks, of which there are many around here – sorry.
Now, I can write quite effectively from scrappy notes so long as significant time hasn’t elapsed from having the component here and me sitting down and typing out the finished review. Given my advanced years, a couple of weeks is about the most I can handle. 90% of the time I write the review with the component still in the system, clearly that’s how it should be, but occasionally something gets sold on pretty quickly and I have to complete the review past-tense.
The point is that too much time has now elapsed since I made my listening notes on the AMR for me to write any kind of detailed review of what I heard with this unit.
Reading through my notes, I used the AMR-777 driving my highly regarded Dunlavy SC-III full-range speakers, with Aurender N100H, Cambridge Audio Azur 851C CD player, and a Moon 380D on the front-end. If you figure $1200 for the used Dunlavys, $1800 for a good condition used AMR-777, and $1200 for an Aurender N100H, you have a really nice system for under $5K with serious aspirations for the high-end. Later, I switched in the Castle Harlech speakers, looking perhaps for some synergy between two UK components. It seems my preference was for the AMR-777 driving the Dunlavys, but that was also true generally when comparing the Dunlavy / Castle speakers used with other amps in my system. [Review of the excellent Castle Acoustics Harlech here]
Anyway, from my notes –
It’s a stylishly attractive and well-built hybrid integrated amplifier and has the advantage of running an input tube and having a built-in DAC with a USB input.
Yes, the unit looks great, functions perfectly as an integrated amp, and the DAC sounded quite good. I don’t believe a DAC belongs in a unit selling in this price range (around $4,000 before being discontinued). The input section of the AM-777 utilizes zero negative feedback and has the 6H1n-EB vacuum tube to inject a subtle amount of organic matter into the presentation of the unit. I saw nothing in my notes describing this unit as ‘tubey’ or ‘tube-like’, it presented more in the neutral spectrum.
The amp proved a respectable performer in my system, and I noted a preference for the AM-777 compared with the far more expensive Devialet Expert Pro 220 CI, which I reviewed around the same time as the AMR box and didn’t get along with at all. [Devialet Expert Pro 220 CI reviewed here]
The AMR-777 did all of the audiophile things we’ve become accustomed to with a sense of ease, I noted. Soundstage depth and width were very good. Imaging was very good with a nice sense of dimensionality. Bass wasn’t particularly extended nor supremely well defined, but hardly surprising at this price point. The midrange and top-end were very good and far more musically engaging than had been the case with the Devialet Expert Pro 220 CI.
I noted a successful attempt at getting the Aurender N100H to playback through the USB input into the AMR’s internal DAC. Though I noted a strong preference for the sound from the Sim Audio Moon 380D into an RCA input on the AMR-777, as one would expect given that the Moon DAC was around the same MSRP as the AMR-777.
I found nothing seriously lacking with this box and concluded in my notes that it might be considered something of a bargain, not to mention superbly convenient for someone stepping into the high-end, with its ability to function as a DAC and from a USB output on a computer or suitably equipped network streamer, etc.
There’s no doubt in my mind that this unit performed very well, and the fact that it was moved along quite quickly was not indicative of anything sub-par with the way in which performed in my system.
CAH
2/2022
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