got my unit yesterday courtesy of theaterworks (trinoma). haven't really gotten past testing the audio section first. di ko pa kasi na-setup ang pj ko and wala pa rin akong hdmi cable.
initial impression is really very good... excellent audio performance whether through coax or analog through the L/R output. will be testing the optical out probably this evening. my philips 5500s compared to this sounds a bit sterile. now, between the digital out and analog out, the former has more horizontal and vertical spread, but the analog one has more body. bass is more rounded with the 600 as i noticed dati pa that my hk avr's low end seems a bit edgy (comparing to a marantz avr naman). they have about as much detail though delivered quite differently. so no worries whether you use this as a plain cd transport or a standalone cd player.
just remember though that i'm essentially comparing my avr's onboard dac and the pio 600's dac (burr-brown?
haven't heard one yet, but if it's the one on this player... it sounded really good). as usual, us having different setups.... YMMV!!!