I received mine this afternoon, so I'll do a review on it Sunday. (I'm gonna play with it all day tomorrow.)
As for bad press, Jon is right, there haven't been any reviews on it yet anywhere. What folks have been referring to is the European DV-747A. Several people have made references to articles in a couple of German audio mags that gave it average ratings on redbook cd playback, average SACD playback and very good DVD-A playback. I can't respond to those reports as I've been unable to find them online. I might add that these reports were made by individuals that are strongly in the SACD camp. Me-I support 'Surround" regardless of the format. It's the reason I bought the DV-47A in the first place.
I might add that a Swedish audio mag came out with a review of the DV747A and gave it top honors, so I guess it's a matter of who you believe. Me-I'll make my own judgement tomorrow with my own equipment.
One note of interest, the manual that came with it has printed on the cover, DV-S733A (Japanese version) and DV47A Elite. There's no mention of the DV-747A at all in the manual. Since this was released here in the States as part of the Elite brand, several months after the DV-747A was released in Europe, I'm wondering if they didn't do some internal upgrades to it. Just a thought.