[Verne M.]

As you may have read in other posts, I have a new, fully blown out ClariT dual-mono amp with silver wire and a PuriT with silver wire and Dact attenuator.

I've been quite pleased with the sound, dynamic, quiet, articulate.  Recently I passed the 100 hour mark on the combo.  I had read other posts about break-in and how the amp changed in sound but I was not prepared for how dramatic it has been since I passed 100 hours.

I was listening to Painted by Numbers with Elvis Costello and Burt Bacharach, and it just seemed like Elvis' voice kind of hung out beyond the speakers.  The music sounded like it was playing in a space, like a real orchestra, instead of flat.  The midrange had real weight.  I'm using that album as an example, but I've heard it in many more.  It's almost like the amp is an instrument itself "playing" the music, rather than merely reciting the notes like a beginning music student.

So Dan, Vinnie, et al.  You are right.  Wait - the best takes time - but it's well worth it.

[MttBsh]

Verne, I have the same (dual mono) amp and if you think it sounds great after 100 hours, wait until you reach 200+.  As those blackgates and auricaps break in, the sound continues to deepen, becoming even more clear, lush and expansive. I believe, as others have reported, and as I also experienced with my stock Clari-T, that these amps' full potential isn't revealed for several months and hundreds of hours of play .

Matt

[Vinnie R.]

Hi Verne and Matt,

Thanks for posting about your experiences with Clari-T break-in.  

Yes, Auricaps and Black Gates definitely need their burn-in time, but as you are aware, it well worth it in the end.  

Glad you are both very happy customers!  

[mcgsxr]

In a different unit, the Black Gates and Sonicaps took on the order of 700 hours to fully settle down...

Have fun, and let us know the good stuff, as it happens.

[Dmason]

I'm with Mark on the mileage numbers. "early days," was my own comment months ago; these things for some reason, and many still argue as to why, how possibly, but YES, they take 4-Ever. Add stiff components like the notorious Black Gate capacitors and you have a slow boat. I am also with Matt's comment about "if you think it is good now..." I strongly believe, based on experience, that it is early days for all of us with the RW stuff, it keeps improving incrementally for the above reasons. With the hotrod Teac, only now is it beginning to really sound grown up, and man what a great sound.

Thing hits like a muscle amp as the Auricaps open up and charge more easily, but razor sharp as no sand amp I personally have heard, can. It is beginning to add that curious sparkle onto the top end, and the mids are quite well fleshed out. On great recordings it is all stunning. And yet, I believe, these are early days. Who knows for sure.