At 48 hours, they have not even begun to display what they will become. Frankly, I wouldn't make any additional system changes until the Odyssey amps have 500 hours on them. If you keep them on 24/7 (which most users recommend anyway), and play music on repeat then it's only 21 days...
Interesting. They sounded rolled off, flat, and 2D out of box.
After 48 hours they are opening up and gaining extension and depth-becoming enjoyable.
Good point about taking some time and consistent with the idea of learning what the Odyssey house sound is in order to make a good choice about a preamp.
awhile back I made several posts about what I was hearing (and not hearing) during break in's of some Odyssey gear. It took my amps about three days (solid 72 hours) to actually become lisentable after being unplugged for several days. The five day figure is probably about right to fully charge the caps. The Candela had a nice sound right out of the box, but seemed to get better by the hour. I found myself chasing an octave and a half here and there for about forty hours, and then (just like somebody waved a magic wand) they all started to come together. The detail of piano music is starteling! And the bloom from an acoustic upright bass (not a plywood one thank you) will grow on you like something grabbing your jugular vein. Very, very addictive. No rattles or blurs in the sound.
I've had several tube preamps in front of my monos over the last year, and tobe truthfull none of them are bad. Yet some will jump out at you. The Quicksilver did a nice job, but was slightly grainy and maybe a touch dark. The Conrad Johnson was very, very smooth, but slightly slow (but still very nice sounding). The Candela made the Quicksilver into a door stop. It's not perfect, but to get better I think it would cost me about $5K, if not more. Forget the ASL group, as they are just not in this league. At the moment I'm pretty much staying with the Candela, as I just don't see anything else that's an improvment (without taking out a second mortgage).
I have a few major changes inline this summer for my downstairs system, but the Odyssey gear will pretty much be left as it is. The big changes will be in analog source gear, and a complete digital revamping. I'm just setting here waiting on my new phono stage to get here to start this process. It seems to be a constant work in progress.
gary
