The preamp is starting to open up. The thin sound quality is now sounding much fuller. The soundstage has opened up. The bass, while still not the equal to my YS Audio Balanced A2SE, has improved nicely. It's sounding much less like a solid state preamp and becoming very enjoyable. I also changed my CD player which has helped to improve the sound. My first report was when the preamp had about three hours on it. Now it has about 25. I still don't care for the looks of it. Very cheap looking. And it actually looks heavier than it is.