REGA APOLLO

I bought mine new from dealer....stone cold out of box was the normal let down, but I've been down this road before. What I did was hook it up to a low power, cool running integrated amp for a 2 week period and put the Apollo on repeat with a Sheffield burn-in CD. Reversed speaker polarity and faced them at each other to somewhat cancel out the sound. After 2 weeks it went back to the main system for a listen.........great improvements heard. 300+ hours run in 2 weeks made a significant change for my ears.

To answer your question about break in, while it is good sounding right out of the box, I found that after 50 or so hours a new Apollo really starts to sing. After that, mine kept getting better in subtle ways for some weeks.

I agree about the 50 hours of play. After that I think you just enjoy it better. I like the burn in CD's, setting your FM tuner to pink noise and I play something like the 2007 Grammys CD that has a variety and dynamic music. My personal method of breaking in any units is to turn them off/ cool down 100% and then on again. I run them for 8 to 10 hours in a given day. No reason to know if this is better.

There are 2 power conditioner products that I think do help your system that are worth the money. Not excluding a dedicated (or 2) circuit for your audio. I have used the Richard Gray and ordered a new Furman that has more outlets. If you have not tried this. Try it. It will make your Apollo and system sound better.

I just bought a new Apollo a few months ago, and have been very happy with it. I would say that mine only required about 25 hours of break-in to sound really great. I bought it because Rega tries very hard to make their players sound more like analog - less harsh than just about any other player out there, certainly at their price point. I would argue that there is not a better one under $5000, except perhaps the Saturn. But at more than twice the price, go for the Apollo.

I had the Apollo and sold it about nine months ago. It's a nice player but had a stealy quality to some guitars which I could not live with, maybe a system mismatch. To say "that there is not a better one under $5000.00" is a very big stretch although I'm glad you enjoy it.