MHDT Orchid or Lampizator Amber 3?

Based on my current experience with the Amber 3 at some 80 hours of burn in, I would say your Amber test unit is not burned in fully. Your comments about brighter and lack of depth point to this fact. If the unit only has 100-120 hours, then it needs more time. Mine is still changing and breaking in at 80 hours and other owners tell me it will take 200-300 hours. I believe it based on how this unit is changing day to day. Can you try to compare to the AM unit after the Amber has some 250 hours? I would like to hear your comments at this point. Possible?

My Amber 3 started off bright, forward and forced for the first 30-40 hours. From 40-65 hours it became more full bodied to the point of being old school thick and heavy. Now at 80 plus hours the unit is leaning on the lit up side in the highs and the mid bass is now remaining full. I am told it will go south in sound quality before finally coming into its own at 200-300 hours. What a ride.

By the way you have a nice system! Very nice. Thank you for this report. Please tell us about your cables. Do you use any silver? 

@grannyring Interesting.  I had 150 hours on the Amber, unfortunately my trial ends tomorrow, although I'm very comfortable sticking with the Audio Mirror after hearing all of these sources over the past month.  

Cable wise, I've got a mix of silver and copper in the system.  Silver before the amps and copper after.  VH Audio's 5N cotton covered silver DIY interconnects between the DAC & Preamp, Ocellia silver reference between pre and amps, and then tinned-copper Duelund out to the speakers.  I've been thinking about grabbing some of the Tempo Electric silver cables and seeing what going further in that direction sounds like.  Haven't heard my speakers with anything besides the Duelund and some old anti-cables.  

And thanks for the compliment Bill.  The system is slowly getting there.  The Coincident PREs have an opinion about everything...

Thanks for the update. I am in the same boat as you on this Amber 3 in that I need to return now if not a keeper. I have 120 hours on it and it is still changing and getting better. I hear enough signs of greatness that I want to run it for 300 hours before giving final judgement. Some of the recent improvements, if they continue, will yield a spectacular dac. I think it is worth the risk. Talking to another owner who heard a fully run in demo unit in his system vs his brand new one suggests one really does not hear what the unit is capable of before 200 hours.

I also understand the stock output tube is a tad harsh or hot sounding compared to the richer and more buttery Mullard long plate or Brimar NOS options.

I will wait and work on extracting the most out of the Amber 3 for now. I have never heard a larger stage and the dynamics are stellar. The organic tone I desire more of is starting to come and teasing me to wait. Ha!

Dali Epicon 6 w/upgraded crossovers
The Truth Preamp heavily upgraded 
Innuos Zen 3
Clayton Audio S40 pure class A amplifier
Ton Of Perfect Path Audio & Mad Scientist tweaks 
My own brand of cabling - Acoustic BBQ  and High Fidelity CT2 ICs 

One last quick note about Colin @ Gestalt Audio... during my demo I had a cable catch the serial number sticker on the back of my unit and scratch it up.  He was super gracious and just took the personal loss on that.  Small and insignificant "damage", but still something that impacts selling cost as we all know.  He deserves your future business (and mine).  Really a class act.  

I'll end with a quote from our correspondence:  "One of the reasons I wanted to become a dealer is so I could help others have better experiences than I had when I was on the customer side of this hobby."