I should have followed my own advice and kept my mouth shut until accumulating 50+ hours on the DAC. I have been running the DAC for 12 hours every day for the last 3-4 days, and the sound has transformed dramatically. I’ve always known that audio equipment requires extensive burn in but never expected such profound changes across the board.
The details are there, they’re just not as pronounced or etched as my previous DAC, but after getting used to the sound I actually prefer it now. My system has never sounded so smooth yet holographic. The soundstage depth and width, instrument separation and tonal richness is definitely a step above the cambridge audio DAC. Every thing sounds more natural and organic. But the biggest improvement so far has been in the bass department. Before I was getting a bit of bass bloom. That problem has been solved. As per Vlad, the DAC will continue to improve for another 50-70 hours before reaching its final destination.
Since I still have the Cambridge Audio 851D on hand, I put it back in the chain to see if the gains were real or just conformance bias on my part. While the details were sharper, I immediately noticed the lack of body and tonal richness. I’m beginning to understand the allure of R2R, definitely very addictive.