Ozzy - I wouldn't put them on your Audiodharma. I asked Bob Grost about this specifically, and he said "no". They need a few days to "settle in" (has to do with the liquid ceramic), but do not need the usual break-in per se.
Fiddler - Your results fascinate me, as I've been using the HMS Grand Finales for a long time as well! Just to clarify: my comments were not a theory, just my belief from experience. What is fascinating to me is that I had opposite results, although I posted sometime ago on another thread that initially I thought the CTs were rolled off in the highs as well. In the end (after tweaking!), I find the CTs have all the information of the HMS, but the fact that the CTs are much cleaner/quieter made me think at first that there was missing musical information (especially in the highs). The piano sound REALLY puzzles me, since in my system the CT's piano tonality is MUCH better than it was with the HMS. The leading edge or attack part makes much more sense to me, but again, - after making some changes, such as removal of room treatment - I find the leading edge and attack are even better (and far more REALISTIC) than with the HMS. My conclusion was that the HMS exaggerates and bloats the bottom end (fooling me for a while that it goes deeper than the CT) and hypes the highs a bit, but who REALLY knows which is more neutral. Just two different experiences in two different systems, I guess. The great news is that synergy is always important, i.e. so we both can enjoy our systems. Thanks for you thoughts. Hopefully both of our experiences will benefit others.
To others who might try the CTs: my suggestion is to give them a lot of time, and play with making other changes in the system, room, power conditioning, power cords, etc.
