TRL 595-how good is it?

This harshness is normal for the 2000ES while breaking-in. You need to be patient and give it a good amount of time 24/7. It will pay the wait. BTW, I read about Modwrights mods to this unit and it seems that came out very nice too.
All in all, these units are good buys for anyone seeking for a good modifiable unit at a low cost/investment. It's trully amazing what we can buy this days!!!

711smilin-
Dunno about that one.
I did not listen to mine that much the first 150 hours or so, but I did not have that issue really at any time even when I would sneak a listen.
Has an alleged long break in-some say 500+ hours.
I still noticed changes at 350-400 hours.
Have fun!

711smilin-Have you asked Paul Weitzel about the break in issue? In an email to me he did mention 500 hours as the span over which improvements continue.

I think that I have over 500 hours on my TRL 595 and it still is improving.

I have about 250 hours now, and the unit is sounding very musical, and easy to listen too. It does not seem to give the last bit of detail, or bass extension, or body. The soundstage is large, and deep. The instumentation is good, but lacking air. The vocals are real nice, but, lacking in a bit of dimensionality. All in all, a very good sounding player, that is easy on the ears, also, not analytical like a lot of higher cost players I have owned, and heard.

I have a couple issues maybe you can help with, the player defaults to multi channel on SACD, and I have to manually switch to 2-channel. Do you guys know how to set 2channel all the time? Also, when in continious repeat mode, my player gets stuck on the 3rd disc, and just clicks.

Anyway, overall, this is a KILLER player for the $$$, especially being a 5 disk player. More will be reveiled over time.

Smilin