Suchart, Scarlatti DAC break in took about 100 hours to become noticeable. Now, at about 400 hours, the greater sense of realism compared to the Elgar Plus is indisputable - and I found the Elgar Plus to be the best DAC I'd heard to that point. My vocabulary fails me beyond what I've written, but the Scarlatti DAC is quite an achievement. FWIW, I split cd playing time between the Verdi/Purcell (>DSD>)/Scarlatti DAC w/all units sync'd to the Scarlatti clock, and feeding the Scarlatti DAC upsampled 174kHz dual AES data via the Purcell with the Lector providing the clocking data (it's modded with a DEXA reference clock). I enjoy both cd sources very much. Again, I believe the Scarlatti clock s/b considered only in the context of an otherwise "complete" system that will not be tinkered with for a long long time. Otherwise, save the cash for the next amp/preamp/loudspeaker/source experiment.