LFD NCSE Mk II Break In Period?

Yes Jay my NCSE was new and I certainly didn't give it the required?! 200 hours. Another deal breaker for me was how manual volume control had a much too restrictive useable range ( from quiet to loud was between around 7 to 8 o'clock if I remember correctly)

Interestingly and it obviously didn't put me trying the LFD I have some recollection of an rare UK HIFI plus review on an LFD int amp that commented on a particular quality ( on the cooler? side of neutral) in a particular frequency range. Can't remember exactly but maybe this is common to the range as a whole that some/most like and others/few don't?.

On paper it should have been a match made in heaven with my Harbeths and again as I mentioned before I'm very much in the minority. There are dozens of very happy LFD Harbeth users out there.. Sam Tellig at Stereophile for one.

But what I learnt the hard way is that a home audition on equipment is much the best way to go to avoid such disappointments.

Home audition is absolutely the ideal way to go, however, unfortunately often times next to impossible to arrange. The NCSE has definitely improved over the last 100 hrs although still a bit on the cool side as you referenced from the article. While this amp is demonstrating some very positive qualities, I am just hoping that within the next 100 hrs or so to hear a little less bite and a little more bloom. Stay tuned!

Any news?

Hi Michael, thanks for reminding me to follow up on this thread. Yes, thankfully my new NCSE began to come into it own in a very obvious and to a very noticeable way, (as suggested) once it hit around 200 hrs. This was a bit surprising because even though I had read to be patient, I couldn't imagine it would improve as much as it did from 100 to 200 hours but it certainly did. What initially sounded like a thin, mechanical, ordinary presentation absolutely blossomed in a 100 hour time period to a very well balanced, liquid, and human sound, great amp. I can't ever recall experiencing a component with such an obvious response to break in,

That's fantastic. I'm sure it was frustrating.