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,