Thank you to everyone for the informing and thought provoking replies.
My better half has extremely sensitive ears and will only listen to most stereo music at very moderate levels. Our daughter plays the piano, and son the guitar, so naturally that is a powerful gauge for comparing tonality. Fast forward, she shocked me with a new amp she knew I had been researching and reading reviews about on this site, as I have been interested in trying to find an amp speaker combination that had more musical weight at low to moderate volumes. I used a pair of Harbeth's just to try the amp out and change things up, still using our old Arcam CD23. She was absolutely delighted with the change and it's increased low volume control/performance.
Now considering stepping up in cd playback quality, I was really hoping to not go through a period of break-in before things were comfortably listenable. Seems I may be making a big deal out of nothing and should just use the manufacturer trial periods as intended for our decision. Thanks again for every ones time offering a reply.