I keep coming to this thread hoping to read some valuable information on this preamp but when it's all done, I think I will just remain content with the Aesthetix and CAT gear. I guess I'm just a little too sensitive to take on all that comes with being a D'Zeel owner.
As a prospective buyer, I would expect to hear a product's full potential in a broken-in model at a dealer or a friend's home. And then as an owner, it would not be an issue for me to wait 300-400 hours for the product to reach its full potential as I heard it before. With 20 hours a week of listening, this comes to 3-4 months. But as a reviewer, I would have no tolerance for this at all. Think of the logisitics if a reviewer had to do this for the amount of products constantly under review. It's simply not realistic to expect a reviewer to do this.
The same analogy holds for test driving Hondas; I want to do this with a car that has a little mileage on it so I can truly experience the car's full capability rather than have the dealer tell me I have to keep it under 50 mph until it has 2000 miles on it. And then as an owner, waiting to get to 2000 miles is fine as I already know what is to come.
First impression is key. If the manufacturer expects me, as either the reviewer or owner, to purchase that product or report in a most positive manner, it needs to provide me the opportunity right away to experience that product's full potential....otherwise I am very likely to go elsewhere. And this is the whole idea of "test drive" cars.
If there was ever a lesson learned here, this amplifier should never have gone out until it already had the specified burn-in time. There would have been no doubt that any reported findings were due to other issues and not that the amp was fresh out of the box.
John