how long to break in a power conditioner?


I posted this in misc a day or so ago, but I realized that this might be a better place, so here goes...

I bought a Monster Power HTS 3600 MKII about 3 weeks ago. My question is this: The first two days, the thing sounded unlike anything I'd ever heard (I have a Pass Labs x350, Bel Canto Dac3 and some Dunlavy speakers). Unfortunately, about the 3rd day, things started sounding closed in and the highs lost their air and all kinds of other stuff. the sound has gradually improved, but I want to know two things:

1. how long should one usually expect it to take to break one of these things in, and

2. was the added musicality and so on just a fluke?

The system still sounds better than it does going directly into the wall, which is how I was using it up until this purchase, but I'd sure like to get back to that sound I had at first.

Any suggestions? anyone else using one of these and had a similar experience? Should I just chuck it (sell it here) and get a better one? What I want is to get back to that super clean sound I was getting, and I'd love to just know I'm not insane or delusional!!!

Thanks everyone!

Roland
Ag insider logo xs@2xrnbowers
HMMM, The Audience and Tara (passive) I have tried are done by the time I sit down to listen.
Z: we've agreed to disagree on this topic many times ! Your equipment (and my
Hydra8 and Furman units) all sounded great, ready to go and different from what they
replaced (or nothing if that was the case) when first plugged in.

Just like anything else I and many others have owned, once things like capacitors form up,
copper wiring, copper bus bars,transformers, etc...break in, the character of the sound changes,
and continues to improve to a point that varies with the component in question. I had the same experience
on that pair of Tara 0.5 AES/EBU cables; they were awesome and 'ready to go' when first plugged in and
much to my amazement, got better and better over the 1st 2 weeks of 24x7 usage. A similar but less
dramatic break-in occurred on that Audience ePowerChord...

I'm sure this will evoke a lively discussion and a long phone call later, LOL!
Update:

I can say for sure now that this is a break in issue. I realized that the dac draws about 20 watts and got thinking that I might change things a bit by putting a high current draw on the thing for a few hours to see what that would do, and it helped TREMENDOUSLY!!! What I did was to take a heater that draws about 1200 watts and put it on for about 12 hours. The cloudy phasey sound I was getting improved markedly after this. I still wish it were better, but it has gone from being unacceptable to decent. I think I'll give it another run of that over the next few days and see if I can get things completely settled down.

To those of you who posted here and emailed me privately, I wish to say thank you very much!!! I don't know if I'll ever get the results I had at first, but at least it doesn't sound muddy and dull anymore.

All that being said, I believe that I need to explore the world of power conditioners further. I should be able to put about 300 dollars into this after the first of the month, and would appreciate any suggestions for power conditioners used or new in that price range that might be able to handle the current demands of my pass x350 and isolate it from the other system components.

Thanks again,
Roland
Minimally, you may wish to take a look at a Furman Elite 15PF or a used IT-Reference of some form. They both have a dedicated bank of 4 outlets that are setup to deal with high-demand amplifiers.