Don't know about the 450's, but my experience with my older 200's is that at least two entire lp sides need to be played before they sound close to fully warmed up. The first ten minutes or so, they sound obviously grainy and diffuse. By the end of the first lp side, they sound much more refined. By the end of the second lp side, I would say they are 90% there. BTW, simply turned on doesn't cut it, they need to playing music to fully warm up. Every piece of tube equipment that I have ever owned has behaved similarly to one degree or another.