I find that my new equipment takes a bit of break in time to sound its best, especially my speakers. I wouldn't say the differences are that "dramatic", but after enjoying my new speakers for about six months, one night I found that they finally "settled down". The sips of that medicine from Scotland may have also had something to do with that ...
Equipment break in question
To break in a piece of equipment such as a DAC, do you need to turn on your amp and actually play music through your speakers? Does it work to just play a disc silently without using the amp and speakers? What about just turning on a component such as a DAC and leaving it on without playing anything?