The Bellari doesn't have a power switch-just leave it on. Yes , it does sound better after warming up. I'm very happy with mine(matched with a mmf-5se and silver interconnects). The headphone stage in the Bellari is OK , as well.
MMF-5 in a Home Theater Setup...
I must confess that, since day one, I've been a sucker for the cheap-thrill-multi-channel-echo-ambience stuff. Had all sorts of multi band equalizers, reverb amps, and "ambience expander" headphones back in the day and, naturally, gravitated to multi channel home theater when that medium came to be and the heart of my system today is a mid 90's Sony ES reciever running its dozen or so "soundfields" thru a pair of JBL L-65s up front and a small pair of Advents (much later vintage) for the rear channels. Anyhow, my old turntable recently bit the dust after 25 years and I replaced it with a Music Hall MMF-5...stock cartridge out of the box, no mods. To make a long story short, I've fallen in love! I haven't played a CD since this thing arrived several weeks ago and I got it hooked up. My question is this.....Would the MMF-5 in this type of system benefit from some sort of enhanced phono stage/pre-amp/etc. up and above just running it thru the Sony's phono input? I've been looking at the little Bellari tube preamp as well as the Creek OB-something-or-other-15 with temptations of upgrading the cartridge at some point in the future but don't know if what I'm considering would be like spending $7500 for Ferrari Enzo floormats to put in a Chevy Monte Carlo............