Break in for new DAC

@mlapenta I received my new LTA Aero DAC about 5 days ago.  LTA does do some break in / burn in for a week after the DAC has been assembled, now what that entails, beyond making sure everything is working correctly, I'm not 100 % sure.  I bought the upgraded Tubes, Ray Reserves, I also bought some vintage Tung Sol and RCA Tubes from the 50's, both the 12 and 6 volt versions.  The tubes and sound does change as it breaks in, I'm not sure if it's the Tubes, the components in the DAC or both, it settles in, opens up a bit along with filling in, becoming less harsh, bright.  If I had to guess, I probably have around 20 hours or so at best on mine, I like the Ray Reserves but they aren't my favorite Tube so far, I find the vintage tubes to be more open sounding, have a bit more air and have more of a vinyl sound.  That said, the Ray Reserves are fantastic, the bass, mid's and highs are all the most refined, controlled and on point out of all the tubes.  To me so far, they are a little more analytical though, they don't quite have the air, liquidity of the vintage tubes.  So far I'm really enjoying the DAC, tube rolling for sure changes the sound / performance and takes it to another level vs the stock tubes.  For a tube component, I'm also shocked at how quiet it is, it's quieter than any other external DAC I've put into my system, I've never had tube equipment that was quieter.  I haven't been able to spend enough time with the DAC to provide a review, concrete thoughts, the above are my initial observations.  Good Luck! 

@aewarren Thanks for the info, and correcting me - I did mean to type naive.

@daveteauk Sometimes our fingers have minds of their own. I never trust mine as they often type things I cannot believe I was thinking.

The elephant in the room as regards "break-in" is tubes which clearly need break-in if they are new production. This is pretty much incontrovertible. What can be extrapolated from that we will let the irritables fight over until Kingdom Come.

As for your question I'm a +1 too with  @bigtwin - don't let burn in get in the way of exploring and enjoying the music. Does the new DAC emotionally engage you more is a great place to start, then if it does the whys? Some break-in is necessary with new electronics and tubes. I was advised up to 500 hours with my Denafrips Venus 15th, which does seem excessive, but it did open-up noticeably after 400 hours, why I frankly don't know!

My approach with new kit is to compare directly the new with the old through your player - not sure if Vinyl, CD or Streaming setup? If I'm replacing a component I usually have reasons like I'm looking to change the sound and synergy between components, preferably to the better.  With a new DAC I'd be looking for things like comparing soundstage - depth, width, instrument positioning. Retrieval of details at different frequencies and with tubes for those high transients and midrange. So if you can it is interesting to compare and take notes about what you hear or don't hear between new and old. Usually you're looking for more from the sound, as an audiophile colleague says to be lifting away the veil that was there before :)