T+A DAC 200 Burn-in

@sealegs excellent work with the evaluation and a very good and informative summary!

It’s extremely rare where a major component change is simply plug and play. Because the system was assembled over time with carefully selected components, speakers and cables, there’s always a ripple effect. Usual remedies are adjustments to speaker placement to tune the voicing of the system, changing cables, and even chamomile preamp and amp. Is it worth the trouble? Only you can determine how much effort you should put into trying to make it work. There are no guarantees that it will. 
If you’re enjoying the way your system sounds with your current, pre T+A configuration, just keep it that way and may be focus on room acoustics and cables to fine tune it. Most importantly, trust your ears. 

@audphile1 

This has been the first time in my efforts to upgrade my digital playback when more detail had a negative impact on SQ.  
After my Theta Data Basic burned out, I replaced it with a Moon 260DT CD transport.  It was so much better sounding that I got over my disappointment with Theta’s lack of support.  
I had been listening to reviews of Denafrips DACs and knew they didn’t supply power cords because they believed everybody would replace the stock power cords.  So, rather than buy the DAC first, I tried upgrading the power cord and the digital interconnect first.  Again, additional substantial bumps in SQ.  I upgraded the power cords on my preamp and Moon 260.  The preamp upgrade was great, the transport was a little better but not like the DAC and preamp power cord upgrades.  
Then recognizing that I needed real subwoofers, I bought the RELs and the digital playback was even more detailed and enjoyable.  
So, the DAC upgrade was my last step.  It has been a lot of work and I am disappointed that the qualities I liked about the DAC200 did not pan out across my music collection.  
I may try another DAC or two in the future.  

@sealegs it’s a cool experience. Nothing to be disappointed about since you were just auditioning it.
Add Meitner MA3i to the list of dacs to evaluate next. 

@audphile1 

Meitner MA3i was my initial intent for evaluation.  But this T+A opportunity popped up that was too good not to try.  
 

I’m a little bit concerned that the Meitner outputs at 3.0 V through RCA.  I am already using so little of my preamp’s capabilities at 2.0-2.5 V that I’m not sure how that combination will work.  Typically, I listen around 75 dB.  But as you said, ears are what matters.  They have always been my guide.  

@sealegs you can manage the Meitner output using its volume control. Dial it down a notch or two to better match the gain. But overall it shouldn’t be an issue. I’m using mine via XLRs that are pretty hot into Boulder integrated. No problems.