Arcam irDAC break in time and sound changes?

My experience with the rDac, predecessor to the irDac, was the sound opened up and sounded pleasant but a bit wooly, dark and closed in for the first 25 hours. From 25-50 hours the sound at times went south with leanness and was bright. By the 75 hour mark it opened up quite a bit, tonality evened out nicely with a smoother sound.

I've had the rdac now for about 4 months. For me it took at least 100 hours to hear how good it was and there was improvement as it hit the 200 hour mark.

Wow, glad I asked. When I first fired it up, it definitely sounded a bit lean and muffled. At about 8 hours in, started to open up a tad, maybe even a tad harsh. At 10-15 hours, it was strange, sort of a roller coaster of opening up and closing off, and me thinking there was something wrong with it. Powered it off and back on later in the day and it was open again, not as lean. Had no idea a new DAC would have this much change in the first 15 hours but I realize some of this may be due to another component in my system breaking in at the same time in parallel. So, It's not just 0s and 1s, eh? hahaha.

This feedback helps to give me an idea that I have a good ways to go before making any real judgements on sound. Thanks.

" ... At 10-15 hours, it was strange, sort of a roller
coaster of opening up and closing off, and me thinking there
was something wrong with it. Powered it off and back on
later in the day and it was open again, not as lean
..."

Question: Are you letting it (and all the components in your
system) fully warm up before you critically listen to it?

As an example. my REGA ISIS valve cdp and REGA OSIRIS
integrated amp both need a minimum of 2 to 3 hours to warm
up properly (particularly the tubes in the cdp) to sound
close to their best.

They sound best [ i.e. even better / "right" ] if
left on to warm up first for much longer periods before some
critical listening sessions.

Akg...ca,
I typically give it at least an hour before starting to listen. Often times I will check back at 1.5 and 2.0 hour and start listening with more intent then. This past time were I mentioned the "roller coaster" comment was at about 2.0 hours, so it was unexpected after being warm for a while. One day I did leave it running for about 8 solid hours and it sounded different for sure, having an even warmer sound. Not seeing a real rhyme or reason to it, I decided to get ideas here to see what others have experienced. Longer warmups definitely help.

Decooney, I gather from your posts you are turning the irDac off when not listening to it. If so you might want to try leaving it on for 24-48 hours and see if you like what you hear. I leave my rDac on 24/7. I also leave my amp on most of the time.

When I do shut my system down it takes quite awhile to sounds its best so I leave it on as much as possible.