I’m glad you like them! They are neutral and get out of the way of the music. This is exactly what Paul and I had in mind when we voiced them.
Yes, the slight hardness in the upper midrange is something that’s normal when they’re fresh out of the box. We use a very high quality polypropylene film & foil capacitor that takes a little time to burn in.
-Darren
This is an interesting subject “equipment Burn-in” and the time it takes.
Although I did not purchase the M-700’s I did purchase the S-300 Amp. As I was going through the purchasing of the unit, I was told that part of the break-in procedure was that the amp should take about 100 hours or so. With that in mind I set everything up and left my Aurender Music Server playing 24/7 for 10 days straight. At night I would turn the volume down to 1 or 2 on the display. But throughout the day I would snatch a listen at higher gain levels. At first I noticed that the S-300 was somewhat bright or hard towards the top end and it bothered me, especially when I played a recording that was ‘bright’ to begin with. The amp highlighted the imperfections of the recording and it was difficult to listen to at higher volumes.
But I persevered and in doing so, I began to notice that the sound was changing, and there was a ‘softening’ of the upper frequencies away from the hard brightness to a more open, transparent and less fatiguing sound. This has been a gradual slope of improvement with the longer the amp runs. I was discussing it with Kevin Jackson just the other day and mentioned that it is now about 7 months into the usage and the S-300 has done a complete 180 degrees sonically from when I first received it. In fact I am so pleased with the sound emanating from my system that I have never turned it off. After I finish listing, I pause the Aurender and lower the gain back to “0” and that’s all I do until the next time. Touch a couple of buttons on the IPad mini and crank up the volume, and I am “off to the races”…
I suspect that I have something over 1,000 hours of listening time on the Stellar Pre and Amp and its now just so wonderful sounding. As an example, the center channel image is spectacular!! To quote Darren, “the amp is neutral and gets out of the way of the music” He is very right! It does just that.
I could go on about all the wonderful things I can hear or not hear but until one actually hears the Amp for themselves, it would be pointless to pontificate. Its that good! I suspect that as more time builds up on the Amp the sound will continue to improve ever so slightly. I get excited when I hear a exceptional recording on my system now, because it just SOUNDS SO GOOD! And I want to turn up the volume and immerse myself in the music.
Was it all worth it?? That’s a big question! When one reaches this level of performance remember it starts to become the “law of diminishing returns”, right?
I have known PSA for a very, very long time and in that time their performance model has always continued to move in an upward direction sonically. Which as in this case the Stellar series is no exception. If anything I would suggest to you that they are returning to their ‘roots’ of offering great sound at an affordable price. My mantra is that “good sound does not always have to cost a lot, buy right the first time and you have it made”. And PSA is again proving their point with the Stellar series…Happy listening my friends, Happy listening…
Cheers, Ian
Thank you so much Ian! Enjoy the music! 
