Hi ack,
I had the same experience with my Spectral dac. I was advised to keep it on as it sounds better when warm. But the unit ran hot enough to melt one of it's rubber foots.
As for the DMC 30SS, I listened from the DMC 30 to the DMC 30S to the DMC 30SL before settling on the DMC 30SS. First thing I noticed when using the DMC 30SS is that the volume control always have to be above the 60% mark to have enough gain. I have mated it with the Lamm M1.1, Spectral DMA 360 second generation, and the Forsell amplifiers. I hear a lot of what I thought was ambience of the soundstage aside from one of the biggest sound stages populated with life-size musicians. I have also discovered that one can further improve the resolution, the liquidity of the sound, and smooth out the any remaining rough edges by running another Spectral preamp ahead of it. My chain ran cd player into DMC 20 series 2, then interconnect from the Spectral DMC 20 main balanced output into balanced input of the DMC 30SS, lastly, DMC 30SS main balance output into the power amp. I adjust volume from both the DMC 20 and DMC 30SS.