Well as others (and Rob himself) have said, this thing sounds even better after some break-in. Mind you, I honestly have not experienced that before in other components. Sure, they sound different when cold vs warm but that is pretty obvious - especially with anything from Ayre.
When I sat down to listen to 2-channel music for the first time last Friday, it was a tad harsh sounding. I would say it was a bit better than when I ran the SW-10 in it's place but nothing like the video and audio changes I experienced with my video streamer and even live TV apps. My 2-channel listening was certainly more dynamic with the Tempus but the SQ wasn't thrilling me through a fiber connection. I was thinking that maybe fiber vs fiber is a very minor step up at best... A few days later, I listed to many of the same tracks again and they sounded quite a bit different. I prefer to listen loud, so warts (or lack thereof) really show themselves when you start winding the system up. The bite was all but gone and now, the bass coming out of my Focus SEs is like an octave deeper now. Easy to feel when you're seat is massaging you. My MCH sub is even more thunderous when listening to movie soundtracks, Atmos music or watching a ripped bluray concert. It is astounding as now I have to trace down a few rattles in my media room. It was a bit boomy before run-in and I felt like I needed to lower the x-over point.
The oddities are the 100M ports. I have one hooked up to my LG OLED and it is buggy as heck when I switch to my OLED input and try to watch an app. I would say it takes a full 8-10 seconds to lock onto a stream. The video just freezes and after a second or two, plays another frozen frame and then again before it starts any audio and the video starts flowing smoothly. Whereas before, it might have taken 1-2 seconds to play video from just about any app. So, not sure what that's all about. LG's only have a 100M ethernet port, so this seemed like a natural fit in the 100M port. I'll be moving my Nintendo Switch 2 from a 1G port to the 100M port to see if the OLED improves.
The good news for anyone who may try this switch on a fiber LAN. It took my current fiber transceivers without any issues. And I have a bit of a Frankenstein type setup. The transceiver in the Tempus feeding my Lumin U2 is a Finisar 1471 (10G), while the one in my Lumin is a Finisar 1318 (1G). I chose this combo after a lot of experimentation with the LHY switch and the fact that the Lumin will not accept any 10G transceivers whatsoever. And I am pretty certain, the input transceiver from my Mikrotik 10G switch is also a 10G Finisar 1471. I have bought switches over the years that would not work with these transceivers, so that is very good news.
I had a spare Swiss Digital Fuse Box around, so I am using that with the Tempus. I removed the stock fuse before even plugging in the Tempus for the first time, so I don't know the true impact this might have made. But knowing it made a great change with my Lumin U2 and an older Zidoo video streamer that I sold off, I am certain it added some to the excellent dynamics.
