Weird, the warm sound is now gone after 24+ hours of burn-in. The treble has opened up, and is now quite resolving. But I am not sure I like the change.
I A/B with my lowly TEAC UD-301 and I am beginning to appreciate the warmer, thicker sound of the TEAC; the TEAC is definitely not in the same league as the GMB in terms of resolution, but the TEAC is more fun to listen to.
The GMB may not be the best pairing with my KGSSHV-SR009 after all -- most of my CDs are not perfect, so the GMB accentuates the hiss and other artifacts. I hear the artifacts even on recordings that I thought were good; the artifacts are also there with the TEAC (I had to double check), but I never noticed them until now. With the GMB, the artifacts get annoying. Too much of a good thing, I guess.
Also, there is no GEN 2 USB driver for my Windows Vista laptop, so I have to use the GEN 1 USB driver, which does not support WASAPI event style. The TEAC UD-301, by comparison, has an excellent ASIO driver that works on all Windows versions. So I am mainly using optical with my GMB, using a TASCAM CD-200 as a transport. I hope Schitt offers the GEN 3 USB as an upgrade later on, and provide better drivers.
I still have a couple of days to decide whether to ship this back or not. I am leaning towards keeping it, as I really think it is an excellent value. I am just not sure it is a good match for my electrostat rig.