Thanks for the info guys, did some googling and came up with similar stories not related to the iron, but more to the sozos. Posts like these:
When I first installed the sozos I noticed that the sound was fuzzy and blurry until broken in ... but never harsh.
Fizz and blur, two excellent words for what I feel I am experiencing. Blur goes for the low end, fizz, everything else. Maybe this is the case here as well. I suppose the best way to test would be to swap out the caps in the preamp with a different manufacturer but maybe I should be patient and put more time on the amp to allow for break in. I've probably only put 3-4 hrs on it max between shutting it down, swapping a value here or there and playing with preamp tubes.
As for the Drake, I suppose it is unfair to compare iron in two diff amps with diff voltages and diff caps and resistors with 30+ years break in time.. I'll have to do a search to see about breaking these sozos in.
