Harbeth Super HL5 plus Break-in

The following is an excerpt from the Harbeth User Guide:

"After exercising your new Harbeths for just a few hours they will be fully ready for a lifetime of enjoyment".

After going to the Harbeth site it pretty much said the same thing as the user guide but added that the supertweeter would take a little longer to break-in.
My new Harbeth's sounded the same after I put on around the first 100 hours so I believed the above until around the 120-150 hour mark I noticed (or so I think) the midrange sounding more realistic to the point of more enjoyment! I don't know if I'm actually hearing an improvement or I'm just getting used to the Harbeth sound since the 5's are my first experience with Harbeth in my listening room.

I would like to hear others that have owned or still own the Super 5's and whether or not you have experienced the same thing as me or something else.

Deja Vu (Harbeth dealer) certainly recommends open-topped stands (no "plate"), but also asserts that wood stands vs. metal stands will result in a mild difference in tonality, along the lines of the standard associations of wood vs. metal.  Anyone have any experience?

@routeman21  @hleeid  I'm curious what you are using at the interface of the bottom of the speaker and the top of the stand.  There seems to be a wide range of practice here, with no one solution emerging as a clear favorite.

re. grilles on or off, i tried very diligently to enjoy the sound with grilles on for each model of harbeth i have owned.  the sound was overtly soft compared to other speakers i like.  grilles off sounds excellent with no negatives really.  
the idea that amplifiers sound the same if at the same volume is also something i simply have not witnessed.  

I use the Harbeths with the grilles off as I do with all my speakers. I know what you mean when you speak of the warmth of the cabinet. It is something I'm not familiar with because of the bamboo cabinets of my Ascend Sierra towers. As mentioned before more hours of break-in are piling up and as that is happening they are tightening up. One thing I did notice is that I have to turn up the volume because of the lower sensitivity. I can rock out and the speaker does not lose its composure. This is one thing that pleases me and will give me the patience to stick with them in the near future. I will always want a little tighter overall sound but the Ascends are leaner in the midrange and the Harbeths more than cover that aspect with a more pleasing fuller sound with vocals, etc.

He said any competently designed amplifier played back at the SAME volume would be indistinguishable from any other.

I believe he is right.

Give or take the odd tube design, but even they are now sounding like SS amplifiers!
I'd invite you to come listen while I switch my amps from the 4 ohm to 8 ohm taps or between triode and ultralinear.
I have owned and enjoyed Harbeth's 5's.  There are numerous posts here that I think are just way off.  You either like the sound of Harbeths or you don't.   In my experience there was no getting use to the sound before I liked it. It either sounds like music or it doesn't.  
Alan Shaw may be a great designer and his crossovers are seamless but his speakers sound better with the grills off and sound best with a good tube amp.