There's kind of an interesting "exchange of ideas" between Soundhound and Willscary concerning "break-in" in this post
http://ubb.outlawaudio.com/ubb/Forum15/HTML/001216.html Willscary refers to receiving his 950 and he thinking it was "brighter than his NAD". But after awhile it seemed to change during a "break-in" period it and how it got got "smoother and sweeter".
As a prospective buyer in the near future I'm very interested to see how it turns out for your brother.
Keep us posted.