Are You A Disciplined Audiophile?

Interesting question.

In addition to waiting, what other variables to you try to control to make sure you’re hearing a change only in the element of the system which has been altered?

Typically, these other variables might include time of day, mood, music selection, furniture and/or treatments, other things using electricity in the house, and more. If tubes are used in the system, this can be a challenge, as tubes which are a month or two older will introduce changes of their own. One would have to swap in identical tubes with close to the same amount of wear to control that variable. (Personally, I try to keep tubes out of the equation when I listen for changes.)

Curious what else you try to keep stable.

@hilde45 - personally, other than the component, I just follow my normal routines of life. I don’t get obsessive over the other things. For me, I think that a month or 2 will give me enough input to decide what I want to do. 

Disciplined? There are very few components that actually change for the better with age. "Break In" in an illusion of weak minded audiophiles who can not get it through their heads that human sensory systems accommodate to stimuli. Equipment does not change, only the way you hear it changes. Having said that there are a few mechanical devices like cartridges and speakers that might change initially. 

Ask yourself this question. Why does equipment always improve with break-in and not worsen? 

Why is the audiophile world ruled by Mark Levinson's rules, it has to cost more and look cool to sound better?  

Being an audiophile means one should strive to improve the performance of one's system by any means one can afford that is practical. An evolutionary approach is necessary for most of us because finances do not allow otherwise and technology moves on. Besides, I think it is more fun this way. There was a day when you could by excellent equipment in kit form, build it yourself and save big bucks along with learning to use a soldering iron. Why did Heathkit, Eico and Dynakit go extinct? What does that say about us? Fortunately, the DIY speaker crowd is still healthy and with new digital active crossovers one can easily build a better loudspeaker than one could afford otherwise.