I think your correct.
New equipment be it preamp, amp, interconnect or speaker cable will sound reasonably good out of the box, turn for the worse after a few hours, eventually sounding much better than where it began.
Phono cartridges and speakers don't seem to follow this rule as they are a combination of both electrical and mechanical break in.
Although CD players are both mechanical and electrical, they generally sound better when left on 100% of the time. My CD player sounds terrible if I turn it off for a week and then back on to listen.
Completely broken in cables require refreshing if not used for some time. Not nearly the difference experienced with the original break in, but cables with lots of hours recently inserted into my system always sound better after they are used a bit.
I now use only one brand of cable but found this applies to every cable I've owned over the last 20+ years. Perhaps it's the connectors, solder joints and insulation settling in.
New equipment be it preamp, amp, interconnect or speaker cable will sound reasonably good out of the box, turn for the worse after a few hours, eventually sounding much better than where it began.
Phono cartridges and speakers don't seem to follow this rule as they are a combination of both electrical and mechanical break in.
Although CD players are both mechanical and electrical, they generally sound better when left on 100% of the time. My CD player sounds terrible if I turn it off for a week and then back on to listen.
Completely broken in cables require refreshing if not used for some time. Not nearly the difference experienced with the original break in, but cables with lots of hours recently inserted into my system always sound better after they are used a bit.
I now use only one brand of cable but found this applies to every cable I've owned over the last 20+ years. Perhaps it's the connectors, solder joints and insulation settling in.