Cable Burn In

Okay, I am open to it. And I think we are generally in agreement. Its just that for me the point is moot from a practical standpoint and my openness to the idea doesn't change that.

What I was pointing out was that you said: " If you believe that every phenomenon we experience in life is quantifiable...."

I think the word _every_ in that sentence is pretty absolute. I'm not denying that some folks are that absolute, I'm just saying that one can believe that _some_ things are quantifiable and _some_ are not. That's where I fall in this approach to subjects like this. I do not deny the importance and existence of the quantifiable nor the importance and existence of the intangibles, even those unique to a single observer.

The problem is that when things are not objectively quantifiable, there is always going to be difficulty arriving at a consensus among various observers. Its the nature of the beast. Especially when the particular observation is by nature likely to be subtle as in the case of this issue, especially when some observers are not physically equipped (hearing limitations) or trained (through experience) to appreciate these subtleties. And in that case....it would be true for the untrained and less sensitive observer that issue is largely irrelevant. Certainly said observer could learn to appreciate the subtleties but cannot overcome physical differences in hearing acuity.

a cable, in order to sound fantastic needs a little bit of a super intelligent chip (make sure you get the 'super', not the regular kind), and few flying saucers for windows (not the ones for doors)....

now back to the original post...can it be that, the concept of 'burning in', has more to do with our auditory system getting used to how an audio system sounds after a change, than with the physical changes that some think occur in cables?

If you hear no difference after time passes, you've lost nothing.  If you do perceive an improvement in the openness of your sound then yippee!

Riddle me this, Batmen: How do you know it's the cables?

Hearing changes all the time. Fatigue, stimulants, temperature and pressure all affect hearing.
Loudspeakers change with temperature and pressure.
Amplifiers can sound markedly different with temperature.
Contact pressure increase with temperature.

It's not possible to isolate 'improvements' to burn-in. It's equally as likely that degradation could result if changes exacerbate inherent system distortions.

The one constant with a HiFi system is there isn't

Actually it’s not that difficult to isolate burn in. How, you ask? By using a cable burn in device or the break in track on XLO Test CD or similar. You can observe sound quality improving as you break it on. Problem solved!

With Cables its pure snake oil. Once you have a good cable with
low resistance or known resistance and sized right for the application
and in your case proper shielding you are done. What you hear is what you get. The rest is pure fantasy.