Burning in while listening also adds to your experience. The process can be quite subtle, very obvious, or something in between and you gain more understanding hearing the changes.
One of the interesting things about this hobby for me is trying to pay attention to different stages of break-in.
People who I know who have been in this hobby for a long time will talk about the various changes that tubes and cables can go through before they reach a level of maturity.
I think that kind of self education and how things sound is a wonderful part of the hobby and it serves well for down the road because one becomes more sophisticated about what they're hearing and what perhaps is causing it.
Why waste tube life during "burn in"? When is that over? Who even knows? How bad can it sound? Just play it and listen. If you must leave it on when not listening so be it. Hifi is supposed to be for enjoyment so enjoy it to the max always. You don’t need advice from strangers to do that. It's always a good idea to have spare tubes around because you can never know for sure when a tube will go or start to develop issues that might be heard.
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