Why no “Break in” period?

prof
“Or would you grant that I would be justified in my conclusion, from my own perception that "there was no audible alteration to the sonic signal?"”

>>>>Sorry, pal. You actually wouldn’t be justified in drawing ANY conclusion from a single test. Especially since you haven’t even done the test. You’re supposed to do the test BEFORE you draw any conclusions. Hel-loo! A single test, no matter how well performed or thorough, has no meaning, especially if the results are negative. For one thing that’s to prevent overly enthusiastic pseudo scientists from claiming victory in some argument. But mainly it’s because it’s too difficult to control all the variables and too many things can go wrong. Furthermore, you haven’t even done the test and you’re already declaring victory. That’s gold, Jerry, gold!

Oregonpapa, that is a mechanical device where that can be expected and I have personally heard this with several but not all cartridges. My Clearaudio Da Vinci was so shrill initially that I had to make a new EQ curve for it and I was mad as a viper but in perhaps about two weeks things started sounding dull so I switched back to my normal curve and everything was wonderful. This was objective because I could compare the sound with my other turntable.
However as far as electronics are concerned they do not break in and anyone who believes they do is deluding themselves. You even have millercarbon comparing them to wine. He is wonderful at composing long posts that say absolutely nothing. 
Andy, there are extremely few things that age gracefully. Maybe the occasional Ferrari that has not been driven. Even wine goes bad if you leave it too long. 
Rodman, the last thing I am going to do is trust your ears or anyone's ears including mine but if you want to chase your tail deluding yourself into thinking you heard something and piss money away on silly stuff, wonderful. It is still a free country and you are not hurting anyone else. As a matter of fact you are supporting other peoples jobs. Keep it up.

Enjoy your swirl.

All this talk makes me laugh. Has anyone here been to an audiologist ("hearing doctor") I doubt it. If you do go to one, you will probably learn that your ears and your hearing are basically no different than anyone else around your age. A few will have a little poorer hearing and some will have a little better but none will hear outside the realm of human hearing, like bats and dogs. I worked st a Detroiy auto plant. All employees had to take a hearing test every 6 months,  no ex exceptions. Almost all came back normal.

People that claim they hear things that others dont are probably confusing familiarity with sensitivity. For example if you hear something once or twice a day for years and then one day it slightly changes, that is familiarity, not sensitivty.

The most objective test of hearing that I have witnessed was a test administered by a Proffessor of Music at at a university niversity in NY who is an instructor of guitar. He took a student that has perfect pitch (been tested) and had her favorite songs (she was familiar with) played through high end headphones and tried to distinguish between vinyl and CD. She failed, her percent of correct responses was no higher than the success rate of someone who guesses without even listening.  The test was not exhaustive, I would have done it differently, but it did convince me that those that claim they hear what others dont, are wrong. I think Mr. Carbon is confusing familiarity with sensitivity. For those Interested, the test was published by Rock Beato on YouTube so you can watch it yourself and come to your own conclusions.