Z: we've agreed to disagree on this topic many times ! Your equipment (and my
Hydra8 and Furman units) all sounded great, ready to go and different from what they
replaced (or nothing if that was the case) when first plugged in.
Just like anything else I and many others have owned, once things like capacitors form up,
copper wiring, copper bus bars,transformers, etc...break in, the character of the sound changes,
and continues to improve to a point that varies with the component in question. I had the same experience
on that pair of Tara 0.5 AES/EBU cables; they were awesome and 'ready to go' when first plugged in and
much to my amazement, got better and better over the 1st 2 weeks of 24x7 usage. A similar but less
dramatic break-in occurred on that Audience ePowerChord...
I'm sure this will evoke a lively discussion and a long phone call later, LOL!