Burn-in time Vs. Getting used to a sound

If burn-in exists, how come the cables don't continue to burn-in continuously and perpetually and instead apparently reach a sort of "stable" state ? That just doesn't make sense to me, perhaps someone can explain.

Joe: Why does it take a few minutes, at least, to bring a pot of water to a boil? Does water ever really go away, even when the Hydrogen is released in extreme reactions, or does it just complete a cycle and come back as water again?

Joe_coherent that is a good question and I don't know the answer. But I know burn-in is for real. I have suffered thru it. It is very easy to find out for yourself. Compare a broke-in pair of ICs to a new pair.

I agree that most components and wires will change and should improve over time. I disagree with claims about the "transformation" that is supposed to take place after about 200 hours or 6 weeks or whatever, particularly when you have a 1 week trial. Who's kidding who? If something sounds bad right out of the box, my experience shows that it will continue to sound bad, maybe less bad over time, but still bad. If something sounds good out of the box, it usually gets better with time. I find it particularly interesting when after I have returned a product that I didn't like and was chastised by a dealer or mfg. for not letting it burn in; version II of the product seems to contain improvements which address the weaknesses I found. This has happened to me twice.

If a man speaks in the forest and there is no woman to hear him is he still wrong?? (couldn't resist....)