Burn-in time Vs. Getting used to a sound

Bought some used Red Dawn rev II Nordosts which were multiple-spades (shotgunned?) at one end. Since I have non-biwirable speakers (Verity), but have amps (Alephs) with two sets of output jacks it made perfect sense to wire 'em that way. Sure enough they sounded ragged and bright. The seller confirmed that he had used them "the other way", and Nordost suggested I'd need EXTRA break-in time to "reverse" the "orientation". Well, they were right...the cables smoothed out, developed GREAT soundstage depth, and gained LF body, after use. How much of this was my aural accomodation? I don't know, but since the cables are threaded through the floorboards to amps hung under my joists, I'm not about to reverse 'em to satisfy a single-blind test!

DK, my friend, dust bunnies don't rule here as far as the cables are concerned, since she finds it so easy to move the cables to clean/vacuum! Fortunately, she cannot move the equipment rack, amp, monitor, and speakers! Accidentally pushing buttons or such is another totally different matter! ;)

If components really changed over time, we would expect them to get better about as often as they got worse. The fact that almost all reports of this phenomenon involve an improvement suggests that something else is going on. And the most likely suspect, in that case, is your brain.

burn in for the most part is complete bullshit with a few exceptions[tubes and speakers]. solid state electronics require no burn-in as caps form and bias adjusts in a few seconds after turn on. if it sounds bad when you first listen to it, its gonna sound bad in 300 or 3000 hrs.

Jostler and Brutus: If I only shared your hearing and mental prowess I could have saved a great deal in effort and money on hifi gear over the years. I may need to eliminate nutmeg in my diet which may account for the auditory hallucinations that I must be subject to.