Do speaker cables need a burn in period?

Hifiman
No, at least I, me, this EE, do not believe we have science derived explanations for many things in the universe, and especially in our heads. But for audio frequency signal transmission over several meters of cable, yes, I do.
Don't forget that the military and big industry has had huge interest and investment in this exact topic for over 100 years.  So they have looked hard at both hypothesis and practicality.

So, help me understand. You think that anyone who disagrees with you is creating a pissing contest? Is that that the EE part of your brain talking or the pharma part?

@ganainm   Can you please share the science derived explanation regarding the fact that cables do not break-in?

I think in order to make a valid discussion, ones have to agree on some basic level which is our ears can identify differences in what we here.  If you say that all differences are psychological then there is no point to further the discussion.

Next, the argument that break-in is mostly psychological only works for the average buyer since he can only purchase a set of cable so he has to rely on his memory to tell the difference.  This argument does not work for manufacturers since they have a lot of identical cables some old some brand new so they can listen to them side by side, therefore there is no need to rely on memory.  So if they hear the difference then it's not psychological.  

Now if you say the manufacturers are flat out wrong or they just lie then I guess it's something all together difference.  I can't find any reason why they have to lie.  Break-in or not I don't see how that will benefit them.

Not only is there no advantage to a manufacturer for lying about directionality or break in it doesn’t make sense at all to lie about it because directionality and break in are so controversial and would almost certainly be a turn off to a lot of folks, especially sensitive gullible newbies, and mean less business rather than more. Top high end cable manufactures like Audiopquest are *outspoken* on the subject of directionality, whereas other manufacturers might be “playing it safe” by not mentioning it, or don’t know, or dismiss it. The same logic applies to cryogenics, another hot button for naysayers. Most high end cable manufacturers routinely cryo their cables, whether they advertise it or not. They are smart enough to know that if they didn’t cryo their cables they wouldn’t be able to compete.