Do speaker cables need a burn in period?

Besides, it’s not like burning in cables is a product or anything give me a break!

LOL. The very link you are referring to as "puffing" is promoting just such a product:

"However, the best solution is to treat your cables using a designated cable burn-in device such as Nordost’s Vidar.:

Geoff, do you ever just slow down to test your claims with reality?
I noticed the post you removed was rather rashly inaccurate as well.
(Uh...it was Nordost’s "blog" on Nordost’s official site, promoting a Nordost product) ;-)

Also, there is no dilemma posed by comments or claims by high end manufacturers. That’s what you skeptical philosophical guys call a Strawman argument. Please give us a break.

Uh, that’s why I removed it, Professor. Duh! Maybe you need some more coffee.

@prof

" Do we just accept that any hypothesis can be floated, and then decided by appeal to subjective impressions? "
Uhhhh, no.

But throwing around claims gleaned from the application of half-baked and mis-applied protocols isn't the answer either.
Though do agree with you that some crystal clear clarity would be awfully nice.