... what is Settling Time in cables and interconnects...

If you start worrying about moving a cable, you have way too much time on your hands and way too little of other things in them.

In fact, if you are reading this, above applies to you, too, regardless of your thoughts about moving a cable.

If you still insist that cable should not be moved because of some detrimental influence on the sound (why cannot it be better, by the way?), start worrying what all the dust that settles on them will do to the cable and the sound. Cockroaches crawling on them may also not have the best electric properties.

Good news is that settling time for dust is much better established and researched phenomenon than for cables.

Obviously when you’re not an audiophile this sort of thing doesn’t matter. Thanks for the reminder, glubson.

Hi sejodiren :-)
Dont forget the effect of suns radition & beam angles in different seasons.  That also affects the sound tremendously.  I hear the BEST sound usually on 21 June between the hours of 11:00am and 17:00pm in relative humidity of 78% :-)

Here’s my take on the OP’s question.

Settling-in would generally mean that a broken-in cable needs a brief period in an audio system to settle-in before sounding optimal.
If a cable has not had signal for a long period of time it may need a longer time to either, 1. break-in again or 2. settle-in.
Some define break-in and settling-in as the same thing although generally break-in would take a longer period of time.
Some reject the whole notion as ludicrous. Thus the collective groaning when this thread was posted.
As a newbie I see no problem in asking the question but be warned, the answers can be contentious and divisive (and occasionally vitriolic) so the wiser here tend to avoid the discussion altogether. Of course there are always those who are itching for a fight.
Hope this helps.

Is it so then that if I only disconnect the speaker cable for a very short moment to change to another speaker, I only need to give the cable the shorter settle-in time of maybe twelve hours before I with conficence can evaluate the sound of the second speaker to the first speaker. I really would like to get this right.