How much does volume matter when breaking in amps and cables?

Uh, nobody said it’s not mechanical. Hel-loo! Wake up and smell the Java! ☕️

Many good and valid points have been noted on this thread.

I would like to add that with speakers / components it is the drivers and the capacitors that take the longest time to break in. Some of the more exotic caps take a very long time!
Cabling/wire breakin, as baffling as it may seem does take about 200 hours, although as previously noted the initial sound when new doesn’t change significantly after that time. However, I have had a few exceptions...
To me, speaker cabling should have some power driving through them. With interconnects, just a signal is enough.

Of course this is my opinion from experience.
ozzy

Ozzy, Purely anecdotal. cbrents, I worked in three dealers selling very high end stuff and for the most part we treated our customers like children. Which does not mean we didn't bend over backwards for them just that our explanations to smooth over issues was anything but scientific. So in part we were probably responsible for several popular myths. My favorite was telling new Acoustat owners that you had to keep them plugged in for two weeks to let the charges settle down on the diaphragm any time they were discharged. How fast do electrons travel?
geoffkait, my wife does all that. She gets me to cook for her that way. She has not managed to get me to vacuum yet.

Near as I can tell the whole break-in thing goes back to horses. Wild horses do not particularly care to be ridden. We say they are spirited. You have to break their will. You have to break them. If anyone knows about anything further back than that let me know.

Then you think there's a debate with amps? Try Porsches! The factory has a recommendation, and for many the factory is sacrosanct. Even when they learn the factory says different things in different countries about the exact same car! 

The truth turns out to be the one thing that really needs it is piston rings. Only full throttle loads very early on (from the first few miles) are capable of properly seating the rings. Which knowing that isn't it interesting Synergistic Research gets big improvement using a Tesla coil to zap a million volts through their brand new cables?

But do you think any manufacturer is gonna tell their customers to do that? Warm it up, run it to redline, as hard and as often as you can. Run a million volts through it. Yeah. Right.

No. They are gonna say baby it. They are gonna say it takes hundreds of hours. Because by then, in both cases, you are gonna get used to it. Whatever "it" is. 

No. They are gonna say baby it. They are gonna say it takes hundreds of hours. Because by then, in both cases, you are gonna get used to it. Whatever "it" is.

This is why break-in of audio gear is about returns.