OK...here's another tweak that really works

Excellent analogy @nonoise 

OP: Excellent thread. FWIW, I still use the "Sheffield Lab / XLO Test & Burn-In CD" from 30 or so years ago. It works well. 

I have two similar CDs. The Ayre’s Irrational But Efficacious, and the Isotek’s Full system Enhancer. They both work very well. I use both of them when I get new gear, as well as probably once a month with existing gear for demag 

Whenever I have new components or capacitors or cables to burn-in, I just go to Youtube and search for "burn in tracks". There are actually many, they are free to use, some of them are very long (more than an hour) and they work. I try to alternate those with pink noise and it really does help the bur-in process. 

I suppose it can be beneficial to play those tracks every once in a while just to "remove the dust".

It doesn't take long for a particular person to come out of the closet.  They are constantly waiting for every opportunity to pounce on any one they can.  I am beginning to think if this individual has every tried listening to a decent set of speaker wires.  I remember hooking up my Synergist Research cables and I thought they sounded harsh at first.  It turned out was hearing the high frequencies for the first time.

Interesting!  Burn-in with noise is better than with music.  Why?  Is there scientific proof? It is like breaking in a brand-new vehicle with harsh rather than gental driving behavior.