If cables can break-in, can they then wear-out?

Theo, meet Bob :)

Yes, they wear out (except for Cardas, it seems). Feel free to contact me through Audiogon. I offer a free recycling service for cables and other high-end audio equipment. I even pay for shipping.

Heathens! Y'all must become one with the cable...

Well, that is for 12 to at most 24 months (depending upon usage patterns) at which time they will have become so tired and worn that they cannot transport your precious electrons with safety and efficiency and you must do your duty and relieve them of their burden by replacing them (whilst we relieve your wallet of it's contents). And don't even think of recycling them - that would be unpatriotic in these troubled economic times...

Lord, I apologize for that right there, and please be with the starvin' pygmies down there in New Guinea, A-men

As far as the ears getting acquainted as opposed to cables breaking in , I would have to disagree from personal experience. I have had the opportunity to compare a couple of different interconnect and speaker cables from different manufacturers both new and fully broken in. These were pairs of identical cables, except one was new and one was broken in. Every time there was an easily discernible difference in the sound of a new cable and one that was broken in. The differences were not subtle. I'm not claiming an improvement in sound, or no improvement in sound for that matter, just that there was a easily heard difference.

There's something in the air....

But it does seems to me there is something to the break in aspect for cables, as with about anything else in audio.

It’s easy enough to find out if there is in fact any erstwhile changes by way of run in... Listen immediately upon integration of the ???, then just let the ??? play for 100 hours... (some will say just leaving it plugged in and energized is sufficient but I've my doubts about that), and then listen again at the intended mark.

your ears sure won't have time to 'adjust' or 'attune' to any changes that way... only the ??? and your memory will have had time to change.

Personally, I don't tell my other cables who is the eldest nor do I celebrate their birthdays... or watch a calendar with their anniversaries in mind.

I'll keep wires until I am either ready to try something else, or can afford to do so... or if I break one... that's only happend once with some Monster M1000 cables... the connector split and then just busted right off. I’m likewise with components’

Oxidation does change things too, impeding current flow. If you've ever cleaned off the oxidation at the terminations and applied some contact enhancement solution, you'll note the diffs. That same thing is going on inside the cables... just at a much slower rate, as they are more protected from direct exposure to the elements which cause it.

This process takes way more time than six months. Or a year. think 'years' in fact., and it requires some exposure to the air itself.

Think NOS Vacuum tubes. Right? There’s no air in there. Just on the exposed pins.

Folks who continually buy and replace their cabling likely do the same thing with other pieces of gear too. it's not the components or the cabling that's wearing out there, it's the people themselves having worn out their fascination with those pieces. I feel it's more about change for those sorts than it is the music itself... sometimes.

Add to it makers continue to offer newer editions of the same item or its complete replacement which introduces some doubt or desire to said consumer and Violin! Free enterprise thrives!

I guess too it is where ever and how ever you find your happiness. Finding it with what you have, or believeing it to be somewhere else. the latter can become an obsession, and true happiness is seldom, if ever, gained from constant rearrangement, or change without end, or for its own sake.