I hope break in is true

I think within the audiophile community the phenomenon of break in time has been exaggerated too much. Technically there exists a "break in time". This is a phenomenon that has been associated with electro-mechanical transducers, like moving coil loudspeaker drivers, phono cartridges and microphones. In audio electronics and cables there shouldn't be a need for break in. And if there is such a phenomenon with audio electronics and cables, I don't believe it is so dramatic that it will give a "day and night" difference. This would be "magic" and the longer I'm into high-end audio the less magic remains. Electronics and cables should sound good from the very beginning (or sound bad). If you have not a very good sounding unit, don't expect to get very good sound after let's say 100 + more hours of break in time. Of course the majority of you will not agree with this!

Chris

My Esoteric X03-SE took 1200 hours to break in. No myth. No Joke. Others who have it said the same-my dealer has one also and, again, took him over 1000 hours. I'd say some items sound very god out of the box and get better after 100 hours or so (+); The Esoteric sounded absolutely horrible out of the box and is now one of the best CD players I have heard - no joke, guys.

Throwing another of my two cents - don't confuse break in and warming up. My gear still takes 40 or so minutes before sounding it's best. The squeezebox/benchmark only takes about 20 minutes or so but the Esoteric likes to play a bit longer before blowing my mind. My Meridian 588 took 2 hours before sounding it's best (which I never thought was very good, by the way--but much better than when it first started playing).

Every new component I have purchased has had a noticeable increase in SQ. It has ranged from subtle to Wow. A recent pre-amp purchase was a Wow. Its phono stage has gone from meh to glorius. After break in I believe the caps, resistors, ect finally reach their proper/rated operating spec, therefore I think this is designed in from the beginning.

As the previous post mentioned, my system like a side or two before its all warm and fuzzy. 

I've never purchased a new piece of equipment where I did not like at first, then after a few weeks, I started liking. Sounds like talking yourself into the component and settling. Now, I believe break in is very real. However, the MAJOR sonic character should be there out of the box. I'm not saying you cannot improve it with speaker placement, etc. 

again. That's just me.