As Rodman states, the preamp doesn't need to be on, I've burned in tons of cables, capacitors this way. Get a real cheapo cd player for the burn in, $100 or less, good investment for further burns.
Another Cable Burn-in Question
I've checked the archives and I'm still not certain about this. I want to burn-in a new ic cable between CD player and preamp. I set the CD player to repeat/play but does the preamp need to be turned on? I'd rather not leave my tubed pre on during burn-in if I don't have to.