I feel sorry for that one guy who hates "broken in" gear...he has to replace the whole system every couple of weeks. I use a Dennis Had SEP amp for which I have a pile of tubes to swap in and out whenever I feel like it, which I find entertaining. I alternate that amp with a Pass XA-25 and both amps sound astonishingly good and have really interesting differences so, yeah, I have too much free time.
Are You A Disciplined Audiophile?
The issue of whether break-in is real aside for now, when you make a change in your system, such as a new component or cable, do you have the discipline to wait before making any other changes? I usually mark my calendar for a month and perhaps 2 months and try to change nothing else for that period of time so I can better assess exactly what the new thing is doing. But sometimes it’s difficult to wait. IMO, break in is a real thing, both in the component and the listener, but even if you don’t believe components and cables change after a few days, can you wait at least a month to listen to enough music to adjust your ears to what the new thing brings to the system on its own?