Some have suggested that a test of the DBS can be conducted by listening with the battery connected and then disconnected. Stereophile tried that approach and heard no difference. Audioquest countered that such a test would not reveal anything since the purpose of the battery's electric field is to keep the dialectic formed, and once formed it takes days or weeks to unform.
The way I understand it is that the battery helps keep the dialectric in the same state as if you played the cable regularly or daily. So, the only meaningful test would be to have identical cables, one with the battery pack attached, and one without the battery pack attached and which had not been used for some relatively long period. Even then, if you played the cable without the battery pack long enough during the testing, its performance would approach that of the other cable.
So this is a difficult situation to evaluate. My experience with the AQ DBS is that I do not seem to notice any significant change in sound (breakin) after periods of several days of not playing the system. Whether that is due to the DBS or not I can not prove, however, at the least it keeps me from fretting about it.
The way I understand it is that the battery helps keep the dialectric in the same state as if you played the cable regularly or daily. So, the only meaningful test would be to have identical cables, one with the battery pack attached, and one without the battery pack attached and which had not been used for some relatively long period. Even then, if you played the cable without the battery pack long enough during the testing, its performance would approach that of the other cable.
So this is a difficult situation to evaluate. My experience with the AQ DBS is that I do not seem to notice any significant change in sound (breakin) after periods of several days of not playing the system. Whether that is due to the DBS or not I can not prove, however, at the least it keeps me from fretting about it.