DAC break-in question

I do believe that break-in does happen. However,

1. I think the general sound characteristic of a component will be apparent when you first hear it. I do not believe that a new component will sound like a clock radio when first used then 500 hours later it sounds amazing

2. I think break-in smooths out some general rough edges of its sound

3. I believe our ears break-in as well. Our brains can distinguish the smallest of sound changes. I compare it to renting an unfamiliar car for a week on vacation. After a couple of days, you begin to feel normal with the differences compared to your regular car. 

4. Our ears change as well. Some days (very few)I can't listen to anything. My system sounds terrible. Most of the time, I love how my system sounds. 

I think break-in is a combination of many things.

I think that it's part of the game we play. When I built my amps, I was expecting 5-700 hours to burn them in. It's been a great journey, noticing when a significant step has been achieved, sharing the almost blossoming of the system with my wife as we take the time to listen for a couple of hours each night. (and getting very competitive in cards...)

My system has yet to hit it's peak, I bought the speakers first, decided I needed better power, so within a month of purchasing the speakers, I added two tube mono blocks and a tube pre-amp. Also threw in dual subs within a few weeks of hooking up the amps. Pretty much the whole thing is burning in before my ears and it's pretty cool. Oh, yea, I have a bluesound vault that has also been burning in, and if a loki max needs burn in...all pretty much the same age. 

My system does sound better each week, now, thinking of adding a phono stage and TT, also upgrading the bluesound, but will wait a while.

If your computer or microwave oven doesn't need a break-in period, then the same goes for your audio gear.
 

Tangentially, when I purchased a used Aesthetix Romulus that had been unplugged for a year, Aesthetix told me that a month on standby would bring it back to full performance...

when breaking in my amps, my buddy lent me these resistors to connect to the outputs so I didn’t have to hear music all night. It was pretty cool, turn it on and stream music through the system, but their was some music, when you stood close to the amps, you could hear the tubes singing. Not sure anyone’s tried this, but you can hear the songs by just listening to the tubes.