I've heard of these kinds of experiences. So you're saying that today you play some music & believe that it sounds noticeably better than it did yesterday? Or this month sounds better than last month? I have no idea how it's possible to hear something today & be able to compare it in your brain with something you heard yesterday or last month & determine that it's noticeably better. Assuming that if there is actually any change it's a slow improvement day by day, the ability to suddenly compare with a previous month seems unbelievable.
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@dwcda it happens to me all the time, from day to day, without changing a thing and i have no idea why. sometimes i just turn off my gear cuz nothing sounds right. and it really is frustrating. but that's my reality.
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@dwcda - I can understand your skepticism. What I am noticing is the system settling in. The details become more apparent. It could be totally imagined or maybe a mood I'm in- but as for now I am enjoying what I'm hearing and that's what its all about.
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I’ll share an experience I had with gear breaking in. Years ago I needed to buy two of the same stereo amp for a bi-amping project I was working on. I got the amps long before I was ready to use both of them, so I gave them both a listen, determined they sounded the same, and then I put one back in its box and played the other one around the clock for a month. When I wasn’t home or in bed I played pink noise through load resistors.
After one month the improvement was very obvious to my ears. So, I pulled the other one out of the box and compared it. It had improved just as much! This doesn’t tell everybody’s story, but it does suggest that we break in as much as the gear does. It takes time to adapt to a system that sounds different. These amps sounded brighter, leaner in the bass than what I had before. They were early switching amps with digital input, and because of that they were a zero feedback design. When I plugged in an amp with actual feedback the bass was overwhelming at first, and seemed excessively thick in the lower mids.
I agree, enjoyment is what it's all about. There's no exactly correct sound presentation, but over time you may find you can adapt to some better than others. It does take time to settle in to a sound to discover what it has to offer, and where it ultimately may disappoint.
Currently I don't change equipment much, but with active crossovers that I can change at a whim, I get a lot of different sounds. I've learned to listen for at least a few weeks before changing something, unless it's unbearable. Also, it's great that I can save settings and compare them again later. Everything has ups and downs. Lately I've settled on a more prominent midrange sound that's rolled off a little more than what it takes to get best realism and airiness. It sort of sounds old fashioned to me, but it's proven easy to listen to for many weeks now.
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Could it possibly be you? My understanding of noise evolves over time. My listening experience has gotten much better. Even though my Hearing ability is diminished because I am 74 years old. I often hear things that I’ve never heard before on LPs that I’ve listened to several times. They were always there. I never heard them though. I’ve had the same speakers in front end for three years, but my hearing continues to evolve.
Bent
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I didn’t say that right what I meant was my HEARING experience continues to evolve.
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Possibly you are listening better.
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The neighbors turned off their air conditioning!! I love that.
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At the already obvious risk of proving that I'm a outlier on a quest of being a nattering naysayer of that which might be obvious....
We break in....the equipment?
Not so much.
It's fabricated with inorganic materials, essentially to varied specifications.
You are not.
For a sloshy collection of organic materials with a 'wet-wire' com/control/feedback system prone to error big and small.....with a near-terrifying resolve that
"...we know what we're doing..."
THAT, Dear friends, is why I have restraint in comments about your system. it's components, and etc.
I'm not used to how it sounds in your space.
Likely, a hellava lot different than mine.
Gimme a week....I can sleep in the bathtub.
A cup of coffee (Black....like my attitude...) will extract me better than turning the cold tap on.....
I'll leave your spouse/sig,other alone....
I've already one of my own.....don't need such complications.....
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OP
It’s probably your brain acclimating to the new sounds. Does it matter as long as you are content, although I suspect that the upgrade itch will soon bite again
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@polkalover
Sitting here starting my second cuppa coffee mulling over your post.
Just thinking about how much I enjoyed listening to music through a six transistor japanese pocket AM radio back in 1964 and if it would still sound as good today as it did then.
Those germanium bipolar transistors should be broken in by now
I'm sure it would need a new battery... But which would sound better, Everready, Duracell, Ray-o-Vac, something Lithium?
[Caution: the preceding comment - or even this one - not for consumption by the satirically -challenged nor irony-deficient audiophile]
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There are variables - weather/atmospheric pressure, temperature, voltage swings, mood swings, allergies, fatigue, stress, etc....
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Your central nervous system is burning in. All kinds of psychoacoustical snd physical adaptations are occurring. Don't do anything. Continue to burn in, adapt and become one with your rig.
A coupla months from now, one may wonder...Where's Polkalover? And the answer will become obvious... he's in the wires...he is in his cartridge...he's inside his tweeters...he is in his amp's power supply....he is everywhere...a logic defying malleable ethereal being is he.
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@shtinkydog...Yes, you are spot on. About once a month everything I throw at it sounds crappy. FM radio, LP's. streaming, whatever, Time to find something else to do.
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@dwcda it happens to me all the time, from day to day, without changing a thing and i have no idea why. sometimes i just turn off my gear cuz nothing sounds right. and it really is frustrating. but that's my reality.
I get that. But on the good days it makes no sense to me to say ah, it's good today because my cables burned in, or because my cartridge has 150 hours on it. Given that logic how does one justify the bad days?
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Congratulations OP
It’s always great to hear someone who is happy with their system. I’m hoping to get there with just one final change.😁
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@boxcarman as long as it's cheaper. 
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I don't think it's the power or speaker cables "breaking in" - that's just audiophile foolishness. Your cartridge, however, may have more to do with it. More than likely you are acclimating to the new cartridge and it's your brain "breaking in".
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I evaluate tweaks only late at night when the power grid has calmed down. During the day - especially in the summer - the power can be quite janky, and it's very audible.
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Congradulations OP,
It is great to hear you did the right thing as a result of some of the posts here. Breakin is a very real and important part of system building as is learning what your system sounds like. From continual daily listening you can appreciate what you system “sounds like” (its essence) as the different albums… mastered differently with different resolution go by. There is a very distinctive essence left behind that is the sound of your system. Typically this essence is far greater than the “sound” of an interconnect, or formate type or mastering. Each of these things change the sound of your system… but not the majority of its attributes. So, after you subconscious grasps it’s sound you can easily perceive very minor changes in its sound quality.
It is like someone from Hawaii sensing and describing snow versus someone living in a snowy climate. There are all sorts of subtle differences to snow instantly and describable to a person with lots of experience with it. I’m sure there are better examples… but hundreds of hours of exposure allows you to understand the sound of the system”.
You also, bring up one of the challenges of system building. The time it takes. If you upgrade your components one at a time, then interconnects, then power cords. Then you must let each component break in, then get know your system’s sound intimately before you can plan the next piece. So, an upgrade cycle will take about two years… and from my experience that is what they have always taken me. You can shorten this by replacing two components at a time or use a whole loom of interconnects… but unless you really know what you are doing, that adds a lot of risk of sub optimizing your system.
But thanks for bringing up such an important aspect of system building.
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It's been nearly 20 years as I haven't done anything except putting together more music.
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Polkalover…Great to hear you are in The Zone!
Always a pleasure when a Plan Comes Together.
However the synergy was arrived at, via changes in you or the equipment, enjoy.
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Daily changes in barometric pressure? This affects the speed of sound and therefore the peaks and troughs relative to where you sit.
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I've gotten used cables from The Cable Company's lending library and subsequently opted to buy new ones. It always takes awhile for the new ones to sound like the used ones and the sound can change quite dramatically along the way, depending upon the cable.
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Carts often need a break in period, and ambient temperature can affect them
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What this forum needs is more click-bait thread titles. 
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I can't afford a couple a 100,000 system plus ,so I play with my equipment and I do have alot of stuff,changing things around and I do hear different sounds all the time...lol.
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