I'm an old school guy and like to burn/break in myself and listen to the gradual changes in my sound system. It seems that listening to your audio system by using your ears is a lost art these days. Also keep in mind when running your tube phono preamplifier or any other tube gear you have 24/7 will lower the overall life of those vacuum tubes.
Value of burn/break in?
I have my first hi end audio system. I fired it up, popped in a cd, and it doesn't have the vibrant sound that I thought it might have. I have a slightly used demo power amp from a dealer, slightly used demo speakers from a dealer, but a brand new tube preamp. A friend of mine told me that I will see a huge difference in sound quality once the tube preamp breaks in. I was wondering if I should get a break in cd or just wait till normal listening does the job