[prepress]

Not as high-end as many here, but I believe it is possible that cables, as with gear, can change over time. I experienced it.

I replaced some Kimber Hero IC with Transparent Plus a while back. Playing one of my go-to tracks, it didn't sound much different than the Hero. I thought, "leave it for a while." The following week I played the same track, and the sound was different. It was smoother on the top end. And the detail was still there, plus a wee bit more. There weren't that many hours on the Plus; I'd guesstimate ten.

Maybe "break-in" is the wrong term from a technical standpoint? Anyway, while I don't discount science, I also am persuaded science doesn't/can't explain everything. There is theory and there is reality, and the two are sometimes at odds. There must be some objective process occurring to explain what happened in my case and that of many others. Perhaps there's simply no measurement or test for it, at least not yet.

Not feeling well today, but I hope the above is coherent enough.