Burning in a new setup

 You are thinking clearly, break in is real. My method is unscientific, I just queue up an internet station and let it play at low volumes for days. Choose one that mirrors your listening tastes.

Electronics cleaner is not the same as Deoxit. For used equipment, and especially vintage, you want to use something like Deoxit that will remove oxidation. Get some swabs and clean the interior of all the jacks you will be using, it will make a difference. 

I've consistently noticed changes with break-in, both with new gear and older gear that has not been used in a long time...certainly varies with different brands models and type of gear...not sure why this topic seems to agitate some listeners...it's free and easy and eventually happens anyway...

I’m currently breaking in a phono preamp and a new turntable. I’m 12- 15 albums in, I hear a difference already, break-in is real. My system is mostly Tube Based, so the tubes are progressively improving as they probably have only about 200 or so hours on them, depending on the component. My Aero DAC probably only has about 50 hours on it as I just put it in around November. (big difference from the native BlueSound DAC.) 

Listen and enjoy, like watching your kids grow up, each step should be enjoyed, don’t get caught up in always wanting to be further along in the process than you are. 

There certainly is some burn-in going on with any new equipment. I just suggest a different location: between the ears. AKA habituation.

+1 @jasonbourne71 @blackbag20 @roadcykler

@roadcykler - how does that explain how I can buy a new pair of headphones, listen to them for a bit, then put them on the back of a chair and let them go for a hundred or so hours without listening to them at all, and them putting them back on and they sound completely different, and like they should? I would have returned them if they'd continued sounding like they did out of the box. For headphones and speakers, burn-in is very, very real and understandably so, unless you choose to deny my (and many, many others') experience with this. Things that have burned in sound better because they've been burned in.