If cables can break-in, can they then wear-out?

The fix is to install VHF transponders as the RCA/XLR connections... on all conponents... then cables, aside from power cables, will no longer be necessary... eg., wireless headphones.

Eventually, when the send/receive units are evolved sufficiently for audiophiliac purposes, even the air itself won't be an issue.... better yet use ULTRA high freq as range won't be an issue.

Now I'm wondering why this or direct sight lasers/optics aren't the deal instead of wires for signal transmission??

Especially with Same Same conponent brands at least as an option.

OK!! I have had more than one speaker cable 'go bad'.
Monster (long ago in a galaxy far away) tarnish so bad they became a throw-away. AudioQuest Midnight cables the dielectric covering on the wires failed after 15 years or so. Stick with a teflon coated wire!!!!
I still use some home made Levinson wire cables I made nearly 25 years ago.
The culprit is the dielectric coating on the metal. Good coating equals: last for a really, really long time. Poor coating or one that will degrade equals: bad.

No they will not wear out if they are not abused or exposed to a detrimental environment. Break in is for real...unless your deaf of course IMHO

Yes.

Nothing lasts forever!

But cables should last a rally long time though. Our ears will probably go up first.

As a former test equipment calibration lab tech, you'd think I felt measurements were everything, but I have seen far too many components (cables included) that measure EXACTLY the same with steady state signals sound vastly different with music.

Now I just repair gear praying I don't change the original equipment sound whilst doing it.

I think we do not yet know WHAT to measure to ensure a particular sound. Years of measuring have given us a pretty close approximation, but something is truly missing in our gear or our approach.