Why does it take so many hours to brea in arc preamps and amps?

BTW, having a "long" break-in time isn't necessarily indicative of Teflon caps. I've had ARC gear that claimed a 500 hour break in with nothing fancier than Wima polypropylene caps.

I’ve had ARC gear that claimed a 500 hour break in with nothing fancier than Wima polypropylene caps.

ARC claimed this themselves in writing? Or are they saying owners report this.
I’d love to see where that’s written if they claim this.
If they did, they maybe playing on the "expectation bias" of customers so aptly named by Ralph (Atmasphere).

Cheers George

200 hrs will be a starting point for improved sound. By 400-500 hrs of listening time, one will hear where the time went in regards to continued sound improvement.  Teflon takes at least 600 hrs, more like upwards of 1000 hrs, to acheive optimum sound.  Sit back, relax and enjoy the journey.
Oh yeah, enjoy the Music as well.

Happy Listening!

When a designer is building a new product and makes changes, the component gets broken in before they listen to it.

I’m not talking prototypes, it’s production ones I’m referring to.
And the way your inferring is that the production ones are deliberately out of adjustment/calibration to factor in "break-in" period, which after those adjustment/calibrations are magically back in spec?? I think not.

To all those that say the manufacture has specified a certain "break-in" period, please link the rest of us to those manufacturers links, instead of it being just personal opinion.

Cheers George