Some believe in break in--others don't. I'm one of the firm believers. It's cool if others disagree.
When I had the $16K DAC in my system, I listened closely to a number of tunes I know very, very well. What I noticed was the soundstage tended to "float around" and be a little loose, in spite of being a little larger. It sounded good, but "off." Not different--"off." After another 100 hours, it pulled itself together and much of the things that didn't sound right to me sounded corrected--more cohesive. I asked the dealer, without indicating why I was asking, if this was a new unit or the previous version (there had been an update). He said "yeah, current version, brand new...it's been played for a day or two only since we pulled it out of the box." Then without my saying another word he said "Sorry, it's definitely not broken in either, so please keep it a couple weeks."
Doesn't prove anything, nor am I trying to sway you. But while I don't know that you'll hear a completely "magical" change, I do suspect you'll hear a soundstage improvement at some point in weeks 3 or 4, including the soundstage getting bigger. And I also think powering it on helps, but having it's output section outputting signal is also an important break-in step in my opinion...I think you want it fully doing it's thing.
My further experience: if you buy tubes from the factory, they change in the first week or so (output, driver, rectifiers--all uses). If you build new crossovers for speakers, they mellow out and change in sound over the first couple of weeks (often sounding downright bad at first). If you get a new cart for your turntable, you hear changes as you get through the first 50 albums or so, especially as you cycle back through favorites. I'd prefer break-in didn't exist (I'm terribly impatient, especially with new, expensive equipment). But I will never be convinced it doesn't unfortunately. YMMV, obviously.
When I had the $16K DAC in my system, I listened closely to a number of tunes I know very, very well. What I noticed was the soundstage tended to "float around" and be a little loose, in spite of being a little larger. It sounded good, but "off." Not different--"off." After another 100 hours, it pulled itself together and much of the things that didn't sound right to me sounded corrected--more cohesive. I asked the dealer, without indicating why I was asking, if this was a new unit or the previous version (there had been an update). He said "yeah, current version, brand new...it's been played for a day or two only since we pulled it out of the box." Then without my saying another word he said "Sorry, it's definitely not broken in either, so please keep it a couple weeks."
Doesn't prove anything, nor am I trying to sway you. But while I don't know that you'll hear a completely "magical" change, I do suspect you'll hear a soundstage improvement at some point in weeks 3 or 4, including the soundstage getting bigger. And I also think powering it on helps, but having it's output section outputting signal is also an important break-in step in my opinion...I think you want it fully doing it's thing.
My further experience: if you buy tubes from the factory, they change in the first week or so (output, driver, rectifiers--all uses). If you build new crossovers for speakers, they mellow out and change in sound over the first couple of weeks (often sounding downright bad at first). If you get a new cart for your turntable, you hear changes as you get through the first 50 albums or so, especially as you cycle back through favorites. I'd prefer break-in didn't exist (I'm terribly impatient, especially with new, expensive equipment). But I will never be convinced it doesn't unfortunately. YMMV, obviously.