The actual practical months-long nightmare of wasting time enacting the psychotic ritual of comparing high-end cables using the worthless criteria of sighted listening and a mind infested with daft ideas of “strain relief” and burn-in, is poignantly described in this passage:
We still must get those cables home and patiently try them out. Upon arrival, they are likely to need some mechanical relaxation and strain relief, gentle reflex bending in all directions following release from their packaging. Electrical running in and conditioning, too, often result in subtle improvements over time, maybe as much as months, with no guaranteed outcome.
“With no guaranteed outcome”! It’s like something from a particularly surreal Oliver Sacks case study.