[mikeeastman]

I upgrade some of the wire in my amp and would like to burn it in but I can't have speakers playing 24 hr a day. I was told that I could put 8 ohm 5 watt resistor across either my speaker terminals or the end of my speaker cables to burn in the amp, will this work? Any down sides to this method?

[Speedskater]

A 8 Ohm resistor - Yes.
A 5 Watt resistor No. Unless it's a very small SET amp.

A resistor gets very, very hot at it's rated power.
Most amplifiers get unhappy when operating continuously at 1/3 rated power. Read some of the Stereophile amp tests.

[jtwrace]

You can use these. 

[Davey]

Wire doesn't need burn in.  But if you want a nice, cheap dummy load find and old toaster and liberate the nichrome wire from it to construct a load.

Dave.

[mikeeastman]

Thank you all for your responses.