OK...here's another tweak that really works

Ayre makes a "tune up" disc. "Irrational but Efficacious!".

I haven’t used mine in a while. Thanks for reminding me!

https://www.amazon.com/Cardas-Acoustics-Irrational-Efficacious-Burn/dp/B00OY8UXME

I use the Ayre disc with everything new to help break it in. I try to use it every few months just to blow out the dust bunnies.

All the best,
Nonoise

Who you jiving with that cosmic debris?

Purist Audio Design Luminist System Enhancer

Atlas Burnin-X

Luminist System Enhancer

Tellurium Q and Wake Up X

Most of the benefits of can be obtained from simple pink noise:

https://open.qobuz.com/album/ql10ah7iv20wc

koestner, thank you for that.  it brought a smile

I've found the Anthem's digital ARC produces reliable tweaks that cover th supersonic to subsonic range with total consistency. Assuming you have a compatible preamp interface, the program itself costs nothing.

The Isotek has been doing this for years as a runn cd as well as a 5 minute system tuneup demagnitizer and I use it every 2-3 days and works well.

$40 for literally noise?! Do the people who develop crap like this really think it works or know it doesn't but with good marketing, they can sell it to audiophools? 

Ayre  CD disc. "Irrational but Efficacious!".

I also use the Cardas Frequency Sweep & Burn-in record .

Who listens to CD's these days?

I wonder how mrskeptic got his name?

+1 @mrskeptic ! As Rocky the Squirrel said to Bullwinkle the Moose: "You don't have to be a squirrel to be nuts!"

"Who listens to CD's these days?". I certainly do. Do you not? How sad.

...or you can download any number of 'noise' aps....most of the room eq programs have pink, white, sweeps....

I'd leave the room, at least.

Better to just leave town for the weekend, and see how many of your neighbors would even speak to you afterwards....

Well played, brauser.

My most memorable "tweaks" are the one's I approached with a high degree of skepticism.  Especially those that pegged the needle on my BS meter.  Then, "something" happened.  And, I think to myself: "I really wish I'd put my Depends on before I started this session."  The Ayre disc comes to mind as an example.

Thanks for sharing, and "volunteering" to take the abuse you're certain to take here with your post.

I noticed a difference after playing the Ayre Glide Tone, but I noticed the same difference in my system later after playing a rock song at a very high volume.

Thanks for sharing, and "volunteering" to take the abuse you're certain to take here with your post.

This is very sad affair. Putting up with the abuse from the same typical names (like the jason bourne dude, the resident hater), over and over. We should not be scared to post anything here. I don't get it

Does jasonbourne52 ever have a single useful thing to say, or is his sole function to ridicule those who try to use this forum for its intended purposes?

Clear political correctness off this forum.

@thyname     Jason is always polite in his criticisms.  You seem to be saying that everyone can post on here, except him.   Bring back free speech.

I would hate this to become a forum where no-one can disagree with the overweening prats..  If I wanted that I would go to university and pull down statues to greater men than the prats.

I've never tried a burn-in or tune-up disc, but it makes sense.

I'd certainly be open to giving it a shot.

I guess it boils down to whether or not you believe in "burn in" or that the sound of components (and cables) can change over time.

I certainly do.

And I certainly still listen to CDs. 

cporada

18 posts

08-16-2022 at 09:57am 

Does jasonbourne52 ever have a single useful thing to say, or is his sole function to ridicule those who try to use this forum for its intended purposes?

Do you have anything useful to say, or do you just ridicule the people who call crap, crap?

Jason is always polite in his criticisms.  You seem to be saying that everyone can post on here, except him.   Bring back free speech.

LOL!!!

And it's a CD for fu*&^'s sake! Buying to try it won't ruin anyone's financial life

anyone who's skeptical of this type of thing should listen to harsh noise for an hour, then put on something pretty. it's like pressing reset on your ears. unclear to me whether the effects have anything to do with the gear itself, but it is very real and immediately noticeable.

@laoman Agree I listen to them CD's also as they are so cheap. 

I have many useful things to say, as you can see from my other posts. I am just tired of seeing Jason insult everyone who inquires about products that don't fit within his "norm". I asked an innocent question about a Zobel network on another thread and he crapped on that and tore me a new a**hole, too, for no apparent reason.  It was a legitimate electrical engineering question. I've never seen him contribute anything other than to say "nay", which he seems to do fairly uniformly.  If he doesn't believe any tweaks do anything, why bother reading and posting on a forum discussing tweaks?

Also, I certainly feel all have the right to express themselves; I just don't see the utility of calling BS each time anyone asks about their experience with a product. The posters are asking for opinions from people who have actually tried the product and have something helpful to say

"And it's a CD for fu*&^'s sake! Buying to try it won't ruin anyone's financial life"

Not that my financial life is of anyone's business, despite what most of the naysayers out there seem to think. Gotta save me from myself, right? LOL.

:)

I've learned to just ignore the people on here who share uninformed opinions about a product. I mean, they've never actually tried the product in question, but they vehemently seem to think their opinion matters. They're usually big fans of ASR, lol.

Thanks guys. I probably should have said that I use the Ayre Disc regularly and that what I'm experiencing with the Mathew Bond Disc is a different kind of improvement. 

Also, even though I still play CDs, I'm more focused now on streaming using Tidal. So all I can say is that the benefits do not seem to be source dependent.

As an aside comment...it amazes me that audiophiles will spend small fortunes in hopes of system improvements through componet upgrades, but will sneer at the thought of spending $40 or less on a tweak that might have a greater real benefit.

@brauser , you have a very impressionable brain. You should start attending seances.

It's fine to discuss the merits or lack thereof of any individual product, but why the character assassination? I suppose judgement fits need to construct human hierarchy pyramid with them on top.

Maybe Jason wouldn't come across as so obnoxious if he didn't end practically every sentence with an exclamation mark, which denotes a large amount of emphasis, like he's yelling at some kids who's ball fell in his yard, or at the passing clouds.

All the best,
Nonoise

It’s fine to discuss the merits or lack thereof of any individual product, but why the character assassination? I suppose judgement fits need to construct human hierarchy pyramid with them on top

+1

While I tend to agree with @jasonbourne52 most of the time…
There is possible some science that could explain what the disc possibly is doing. (!) <— @nonoise 

https://purifi-audio.com/2020/04/28/dist/

Kind of like clearing the slopes so the next run is on smoother snow. 

All the best,
Nonoise

Excellent analogy @nonoise 

OP: Excellent thread. FWIW, I still use the "Sheffield Lab / XLO Test & Burn-In CD" from 30 or so years ago. It works well. 

I have two similar CDs. The Ayre’s Irrational But Efficacious, and the Isotek’s Full system Enhancer. They both work very well. I use both of them when I get new gear, as well as probably once a month with existing gear for demag 

Whenever I have new components or capacitors or cables to burn-in, I just go to Youtube and search for "burn in tracks". There are actually many, they are free to use, some of them are very long (more than an hour) and they work. I try to alternate those with pink noise and it really does help the bur-in process. 

I suppose it can be beneficial to play those tracks every once in a while just to "remove the dust".

It doesn't take long for a particular person to come out of the closet.  They are constantly waiting for every opportunity to pounce on any one they can.  I am beginning to think if this individual has every tried listening to a decent set of speaker wires.  I remember hooking up my Synergist Research cables and I thought they sounded harsh at first.  It turned out was hearing the high frequencies for the first time.

Interesting!  Burn-in with noise is better than with music.  Why?  Is there scientific proof? It is like breaking in a brand-new vehicle with harsh rather than gental driving behavior.

Interesting!  Burn-in with noise is better than with music.  Why?  Is there scientific proof? It is like breaking in a brand-new vehicle with harsh rather than gental driving behavior.

@lanx0003 

http://www.mototuneusa.com/break_in_secrets.htm

I have both the IBE CD and the Cardas LP and yes, they make an audible difference (actually I like the effect after a few plays of music).

The most profound effect was from the Gryphon Exorcist but it was way too pricey for me.

No one seems to know how it works… go figure.

"The human brain is an incredible pattern matching machine" - Jeff Bezos

That is the problem. Cable break in does not exist.  Audio is AC, so degaussing residual DC in a dielectric would be nullified in a couple of milliseconds of play.

However if you stop flexing your cables and just leave them alone the micro-fractures from handling the face centered cubic copper wire structure might join back somewhat.  However I doubt the difference is noticeable.

Most likely, running a signal for a while might also strengthen  a tentatively poor connection. Since the change you noticed should not happen if your cables were OK in the first place, you should really get some measuring equipment for a small fraction of your investment.  Meanwhile use some antioxidating connectivity fluid.  It is a good practice to do that anyway. 

There are those who can not accept a product unless it makes perfect technical sense. I respect that, but experientially if it works, then why not enjoy the ride instead letting the lack of logic be a barrier. I personally like to know how a thing works. I also like to make improvements in my systems where I can hear things that I did not before, see a more defined image, feel more connected to the sights and sounds, etc. To me the experience trumps the logic. 

There are those who can not accept a product unless it makes perfect technical sense. I respect that, but experientially if it works, then why not enjoy the ride instead letting the lack of logic be a barrier. I personally like to know how a thing works.

It is better if it can be shown to work either with measurements, or * blind listening tests. Then one can know that it works, even if there is no logical hypothesis to explain it.

I also like to make improvements in my systems where I can hear things that I did not before, see a more defined image, feel more connected to the sights and sounds, etc. To me the experience trumps the logic.

Once we “see” a device, we then also expect a difference.
That creates a bias of expectation.

We logically believe that it is (or should be) different, and we then experience it as different, even if it is not different.

I routinely (every couple of months) loop the Ayre for a couple of hours when I’m not around. I believe it has a positive effect as others have suggested, it didn’t break anything.  For a few sawbucks that includes the bank! I would make the purchase again given the results, real or perceived.  

@ holmz

We may have to agree to disagree on some points. I know there is always a psychological element at work, but if you have been around a lot of live acoustic music, played an acoustic instrument or been in the hobby for an extended period of time, then I do believe you can develop an 'educated ear' and can reliably tell the difference between something different versus something better. I think where the confusion often comes into play is when there is an overexposure taking place such as going to an audio/video show and visiting dozens of different rooms. Even so, though, I still believe that even in an environment like that an experienced audio/videophile can reach some valid conclusions.

So for me, I pretty much trust my eyes and ears knowing that not everyone would agree, and that's OK.

Personally I find that packing behind my ears with petroleum jelly alleviates minute vibration throughout the ear canal which in turn, dutifully increases my sensitivity to sub 30hz bass...🤯

deecee

" actually I like the effect after a few plays of music "

I've noticed the same , thought it was just me .

@ holmz

We may have to agree to disagree on some points. I know there is always a psychological element at work, but if you have been around a lot of live acoustic music, played an acoustic instrument or been in the hobby for an extended period of time, then I do believe you can develop an 'educated ear' and can reliably tell the difference between something different versus something better. I think where the confusion often comes into play is when there is an overexposure taking place such as going to an audio/video show and visiting dozens of different rooms. Even so, though, I still believe that even in an environment like that an experienced audio/videophile can reach some valid conclusions.

So for me, I pretty much trust my eyes and ears knowing that not everyone would agree, and that's OK,

That may all be true, but the psychological element is well studied and documented, so it makes it easier believe that these things are likely based in psychology versus based in reality.

If we want a way to remove the bias in believing it is all psychology, then how could we do that?