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SR Tuning Discs, Psychoacoustic Bias and Listening Fatigue

By the way the SR Tuning Discs are snake oil. They don’t make a damned bit of difference. Careful about psychoacoustic bias. Fresher ears hear small differences greater than fatigued ears. At first listen, again A-B ing instantaneously with streamer cable plus Disc against exact same master and material on CD player transport digitally into same Bryston DAC, the two sources about 5 seconds apart to hear “phrase” of that duration in instant back to back repetition, I THOUGHT I heard a shocking large difference. But it was the first listen of the day. Then removed Disc from cable and did same thing. A LITTLE less dramatic difference. Ok. Then put Disc back onto cable. About the SAME as last. Hmmm. Then repeated this whole process about 6 more times to be sure. Then left room for hour. Came back in and did test once WITHOUT Disc. BIG DIFFERENCE. Like first test of the day with Disc ON cable. 

CONCLUSION :  THE DIFFERENCES I HEARD WHICH I INITIALLY ATTRIBUTED TO THE SR TUNING DISCS WERE PSYCHOACOUSTIC AND LISTENING FATIGUE BIAS. SYNERGISTIC RESEARCH TUNING DISCS MAKE ZERO DIFFERENCE. 

But that’s my opinion. You can take it with a grain of salt if you so desire. 

tlcocks
jayctoy's avatar
jayctoy
3,997 posts
 

The tweak that really works is PURON from Vera Fi.

sgordon1
424 posts
 

If you can’t return the SR Tuning Discs, I will buy them from you.

tlcocks OP
441 posts
 

Tried them as part of the cable loaner program with The Cable Company. Didn’t buy. 

waytoomuchstuff's avatar
waytoomuchstuff
1,091 posts
 

A couple of thoughts here on "psychoacoustics":

We are overlooking the aspect of NEGATIVE BIAS, whereas a proposed concept "pegs the needle on our BS meter" yet produced clearly audible benefits.  I'm sure I'm not alone when mentally evaluating the viability of a new "tweak" with a high degree of skepticism, only to discover very positive (mind blowing?) results in many cases.  This would certainly remove the psychoacoustics element of "wanting it to sound better" from the equation, and apply "rational subjectivity" to the testing.

The term "Snake Oil" implies the intent to defraud through deceptive practices.  I would submit that the vast majority of manufacturers make a good faith effort to provide legitimate sonic benefits of their products and have done their due diligence.  Products that have endured for generations have, in my opinion, reduced the "snake oil prospect" to a number approaching zero.  "Snake oil" products are rare, and an exception in this industry.

I have no doubt that some audio enthusiasts have inserted something "new" into their systems with no sonic benefit.  They HEARD what they HEARD.  And, on the opposite end of the spectrum, the same identical "tweak" was clearly beneficial in another system.  And, they HEARD what they HEARD.  it doesn't make one or the other right or wrong.  Just an entirely different set of variables -- including our ears.

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