<html> <body> <pre>>I say: If you rely on an external device your tuning ear will eventually >fall into a state of disuetude and suddenly you won't be able to tune >without a device at all. This is why I only use the CTS-5 to "help" lay the >bearings in just one 8ve. Then I turn it off and finish the job by ear. I >have yet to have a call-back on my tunings. </pre>Your ears do not suffer for lack of listening. Unisons are/should be tuned by ear with the exception of problematic unisons at breaks or false beats. Octaves, 2 oct, 3 oct, etc. are verified aurally after the note is set with the ETD. Your ear is saved for honing, the ETD does the pitching.  The bearings can be aurally checked too. When I first started using the VT, I checked the temperaments aurally and finally realized that it was a redundant exercise since the VT does a superb job. Your ears benefit by the decrease in db reaching them. Instead of pounding two notes, you're only hitting one note. Two notes are played only to verify, softly, not at a string setting volume. Your hand will suffer less stress also. Your general being benefits by your not having to be constantly 'ON' in regards to perception. (After all, tuning is probably 10% listening and 90% perception). The machine does 90% of the work, leaving your ears/perception to hone the final 10%.  A notable experience I had after starting with the VT was tuning for a school one afternoon. The drudgery of practice room pianos...after tuning four pianos, I walked out of there no worse the wear for having tuned one aurally. My head was not bombarded with db and befuddled with prolonged, focused concentration.  The VT is a welcome assistant. I have tweaked the stretch to match my aural tunings. Tuning has become so less tedious I almost feel I should be charging less... nahhhh. In fact, a review of a concert a few months ago included a remark that the piano was 'in perfect tune'... something which is not usually included in such reviews. I attribute what grabbed the reviewer's attention was the WT (Broadwood Best) and not so much my squeeky clean unisons and octaves. :-) Also, the VT User Forum is a wealth of info much the same as this forum. VT . . . I don't leave home without it. <x-sigsep></x-sigsep> Regards, Jon Page, piano technician Harwich Port, Cape Cod, Mass. <a href="mailto:jonpage@comcast.net" eudora="autourl">mailto:jonpage@comcast.net </a>~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~</body> </html>