Some days good, some bad!

[zumbo]

<font color='#000000'>This has been going on since I have been into car/home audio.

Some days a system will blow you away!

Some days you ask yourself, WTF?

So to all of you technical guys out there, what is up with this?

My only guess is current supplied to the amp. Does this fluctuate?

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[Rip Van Woofer]

<font color='#000000'>Dude, that's just life!  

I mean, don't you wake up some mornings and think &quot;it's great to be alive&quot; and others it's &quot;WTF, another #@$! day&quot;?

Seriously, state of mind, level of fatigue, and maybe even what you ate/drank or how well you slept all affect your senses. It sounds different from day to day because you're hearing (more precisely, perceiving) differently from day to day. It can even change with the time of day. Pharmaceuticals, whether prescription, over the counter, or &quot;recreational&quot; can obviously have effects on both hearing (narrowly defined as what's actually happening within the structures and nerves of your ears) and perception, too, of course.

Or...it could be good and evil spirits! Myself, I have a little altar made of old CDs and LPs, candles, and incense sticks with pictures of Beethoven, Mahler, Thelonius Monk and John Lennon next to my system. Every few days I sacrifice a chicken and pour a shot of vodka over the altar...</font>

 

[zumbo]

<font color='#000000'>There has to be more to this, as I am not the only one who can tell the difference. I had a good friend back in my younger years of car audio, and we would experience this on a regular basis &amp; could both tell when it sounded like $h!#!

And home audio has been the same. Yesterday my system, for the first time with this one, sounded like cr@p! Today it is kicking @$$!</font>

 

[Rip Van Woofer]

<font color='#000000'><table border="0" align="center" width="95%" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0"><tr><td>Quote </td></tr><tr><td id="QUOTE">I had a good friend back in my younger years of car audio, and we would experience this on a regular basis &amp; could both tell when it sounded like $h!#!
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Evil spirits, for sure! Next time it happens, go get a live chicken and a knife!

I never got into car audio but I'm guessing a lot more can go wrong in a car with the limits of power supply etc., and hence be more variable.

Decent audio gear can already handle the common electrical variations in house wiring and supply so I'm dubious about that. Some other sytem fault? Possible but like other intermittent faults probably really hard to trace.

Have you ever had times when you and a friend differed on the percieved sound of a system? It's possible you and the friend were coincidentally having a &quot;bad ear day&quot;!

I'm still leaning toward the psychoacoustic explanation. Now if you'll excuse me, the voices in my head are reminding me it's time for my medication...

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[zumbo]

<font color='#000000'>Maybe I will try that chicken &amp; vodka thing! Does it matter if the chicken is headless? How can it hear this way?

Thanks for the reply!

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[Rip Van Woofer]

<font color='#000000'><table border="0" align="center" width="95%" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0"><tr><td>

zumbo : Maybe I will try that chicken &amp; vodka thing! Does it matter if the chicken is headless? How can it hear this way?

Thanks for the reply!

When you cut the chicken's head off, you are symbolically sacrificing your own ears and mind to appease the spirits!

Oh, and you should drink a shot for each one you pour on the altar. Doesn't have to be vodka, either. I'm a bourbon fan myself. And I find that two or three &quot;sacrifices&quot; in this manner (but still only one chicken, of course) has the optimum effect on the gods and spirits. And lots of times I just say the hell with the chicken...

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[zumbo]

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[Rob Babcock]

<font color='#8D38C9'>Do you notice the sound changes depending on time of day? &nbsp;Often the power is better at night. &nbsp;You might try power treatment- your power can carry a lot of garbage that your gear can't filter out.</font>

 

[zumbo]

<font color='#000000'>Power treatment!

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[bombadil67]

<font color='#000000'>OK, a little late; but I had to get in on this. &nbsp;While not explaining the day to day fluctuations, there is a tweak you can perform to improve the sound of any audio system. . . . . . . clean out your ears!!! &nbsp;Serious, every six months or so my ears become quite impacted with wax. &nbsp;The good doc' says I have narrow canals. &nbsp;After swimming once, the wax became like cement and completely blocked hearing in my left ear! &nbsp;After several bottles of Liquid Plummer, the wax still remained! &nbsp;I actually had to go see the doc' after that little maneuver. &nbsp;

For all you with large canals, count your blessings. &nbsp;This is a real problem. &nbsp;I think more research needs to be conducted into this phenomenon.

True story.</font>

 

[zumbo]

<font color='#000000'>Maybe I can have the chicken peck the wax out of my ears, then I can cut the chickens head off &amp; while the rest of the chicken runs around and spews blood all over my living room, I can hold the chickens head up to the speakers &amp; see what he thinks it sounds like after I get that wax off its beak with a q-tip!

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[bombadil67]

<font color='#000000'>Sounds like a good a good beak, er tweak, to me. &nbsp;. &nbsp;. but I hate chickens!</font>

 

[Rip Van Woofer]

<font color='#000000'>Man, we are going to have PETA on our case here!

About that late-night thing: That's something I've experienced and many others have too -- some call it &quot;the golden hour&quot; or some such. I still think it's mostly a state of mind thing -- but maybe it also has to do with the generally quieter surroundings, hence lower noise floor, of late night. It's a common enough experience that there's sure something going on.

I think a headless chicken running around would spoil it, though.

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[gene]

<font color='#000000'>You know I was going to write an article about this but figured people may think I was crazy (well maybe I am

)

Anyways, my best listening experiences are after 10pm at night and I attribute them to:
1) Very quite house (daughter asleep, usually the Air/heat not on, no outside noises,etc
2) Low lighting &nbsp;(seriously, when you darken a room it forces your brain to concentrate more on the direct stimulus, in this case sound).
3) Mood - &nbsp;I am a night owl and usually have a much better disposition at night. &nbsp;
4) I am reaching here, but Barometric pressure may play a very very small role. &nbsp;Usually my house is less humid at night.

I think at least the first 3 reasons I listed have validity. &nbsp;The 4th is perhaps more marketable for exotic cable vendors &nbsp;

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[BroonsBane]

<font color='#000000'>Wow! There are others out there like me! Seriously, I have always prefered music in the evening. It just sounds better and Gene, I think you are right on the money with your theories. &nbsp;I would love to see an article dealing with this subject...now that I know I am not alone! &nbsp;

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[Rob Babcock]

<font color='#8D38C9'>Yeah, late night is a *magical* time to listen seriously to music: the house is quieter (less sound of traffic seeping thru the walls), there are no distractions, and you can just sink into the sound. &nbsp;But I think the power is cleaner- typically no microwaves and other major appliances running, etc.

A couple cold ones will sometimes deepen the effects!

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[gene]

<font color='#000000'>Good point. &nbsp;Didn't think about the power as being another possible reason.

Yes a good beer (IPA especially ) or Red wine works wonders on listening experience &nbsp;

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[Rob Babcock]

<font color='#8D38C9'>You're posts on mead really has me thinkin'- I had a landlord years ago that was into homebrewing bigtime. &nbsp;I bought several books and really learned a lot about the subject; but I never got around to trying it myself. &nbsp;I always thought mead would be a good first project...bet that would really make the Jane Monheit I'm currently listening too seem even smoother!

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[A. Vivaldi]

<font color='#000000'>I've noticed that cold makes a system sound worse. Living in Wisconsin on a single digit winters day would make my cars Sony cd player skip on minor bumps, and sound cold (literally) and harsh, until it and the car warmed up. I also noticed that the gold MFSL audiophile cds I had at the time did not skip like the regular cds did. If there were any subjective arguments about these discs sounding better than redbook cds, I can say as a fact that they track better.</font>

 

[A. Vivaldi]

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gene : <font color='#000000'>Good point.  Didn't think about the power as being another possible reason.

Yes a good beer (IPA especially ) or Red wine works wonders on listening experience  

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<font color='#000000'>I think there should be a new topic on what alcoholic beverages best match which music listening experience. Examples can include: Which British ale is best for listening to The Who? Is red wine really appropriate for Bach? Don't ever drink grappa with Gluck... and so forth. Whaddya say Gene? &nbsp;

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