That is the first time I have heard anyone expound on this subject. I truly believe that late night listening is partially psycho/acoustic in nature. For most, in addition to the factors that you mention, the human body tends to go into a more relaxed state, at least for most people anyhow. Even during the daytime I find that a largely darkened room where the mind loses visual contact with the sources from which the audio is being produced , tends to greatly enhance the clarity of detail, soundstage and depth perception. The mind tend to drift away from any sense of connection with the devices that produce the music and focuses more on the music itself, which is really what good audio was meant to produce.
One thing I have done since the realization of this concept came to me, is to always evaluate a new piece of equipment or media source, under the conditions discussed above. Also, interestingly enough, in the daylight hours, the same thing I was listening to, or evaluating, sounded much different. I have come to accept this as an absolute.
As an additional point of reference, I have also discovered that even daytime listening on SUNDAY, when the surrounding environment is settled down considerably; i.e. less external noises, less demand on the power grid, and usually, less demands at home, as an example, I almost always enjoy my listening time considerably more. I tend to feel this is all part of the psycho/acoustic phenomena.
I speak of course, as an urban dweller. I could quite easily accept that living isolated on a farm, for instance, or significantly far away from the urban areas, could also help change a persons perception of the day to day listening experience
Try it sometime. I would be interested in just how many audio enthusiasts would discover the same experience..
Of course I know there are those who would simply think I have a screw loose !
Maybe you're right !!.
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@roxy54 , +1ish.....
After a long day of dealing with somewhat civilization, the grey mush left roiling afterwards is fertile ground for some sonic soothing....
Think of it as mental yoga....however...
My modus operandi is dial up the awesome and break the knob off... ;)
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New tweak, cut down all trees. Darn roots.......
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I agree with the OP, but for me I think that it's more psychological than electrical.
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I think it helps that we tend to be in a more relaxed frame of mind later at night.
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When I installed a Furman I noticed an improvement in sound
our current is a mess and noisy
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Oh I’ve got it
the speed of sound is faster in darkness!
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Reason it sounds better is because
tired electrons go to sleep and a new
bunch appears !
rested electrons!
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I will buck the trend. For me, around 10 am is always the best, everyone has gone to work and the neighborhood & house are quiet. But most importantly, I have had a cup of coffee and my brain is not fatigued. I am as alert as I will ever be around 10 am.
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My system sounds best late at night, Sunday night in particular. I have noticed this for decades in different states. I am sure it is a quieter power grid. While I have a good quality power conditioner… the noise floor still drops late at night.
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I only have this problem when I'm not using my Furman power conditioner with LiFT and SMP
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As with most things audio it is not any one thing but rather a bunch of them all together that makes the difference. Try coming home at 2AM firing your system up cold and see how it sounds. So one reason it sounds better late at night is it always sounds better after being run several hours.
All components are highly susceptible to vibration. One source of vibration is cars and trucks, wind, and even trees. Wind blows, trees move, roots transmit vibration into the ground. This all tends to die down and be less at night. Best of all is a fresh blanket of snow. So, vibration.
Then there's electricity. Pretty much everything running puts a bit of back EMF onto the line. Every wire is also an antenna bringing RFI noise into the system. A lot of RFI sources tend to be off late at night.
The validity of some of these effects is easy enough to test and verify. Vibration? Pods and springs work, and the sound in the afternoon with a calm fresh blanket of snow is at least as good as late at night if the wind is blowing. Leaving everything on and playing after you got to bed, you will hear almost all of that great late night sound the next day. So this proves the warm up effect. RFI? Disconnect a lot of wires by flipping circuit breakers. It will sound in the middle of the day about as good as late at night.
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Clean power
peak low to med listening levels between 10pm - 4am.
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70% of our brains processing power is occupied with vision. At night we need way less for vision, and that brain-CPU time (aka attention) is available for hearing.
Also, at night the background noise floor drastically drops, and you can hear 20-30dB lower detail levels than during daytime. Add that to multiplied attention level due to vision placed on standby....
Now, that is coupled to much less strain on the electrical grid. Consider that what we hear as music is the electrical grid driving your room acoustics. The music software is just the recipee... the raw ingredients are line AC + room acoustics, so what came in goes out.
So yes, at night we have drastically different internal and external environments compared to daytime.
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For sure ambient noise levels lower for many, typically in mid 40's db during day, can get down to mid 20's late at night. The dark also adds to sense of realism, I have black out shades over all windows, also helps to block out external ambient noise. Electric grid is of lesser importance as I use power conditioning.
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Power.
Admit it, you are a newbie.
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Night time is the right time.
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@kmckenn
I also have a power conditioner but maybe it has less to strain out at night. I don’t know. But There is probably more to it also. IE, even though I am retired I find it hard to get into listening during the day. I feel like I need to be accomplishing something. And there is plenty to do. So I can’t really put myself fully into it. I am a big believer that mood may be the #1 determining factor in listening pleasure. At least for me.
As for the car running better, I was 16 yr old & had a 58 ford w a 312 Tbird engine. The nice thing about that car was that it has a scoop built into the center of the hood which they placed a Ford emblem. I knocked that emblem out and put screen wire in it so that I had cold air induction almost straight into the carb. I think that made the difference. I know she would eat 283 Chevy’s up. Fun days living in my ignorant bliss 😀
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@artemus_5 ... I always believed that to be true with the power grid. I do now have a power conditioner, that supposedly breaks down the incoming AC into the UPS batteries, then reconstructs it to perfect voltage and sine wave. Despite that, I still believe that to be a factor, don't know how or why I can, but I do.
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Its said to be because the power grid is not as congested at night due to closed businesses. Therefore the grid has less pollution.
As to cars running better @cd318 , I hadn't thought about that since I was a kid with my 1st car. Indeed that car DID run better at night. I suspect it did so because the air is cooler and provides more oxygen. It ran better in the rain also. But those old vacuum windshield wipers made you keep your foot out of the throttle too much. Pressing the accelerator hard caused the wipers to stop because vacuum was needed by the engine. Thanks for those memories. Hadn't remembered that in a long time
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The main reason I prefer night listening is the darkness. I want my room to be as dark as possible so the speakers disappear. Even the soft glow of tubes lights up the room more than I like.
Secondary reasons are work and other obligations during the day means night listening is required. Less traffic, less ambient noise, and less distractions are experienced at night as well. Deeper into the night, around the three hour mark of a listening session, is where things really begin to sound fantastic. By then the components are fully warmed up and my hearing has relaxed and opened. Finally, we are conditioned to a degree to equate night time with fun time. The evenings are when dinner is eaten, movies are watched, parties are enjoyed, and drinks are consumed.
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I'm an old car guy, old school, tail of the muscle car era. I am getting a kick out of your cars being better at night... that wasn't drinking related was it!? ;-)
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Maybe, maybe not but I've felt for years that all of my cars were quieter, smoother and nicer to drive at night.
Unfortunately, they'd usually return to being old bangers the very next day!
Perhaps it's really something to do with less background ambient noise?
Circadian rhythms?
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