I haven't bought into electrical demand as the cause of enjoyable late night listening. There are a lot of things that affect the electrical system but more demand doesn't equal more noise. I'm willing to listen to arguments why but a layman's gut feel that it makes sense doesn't go far with me.
Electric cars will ruin late night listening?
My system sounds best late at night. I run passive conditioners. Everyone is a sleep, no one is running stoves, microwaves, A/C is running less, the transformers are working less. 5,10,20 years from now we all have electric cars. Everyone is fast a sleep with there electric cars plugged in for there 4 to 8 hour charge every night in my neighborhood,, my city, my state. What will this do to the sonics of our system or the quality of the power coming into our homes?
59 responses Add your response
I need a truck and Tesla quit counting how many they pre sold at 750,000. How long will I have to wait! Also, why wouldn't you be able to charge the battery while it's running, a generator could turn while the motor is spinning and keep the batteries charged indefinitely. Now I just solved the world's problems. |
I need a truck and Tesla quit counting how many they pre sold at 750,000. How long will I have to wait! Also, why wouldn't you be able to charge the battery while it's running, a generator could turn while the motor is spinning and keep the batteries charged indefinitely. Now I just solved the world's problems.
Quit trying to use logic to fix a problem. |
In the not too distant future, the charging cycle (time of day) will get inverted.
As more solar/wind capacity comes on line you will get to plug your car in for a charge everywhere…while out shopping, at the office, just sitting there parked, for little to no $$$. I made a small investment in a startup that is researching ways for the paint (wrap or coating) on a car to be photovoltaic. (Proof of concept prototype is operational). With proper and improved photovoltaic efficiency someday, as the tech comes along, one could potentially drive a certain contant speed from coast to coast without stopping. Of course, I only need an hour of range (and a 10 minutes recharge window) since I always travel with my wife and we stop frequently.
There will be a day very soon where cars actually power the grid from dusk til dawn and recharges during the daytime. |
@erik_squires But what if you have a 3 phase amplifier? |
It was a joke in a serious way. I had to bring a amp to the house of the guy that works on my gear. He had a guy build a house next to him and they had to start to share the same transformer and said his electricity voltage started to fluctuate and felt he now had DC in his line because his tube amp started to get a mechanical hum. He mentioned when everybody in the future has there electric cars plugged in at night what will that do to our quality of power. I had never even considered that and thought it would be interesting what everyone here would say to this one. I know some don’t agree that there system sounds better at night and I understand that but at my house does sound better late into the night. You would think if cars are charging at night it would affect my power, right? |
Electric car charging is a stable current demand. I am much more worried about LED lights, with their SMPS injecting horrendous noise. As neighborhoods are converting to unsing LEDs, the daytime listening has progressively declined, and even late night hours are often turning worse than peak times were 20 years ago. |
Over here in Europe a better question is whether there will be any electricity to run hi-fi and homes once hundreds of millions of electric cars have taken it all. Here in sleepy UK we haven't completed a large new power station for more than 25 years and we have to buy electricity every year from France. Who threatened to cut off Jersey (a small British island near their coast) last year. As to noise on the public electric line, has anyone thought of using a mains powered electric generator to drive the hi-fi? No noise enters the system from the public line and no pollution/noise from a ICE generator. Think of all the money you'd save on tweak power cords/fuses/conditioners/etc. |
I assume your repair guy measured DC current in his line versus simply "feeling" he's got issues. Regardless, wouldn't a decent power conditioner resolve this very issue? I thought that's what power conditioners do - eliminate voltage spikes and remove any interference/intermittent frequencies that ride on the main signal.
I agree with music sounding different at night. Reduction of ambient noise caused by vehicles, people, pets, businesses etc. would all factor in... and the hum from appliances like fridges, microwaves, HVACs etc. are significantly reduced at night. But I don't see that change in sound quality as an attribute of better power coming into my gear at night :) |
Bugsnest, I don’t think power conditioners help DC in your lines, they may but it didn’t help me. I have a Running Springs Dmitri, Hayley and PI Audio Uberbuss and tried them all when I had a mechanical transformer hum on a Conrad Johnson amp. I had to send amp in for a replacement in 30 day period. The new amp had no hum so my problem may not have been DC in my line.
If you have DC in your line you can try a Van Alstine Humdinger DC line blocker $140. That was next move if new amp still had hum. |
nonoise,I hear that killer whale is the way to go. You know, like putting a tiger in your tank, only it's a killer whale. |
In developed countries your car will be electric and it will power your own house at times of low renewable output or high demand. Once electric cars represent 30% of sales their price will ensure that IC engined vehicles will be for enthusiasts and the very rich. How long, not more than 10 years, could be a lot less. Remember a British government study in 1920 predicted that total UK sales of cars would never exceed 4000 per annum, their reasoning, there were not enough chauffeurs to create more demand. |
Just another day here in Crazytown. |