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The Midnight Effect - Who-How?

You have high end equipment designed in a way to make it seemingly impervious to power line fluctuations. You add expensive conditioners and/or power line regenerators just to be safe.

You sit and listen to your system for a few hours and everything sounds great. Then, from nowhere, like someone flicked a switch…. the sound opens up… becomes more natural, more focused… the soundstage suddenly blooms and becomes more dimensional, more depth and more space around instruments. WTF just happened? The only clue is the clock on the wall and the empty wine flagon next to your chair.

I’m long past questioning whether the phenomenon is real. To what extent it exists depends on certain variables, but it exists. But how? I live in the boondocks, there’s no industry or commerce that suddenly shuts down at 23:00 every night. 
Do others experience this? Do you have an explanation? Perhaps even some empirical data?

Is it just the booze?

 

 

128x128rooze

Showing 3 responses by whart

whart's avatar
whart
2,972 posts
 

I can hear when each of the two systems I have "open up" and it has nothing to do with substance intake. The vintage system warms up faster- the Quad Loudspeakers are plugged in constantly so under full charge. The Quad II amps with real GEC KT66s open up after about 25 minutes. It is noticeable to the average listener.

The main system takes a minimum of 45 minutes to warm up the tube components and at least 3 sides until the cartridge sings. So, if I have someone visiting, I warm up accordingly, so we don't waste time. 

Drinking heavily and messing with a turntable is a recipe for disaster, but I am not condemning the liquor. 

whart's avatar
whart
2,972 posts
 

@rooze - it was always an audiophile "truth" that systems sounded better at night when there was less demand on the grid. It does make some sense to me since you are essentially playing your power supplies with amplifiers and those in turn depend on what’s coming out of the wall receptacles.

I installed a very robust electrical "subsystem" for my main system (which ties back to the main household ground) and uses a large iso-transformer. I have fewer electrical anomalies here in Central Texas than I did in a small village along the Hudson in NY. I attributed a lot of that to newer infrastructure, despite the fact that I’m virtually "in town" rather than out in the country.

But, having said all that, when the temps here reach 110F in the summer (and we can have 60+ days of over 100 degree heat) I simply don’t use the main system much. We receive warnings about the grid being "iffy"- and it puts me off.

PS: As to the regenerators, I have no idea. I heard early iterations of those, but never lived with them.

PPS: I took a quick look at the PS Audio forum and there seems to be some suggestion that its regenerators are still susceptible to certain forms of noise. One user, John H, was a frequent contributor to those discussions.

 

whart's avatar
whart
2,972 posts
 

@knittersspouse- I found your post informative. Can you focus on the OP's use of power regenerators? That is, devices like the PS Audio boxes that are akin to amplifiers and take power from the wall receptacle but then "regenerate" it? 

The impression is that these devices are immune to the changes that happen on the power line (or upstream on the grid) feeding into one's home. That's what the OP is puzzled by-- that despite his use of these regenerators, he hears different sound quality at different times. 

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