"But it sounds better at night...."


A well-traveled topic that I raise yet again.  On the "are power regenerators snake oil" question, the response that has made most sense to me is: No, if you have some material issue with the power supply coming into your home.  If you live in an area with what I will call normal modern power infrastructure, and have quality components, you will probably not notice a difference.

But I live in a city, do not suspect any power problems, and feel with a pretty high degree of certainty that my system sounds better at night.  This is a common sentiment, attributed to more activity on the electrical grid during the day.  Can these two positions be reconciled?  Why DOES the system sound better at night to me and many others?


Is our perception straight-up wrong, and the result of some bias or non-auditory reason why listening at night is a better experience?

Maybe when listening at night, one average for most people, the system will have been on longer, and therefore be more warmed up?

Is our perception real, and supports the proposition that baseline electrical system usage does materially affect many systems, and you don't need a clear power "problem" to benefit from a regenerator? 

Let's rehash it all again gentlemen!
 

mathiasmingus

Adding a power regenerator made the background go totally silent for me.  I am a big believer in them now.  The overall quiet of night plus beer also don't hurt.

Have you ever watched an episode of Saturday Night Live in the day time? (The old stuff with Belushi and Aykroyd)  It's not funny. Why? Because it was meant to be seen at 11:30 P.M. when people are relaxed and more open to frivolity.

Ever had a really nice bottle of wine with lunch? Good but not great. Same bottle at 9 P.M. dinner is spectacular.

I think our brain is either hard wired by nature or through conditioning to be more relaxed and open to external stimulus at night. We are in the hunter gatherer mode during the day.

There are probably some gear salesmen in here who could attest to this. They play music during the day to sell equipment and it sounds great but at night when they close the doors and put something on the TT for themself s, Bam!

The only exception to this rule is a gorgeous woman. (Or man depending on your gender and personal preference) Our brain will react to that stimulus the same, day or night, and you can still argue that nature hard wired us for that too.