Speakers and air-conditioning

I'm breaking in a pair of Polk LSi9s, and my main complaint about them is that they sound dry (acoustically). I'm kind of grasping at straws in terms of causes, and looking for hope that it'll go away. I run my a/c all day, even when I'm not at home (I have my reasons). So I was considering whether the dehumidifying function of my a/c - which I, personally, can't do without - might also be drying out my speakers (physically), and contributing to the dry acoustic quality.

That's where this came from. Speakers are slowly warming up. Also, I may need a more powerful amp (got an Adcom GFA-545, getting a McCormack DNA-1 or Parasound HCA-1500A).

These Polks have more detail, and better imaging/presentation, than what they're replacing (EFE Technology, forget the model, they're great but they lose detail and the treble breaks a bit), but they're...dry.

I would suspect that humidity would affect electrostatic speakers in a certain manner but I can not see how a dynamic speaker would be affected by either ac/humidity.
Maybe a designer will pop in on this thread with their point of view.

Power can certainly be an issue, especially when the stereo system is sharing
the same power line with the air-conditioning machine. However, changes in
the density and/or pressure of the air can also be responsible for what you
hear. To put things in perspective I would note that:

1) Our ear drums detect sound by detecting variation in the pressure of the air
molecules.

2) The drivers of the speakers are pistons that move the air in the room. They
create the variation in the air pressure.

3) The speed of a wave (sound wave in this case) in a medium depends on the
pressure and density of that medium (the air in this case). Cable manufactures
often talk about this phenomenon.

Thus, it should be clear that the humidity and pressure of the air in the room
can affect how well the waves emitted by the speakers will be transmitted to
our ears. The air in the room can be view as a cable transmitting the signal
generated by the speakers to our ears.

I do not know the actual magnitude of all these effects (they all are very
small), and, for sure, there are more factors that play a role (e.g. ionization
state of the molecules). However, since our ears are extremely sensitive
instruments, I would not be surprised if people (or at least some of them) can
hear the effects induced by these perturbations.

More significant and trivial effects are the currents of air and the noise
created by the air-conditioning machine in your room. But I assume you are
not referring to those.

Of course, one should also not overlook the effects of pressure and humidity
on our brain, ears, sinuses, etc.

Paul

I have had the same thoughts about air temperature and humidity, both on the instant effect on the sound and also on the long term health of the speakers. I make sure that there are no direct drafts of conditioned air flow directly at the speakers, but have not done much else. I also wondered about fumes from burning a gas heater, but do nothing about that either. BTW -- Running your favorite music with just firelight is amazing. Use minimum emmision portable fires like 'ecosmart' or other similar types.