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After leaving my system on for 3 days...

...I listened to a CD I'm pretty familiar with, and found that the sound is harsher than it used to be!

I know that there is the arguement that leaving solid-state devices on usually yields better or at least no performance difference, but is it possible that the performance actually suffers?

Before my little experiment of leaving it on for 3 days, I used to turn it off in the night, and leave it on all day during the day. Also, I just purchased a tuner, which I have stacked on top of my CD player, which is on Vibrapods. Perhaps that is the cause. (They say you shouldn't stack)

Or is my system just revealing the real sound from the CDs?

I admit, I will have to go home after work and do some more experimentation before I come to a solid conclusion whether the sound has gotten worse or not. (Perhaps unstacking my tuner from on top of my CDP)

I own the following system:
- NAD C370 Integrated Amp
- NAD C541 CD Player
- NAD C420 Tuner
- IXOS & Monster interconnects
- Monster speaker cable
- B&W DM601S2 speaker pair

Any ideas?
lennychen
lennychen OP
28 posts
 
Thanks for all of the comments and suggestions guys.

What I'm planning to do now is to stick with the current setup I have and change variables one by one. You guys are certainly right, there is definitely a lot of power interference in the dorm. But I don't think I'm able to purchase a PSAudio unit...that is almost as expensive as all of my components put together!!! I'll wait till I move into my apartment and see how the quality of the mains is there, since I'll be graduating in just 2 months.

So, in my current setup, I have each component on a different level, isolation under CD by Vibrapods (btw, if you use more vibrapods than you're supposed to, e.g. 20 pound support for 10 pounds, is that bad?).

I agree on the bad interconnects...I'm planning to go with van den Hul D102 III Hybrid interconnects for the CD, use my IXOS on my tuner, and also upgrade to QED Silver Anniversary Biwire for my speakers. Any comments on this?

Thanks, all.
sean
6,231 posts
 
Lenny, the Vibrapods work by having a specific amount of "give" factored into them. By "over-podding" and not following the recommended weight ranges, you can get into a situation where the pods are not compressing and the component is simply resting on top of them. At that point, you start to get more direct energy transfer from the supporting shelf up through the pods and into the component. Whether or not the increased coupling or lack of damping is beneficial would be up to the ears of the "beerholder" and the individual component being supported : ) Sean
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lennychen OP
28 posts
 
Thanks for that...I thought that theory might hold.

So I removed the extra Vibrapods...sounds a little more "realistic".
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