2. misc-audio
  3. 1107384888

What's Going On?? Sound changes every night

O.K., this is what I'm experiencing: Some nights my system is superb and I just get sucked in and have to force myself to stop. This will be for 2-3 night and then all of a sudden, the next night or three, the music looses life and I can't get involved. The sound looses high end sparkle and extension. Things sound closed in a bit and percussions instruments that the night before were right in front of me are now fake with a closed in and shelved down presentation. Cymbals no longer sound like wood sticks on bronze but as if someone threw a blanket btw me and them.

Is this a power conditioning problem? I use a hospital grade outlet but not a dedicated circuit and no power conditioners. Or could it be my DAC which is a Perp Tech w/ Level 2 WrightMods and cryo treament. When the system works right I couldn't be happier but it seems something weird is going on every few days or so. Could it possibly be coming from the local power company and I need some sort of powerful line conditioner?

System:

Merlin TSM-MX speakers
REL Strata III subwoofer
Air Tight ATM300 stereo amp
Joule-Electra LA150 pre-amp
WrightModded Perp Tech DAC
CEC transport or Marantz SE 5 disc changer as transport
Cardas Golden Reference interconnects
TG Audio speaker cables
tomryan
mhu
102 posts
 
I used to experience this too. Like most here have already mentioned, I think it has something to do with the electrical supply. I've gotten a BPT 3.5 Sig plc and hasn't noticed this shift since.
rx8man's avatar
rx8man
1,484 posts
 
Same thing goin on here.
As far as the human aspects, Onhwy61 is correct.
The electrical & climatic conditions as stated by Rwwear & Rushton are all I could EVER figure as having impact too !
honest1
586 posts
 
All the above answers are great, but I want to throw another 2 out - (1)maybe the quality of the CDs/recortdings. On a night when your not getting "into" it, try playing a CD that sounded good recently. (2)Another possibility is that you're not choosing music that really suits your mood. Choosing music is a strange ritual for me. (well not THAT strange) I scan over my discs and just see which I'm drawn to, trying to not have a preconceived notion of what I want to listen to. I may start off thinking I want Mahler, and end up listening to Milli Vanilli (they really were good, whoever performed the stuff!!!)
perfectionist
197 posts
 
So I'm not the only one who experiences this!@#$%&

I think one of the biggest factors is components that are not fully broken-in and are going through "changes". But, having said that, I know I've had this happen to me with fully broken-in gear.

I swear sometimes I think I'm losing it and just want to scrap the whole program.
Next session, it's audio bliss!
zinfan2
154 posts
 
One more soul weighing in... I've experienced this too, though thankfully not as frequently as Tomryan--yet as recently as two nights ago. Onhwy61 (Dylan fan, are you?) makes a really good point. And the electrical grid argument makes equally good sense--although I find if music isn't sounding too great on my main system at a given point, it often sound just fine on the bedroom system a few moments later. Maybe that means I'm in dire need of bed rest. Anyhow, the hell of it is, the better the equipment that I add to my system, the more pronounced the peaks and valleys become, when the valleys show up.
More to discover