Difference in sound between day and night. Help!

I have noticed the night/day effect for at least the past 25 years since I first bought electrostatic speakers. I tried all sorts of remedies, but as millercarbon said earlier - anything you do to make it better in the daytime will also make it even better at night. And there are lots of things you can do.

I accepted the phenomenon years ago, but one thing still really puzzles me. It involves making a digital transfer of a vinyl record in the daytime, and the same transfer again late at night, on highly optimized equipment. You would think that the one made late at night would sound better on playback, no matter when it was played, on the same system, night or day. But in my experience it doesn't. Both copies sound relatively the same on playback, no matter what hour of the day or night they were made. But they both sound better played back at night. The one made at night sounded better at the time of recording, when monitored on speakers or headphones, but not on playback. In other words, the day/night effect does not seem to be recordable. Specifically, the daytime deterioration does not seem to be recordable. Does this indicate that the only components which suffer daytime deterioration are the loudspeakers (or ears)?

I'd be interested to know if anyone else notices the same, or maybe the opposite effect?

@whostolethebatmobile It sounds better at night because your hearing/brain is more sensitive at night. It is physiological and evolutionary. You've done the test. 

You’re close. Very close. The brain is analogous to a sensitive radio transceiver in the sense it picks up background information whether you are aware of it or not. It’s conscious and subconscious. Thus, when there’s less extraneous information floating around at night in the form of electromagnetic waves your brain’s 🧠 Signal to Noise Ratio is higher. It’s an illustration actually of mind-matter interaction. There’s no substitute for Signal To Noise Ratio. Mystery solved! This is not to say there can be other additional reasons why things sound better at night. 

Thanks for your thoughts geoffkait and noromance. I agree with the main points and with the likelihood of additional factors being at play, including the unknown.

whostolethebatmobile

I have noticed the night/day effect for at least the past 25 years since I first bought electrostatic speakers. I tried all sorts of remedies, but as millercarbon said earlier - anything you do to make it better in the daytime will also make it even better at night. And there are lots of things you can do.

I accepted the phenomenon years ago, but one thing still really puzzles me. It involves making a digital transfer of a vinyl record in the daytime, and the same transfer again late at night, on highly optimized equipment. You would think that the one made late at night would sound better on playback, no matter when it was played, on the same system, night or day. But in my experience it doesn't. Both copies sound relatively the same on playback, no matter what hour of the day or night they were made. But they both sound better played back at night. The one made at night sounded better at the time of recording, when monitored on speakers or headphones, but not on playback. In other words, the day/night effect does not seem to be recordable. Specifically, the daytime deterioration does not seem to be recordable. Does this indicate that the only components which suffer daytime deterioration are the loudspeakers (or ears)?

Good work there. Not only thinking it up, but presenting the reasoning and weaknesses and all just the way it should be done. You are hereby awarded one official attaboy.

Yes correct it should be recordable. Mikey Fremer has been recording and playing back his haute cartridges for enough people long enough to be sure you should be able to hear, if the difference is indeed in the signal. Of course your recording is a weak test, since it only records changes from the very beginning of the chain leaving open the possibility of more happening downstream. But its hard to think why anything would affect the amp and speakers and not the phono stage and cartridge.  Even then you should be able to hear something. And you don't.

So you (we) definitely do hear a difference, and will for the sake of argument say its not anything to do with anything from the speakers back.

That would seem to leave only the room. 

Well, guess what? Ted Denney III has this thing he calls FEQ which he claims is, "a single channel ULF (Ultra Low Frequency) RF pulse generator that acts as a low-frequency dither to overpower the ambient RFI and EMI fields in your listening room."  https://highend-electronics.com/products/synergistic-research-feq-x4 Which I would've thought was bunk. Except I've heard his HFT and ECT and PHT all of which work on a similar dither principle and all of which work amazingly well.

The ionosphere is a charged layer of atmosphere some 350 miles (roughly, its more a zone than a sphere) above the Earth. All sorts of charged particles and radio waves come in and get caught or channeled by the ionosphere. These waves bounce around and resonate, same as certain bass frequencies resonate in your room. Which your room is on Earth and more to the point within this resonating EMI field.

Schumann resonance. You could look it up.

The planet rotates. Most of the radiation is solar. Stands to reason this all results in day/night EMI cycles.

So not saying for sure this is what's happening. HFT, ECT, and PHT all work by introducing dither, more than likely sonically and/or mechanically, which makes things sound a whole lot better. FEQ introduces radio dither, which all the guys who have tried it swear works amazingly well. HFT helps smooth sonic noise, ECT addresses mechanical, FEQ EMI.

How's that for interesting?