2. tech-talk
  3. 151644-85634

Does your system hate you when you ignore her?

I've not been able to listen to my system seriously for about 3 weeks. I just sat down to Emmylou Harris' " Red Dirt Girl" on HDCD. My first impression was that the soundstage was not as wide as I expected. I suppose that it's possible that components need to re-burn in after prolonged periods without being energized. I also suppose it's possible that one's trained listening skills may need refreshing after a period of atrophy.

Have you experienced similar things? What were the variables that you were able to eliminate, such as experiencing the same effect on two different systems, one rested and one not, in the same time period after not listening.
2channel8
tooblue
1,953 posts
 
My system never hates me and welcomes me back with open arms when returning after a brief absence, it's as if it says, where you been and welcome home.
reubent
7,051 posts
 
@2channel8 - How familiar are you with that exact recording? I have it on CD and I recently bought it on Vinyl. I expected the vinyl to be awesome because I had also bought the vinyl 3-LP remaster of "Wrecking Ball" and "Wrecking Ball" was fantastic. Anyway, listened to the LP of "Red Dirt Girl" a couple of times and promptly sold it. No life to it at all. I like a lot of the songs, but the recording was blah.

Also, was your system powered off for three weeks? My system takes a couple of days of being powered on to sound its best.
helomech
1,730 posts
 
You might also consider the potential differences in the rooms temp and humidity levels which does affect a system's performance in measurable ways.


mattmiller's avatar
mattmiller
1,498 posts
 
Aside from having to literally dust the cobwebs off my system and warm it up (10 tubes total) for about a hour at least, everything sounds awesome as it should :-)
I live in Texas and I dont want to turn it on much during the really hot months.

Matt
douglas_schroeder
3,281 posts
 
Audio systems do not change because they have not been turned on in three weeks. They do not need, or alter their performance due to "rest". 
I suggest that you are the inconsistent variable. 

I also suggest that if upon listening to your system at various times it does not satisfy, then you have not build that good of a system, and you need to consider significant changes to it.  :) 


More to discover