DISCUSSION: "It only comes out at night". Does anyone else have this experience!?

You know that night time

Is the right time

To be with the one you love.

- Aretha Franklin

Thanksgiving was embarrassing. Entire family was over. Everyone was full from dinner and enjoying some adult beverages. My brothers, who heard my system before suggested everyone head down for a listen. Most had never heard it before.

It sounded like complete trash. Harsh, unbearable trash.

It was around 8:30 pm. The difference - every light, tv, Christmas lights and room lights were on. If it was plugged in, it was on that night. The same was true for my neighbors. Parked cars up and down the street.

My brothers looked at me in puzzlement and left the room, one of them commenting, "You need different gear. Way too harsh, too bright." I was so angry at my investment that I have not listened since.

I knew clean power was essential, but what am I to do now? The time of day didn’t matter in this case, it apparently was an over usage in my home, which probably equates to the time of day for people in high demand areas?

Next time I host, "Okay everyone, I have to turn off all the lights, tv, etc. and then we can listen to my system"... whispers around the room... "How much did he spend on that system?!"

I’m jealous of everyone that listens into the wee hours. Waking up at 3:30 a.m for work each day I can barely stay up until 8:00 p.m. Lucky! 

Those who've mentioned snow are on to something, snow is insulator. I have crawl space under house,  snow piled up around house, storms on windows down, very little traffic due to snow, no wind, night. This is the absolute very best ambient noise situation for me. The greater dynamic range recordings are most affected by ambient noise floor, quiet passages are absolutely ruined during day, the amount of low level info heard during these quiet passages makes all the difference. Classical music comes alive for me, can't hear all the nuance during high ambient noise times. If one only listens to loudness wars, no dynamic range recordings doesn't make any difference. I have neighbor only listens during day, heavy metal all the time, likely over 100db in his room, ambient noise sure doesn't bother him!

Steve Deckert at DECWARE wrote a newsletter a while back and stated that speakers do not sound optimally until they have been running a minimum of 30 minutes....this allows the coils to heat up and expand...I never heard this before. I always let my tubes heat up before playing but the speakers needing to heat up....Hmmmm.....It's true. Try it....