The Midnight Effect - Who-How?
You have high end equipment designed in a way to make it seemingly impervious to power line fluctuations. You add expensive conditioners and/or power line regenerators just to be safe.
You sit and listen to your system for a few hours and everything sounds great. Then, from nowhere, like someone flicked a switch…. the sound opens up… becomes more natural, more focused… the soundstage suddenly blooms and becomes more dimensional, more depth and more space around instruments. WTF just happened? The only clue is the clock on the wall and the empty wine flagon next to your chair.
I’m long past questioning whether the phenomenon is real. To what extent it exists depends on certain variables, but it exists. But how? I live in the boondocks, there’s no industry or commerce that suddenly shuts down at 23:00 every night.
Do others experience this? Do you have an explanation? Perhaps even some empirical data?
Is it just the booze?
And kind sir, i missed your comment about the boondocks….. ;-) i’m a dual Condo dweller… i envy your solitude. I probably missed it but is your system on a single 20 A dedicated circuit w a tightened main panel, verified excellent grounds and a new breaker ? fans and various motors on opposite leg of panel… and no inverters ?….after that…i’m out of bullets…. except for helping drain the flagon… |
@tomic601 Honestly I'm embarrassed to say it but no, I don't have a dedicated line to the listening room. It's something I've thought about doing frequently but just haven't gotten around to it. Though....I'm skeptical about the potential benefits. I've done it one other time and heard no difference. But that's not to say it wouldn't improve my current situation. |
@toddalin source primarily is files played back from a local hard drive which is plugged into a SGC i5 (like a NUC), wired into a switch then the switch wired (Ethernet) to a network player/DAC. Also some vinyl playback, but usually not late at night when I’m half in the bag.
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👍 Two direct lines… one for amp and one for the remainder of your components. The failure rate of it not providing a significant improvement in sound quality is extremely small. If it happened to you once, then it is unlikely to happen again somewhere else. Since you don’t have direct lines… that makes the likelihood of the change in sound quality likely to be in your house. Especially since you said something like the change is like a switch thrown. Some automatic function hidden in some large electronic device in your house? My system sounds better on late Sunday night… has here near Portland Oregon and years ago in Tucson. But it was never an abrupt change. |
