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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?

 

 

128x128rooze
rooze's avatar
rooze OP
640 posts
 

@barts — good points. I wouldn’t disagree but I would counter slightly with the observation that a constant seems to be the hour of the day at which the effect “switches on”. I haven’t done anything remotely scientific to verify this, but it seems to happen a little after midnight, give or take a half hour or so. So regardless of whether you start a listening session at let’s say 7pm, versus starting a listening session at say 10pm, the switch-on time is the same. So things like relaxation, state of mind, biorhythms etc, would seem to be secondary causes to whatever it is that is happening.

Anyway, it’s an interesting enough phenomenon and one that adds another element of spice to the hobby.

 

rooze's avatar
rooze OP
640 posts
 

@rvpiano  I’m glad you’ve removed alcohol as the cause, I was beginning to feel a bit self conscious!

 

kennyc
1,625 posts
 

There are only so many external influences on audio systems that work like clockwork, so it’s likely changes in electricity usage/noise causing it. Others have also reported better improving sonics from evenings to nighttime 

cdc
1,839 posts
 

You should watch the Scientology channel when they show their archival process. Their recording room has floor to ceiling lead walls to block out low frequency noise from trains and cars. And copper lined walls to block RF.

Metal etched records played back with diamond needle, PMC speakers, and goes on and on. An audiophile's dream.

bolong
655 posts
 

Working inside a Faraday cage sounds oh so metaphoric for working at a Scientology lab.

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