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How does relative humidity affect our music?


Winter is here in the Northern Hemisphere, so things are changing both outside and in.

Last week I posted a thread because I cleaned my current CD player for the first time using an old Milty CD Lens Cleaner that I found when I rearranged my CD rack. I thought, and still think, that perhaps one or more pieces of the brushes broke off and were still on the lens. The music wasn't a precise as it was before, and I was fearful that I'd damaged the laser with the cleaning.

Another thing that was noticeable was a very significant amount of excess bass. That didn't make any sense to me because I couldn't see how anything like a laser misreading would increase the bass like that.

Now I'm wondering if the excess bass might be a result of low relative humidity in my room. I checked it and it was 30%. I pulled the humidifier off of the shelf in the garage and set it up between the living room and dining room but couldn't even get the humidity up to 40%, so I went and bought a second one for the back part of the house. Now I have the relative humidity up between 40%-50% and the bass sounds fine.

My question is: was it the lack of humidity that caused this problem and if so, why? Did it affect the sound waves traveling through the air? Did it in someway dry out the absorption panels, making them more reflective instead of absorbing as they normally do? I also noticed that my sinuses were congested due to the change in the weather, so was it just my hearing?

Has anyone else noticed this, or have any thoughts on this?

Thanks,
Chuck
krell_man
mapman's avatar
mapman
22,396 posts
 
Worrying about marginal things in particular that one has little control over normally probably negatively affects our ability to enjoy the music more than that thing itself.

I say just put the right gear combo in place for enjoyment, and then actually focus on enjoying what it delivers, and thinking about how the humidity is affecting things or not will become a distant memory.

If you were married to a supermodel, would you spend the time enjoying the splendor of her beauty, or fretting about whether a new boob job is needed or not?
krell_man OP
827 posts
 

Andrew,

I agree with you, except in my case the bass was overwhelming and overpowered everything else, and I have monitors no less!

Chuck
mapman's avatar
mapman
22,396 posts
 
" in my case the bass was overwhelming and overpowered everything else"

Of course room acoustics is likely a much bigger culprit than humidity, but if humidity is easier to control and has the desired effect, then case closed.

I notice your speaker placement is fairly close to walls and corners as well, which almost always leads to the most bass, FBOFW.
mesch
3,524 posts
 
Dryer air is more dense than moist air because diatomic N and O is replaced by H2O which is lighter. Truncation of sound as it travels through air is frequency dependent with higher frequencies more greatly attenuated. THe more dense the air, the greater the truncation.

Hard to believe the above is accounting for the entirety of your experience.

Happy Thanksgiving to all. Given we can enjoy this hobby as we do, we have much to be thankful for.
davidpritchard's avatar
davidpritchard
866 posts
 
Many house experts warn against raising the humidity above 40% in the winter so one does not develop a mold problem. My system sound best when I keep the humidity 35-40% and I use a humudistat to measure the level.
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