Listening times

[Filterlab]

I'm just wondering how many of you notice significant changes in your systems depending on the time of the day / week. Certainly mine seems to take longer to 'get going' at the weekends than it does on weekday evenings.

My first thought would be the electricity supply, but then the results using my mains filter and not using my mains filter are inconsistent.

What you say?

[Togil]

I prefer the sound in the early morning.

Late at night I sometimes feel I can hear the plastic coloration of my ESL 's diaphragms.

[Filterlab]

Late at night I sometimes feel I can hear the plastic coloration of my ESL 's diaphragms.

Crikey, that's sensitivity! I've never experienced much colouration with electrostats to be honest regardless of time of day but I can almost hear what you mean when you say "plastic".

What ESLs do you have?

[Togil]

Quad 2805.
Martin Colloms thinks the coloration is due to the display lights circuit which can be switched off; I'm not so sure.

[Neil McCauley]

I'm just wondering how many of you notice significant changes in your systems depending on the time of the day / week. Certainly mine seems to take longer to 'get going' at the weekends than it does on weekday evenings.

My first thought would be the electricity supply, but then the results using my mains filter and not using my mains filter are inconsistent.

What you say?

Having encountered this phenomenon on and off for the past 32 years, at my home and in customer’s homes, I am utterly convinced now that this is not imagination.

In 1980, in discussion with Bob (now Robert – you go figure!) Stuart, one of the most startling intellects I have ever met, he let me into one of his theories on this. Bless him, I guess he took the view that I could only cope with one. He was of course correct in this.

He was utterly convinced that televisions, be they switched on or off in the building would distort the mains supply, causing changes. The intriguing aspect was that (as best I can recall) measurements he had taken demonstrated that even switched off, TVs had a detrimental effect, albeit more subtle than when switched on. His advice in 1980 was that for serious listening, all TVs should have their plugs removed from the wall.

I should emphasise that this was not his only response to the problem. It was just the only one I could grasp.

Moving on though, Max Townshend (another truly remarkable man, albeit in a different way to Mr. Stuart) demonstrated an insidious and as far as he knew totally irremovable effect generated by one’s geographical location, and it had such an effect on me that there and then I gave up reviewing for Hi-Fi News for reasons that will become clear at some point in the future.

It’s quite a story and by coincidence, one I'm writing up for the next issue of the Stereonow e-newsletter – posted in a fortnight or so. If I can get my act together before then (doubtful, given the volume of business currently – for which I'm very grateful) I might be able to post an extract here before then.

One of the privileges of doing the kind of work I do is that from time to time I get to talk to intellects greater than mine. A very refreshing experience it is too.

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[Togil]

Moving on though, Max Townshend (another truly remarkable man, albeit in a different way to Mr. Stuart) demonstrated an insidious and as far as he knew totally irremovable effect generated by one’s geographical location, and it had such an effect on me that there and then I gave up reviewing for Hi-Fi News for reasons that will become clear at some point in the future.

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HiFi Feng Shui ? Should be interesting !

[Neil McCauley]

HiFi Feng Shui ? Should be interesting !

Hmm. Yes, I see. Not quite Feng Shui though. Actually, nothing to do with it at all. And it has nothing to do with the listener's location relative to the system.

[Iain Sinclair]

It's probably my cloth ears, but I've never noticed much variation in sound quality due to time of day. It has more to do with my own mood, in my experience.

[BajaGringo]

My system ALWAYS sounds better in the evening. Especially after a Cadillac Margarita or two.

It's the mood I am in...

[Filterlab]

Moving on though, Max Townshend (another truly remarkable man, albeit in a different way to Mr. Stuart) demonstrated an insidious and as far as he knew totally irremovable effect generated by one’s geographical location, and it had such an effect on me that there and then I gave up reviewing for Hi-Fi News for reasons that will become clear at some point in the future.

Max is definitely a truly remarkable man with a solidly reliable opinion on a great many aspects of hi-fi, he rarely says anything that he hasn't thought long and hard about - the tenacity of a terrier. Met him a couple of years back, lovely chap - lives just down the road from me - and an exceptional ability to bring the best out of any component by simply engineering and re-engineering the solution to a problem.