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Thread: Ever have a bad listening day

  1. #11
    Join Date: Apr 2016

    Location: Gravesend and France

    Posts: 1,498
    I'm paul.

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    I could have gone into the listening room and compared the crystal 10 speakers in the workshop with the fast 10 in the listening room but if the listening room sounded better I would be worried about the cost of the crystal 10 being double the fast 10 and possibly the reason would be the different environment not the speakers. I do think it's me and not the kit, probably just not in the mood.
    Bakoon 13r Denon DP80 Stax UA-70 Shure Ultra 500 in a Martin Bastin body with jico stylus, project ds2 digital Rullit aero 8 field coils in tqwt speakers

    Office system, DIY CSS fullrange speakers with aurum cantus G2 ribbons yulong dac Sony STR6055 receiver Jvc QL-A51 direct drive turntable, Leema sub. JVC Z4S cart is in the house

    Garage system another Sony receiver, cassette deck


    System components are subject to change without warning and at the discretion of the owner.

  2. #12
    Join Date: Jan 2008

    Location: Wrexham, North Wales, UK

    Posts: 110,012
    I'm AudioAl'sArbiterForPISHANTO.

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    Quote Originally Posted by Audio Al View Post
    That rules me out then
    Yes, we 'listen' with both. The ear/brain thing is a relationship, so one cannot be independent from the other.

    Bad listening days? Yes, I think we've all had them. Mostly it's a psychological thing, but it can also be down to factors such as poor, or poorer than usual, mains quality, which is one of the reasons why so often our systems sound better late at night or in the early hours of the morning, as the mains then is subject to less interference.

    Then there's the issue of ambient noise, especially if you live in a busy area, near a main road or a lot of industrial works, etc. During the day, that's going to play havoc with the mains supply it's almost certainly sharing in some way with your system, and you'll also have the constant 'thrum' of background noise superimposing itself upon any music you're listening to, which at times will be worse than others.

    Late at night, when that's gone and the mains supply is less distorted, things will almost certainly sound better!

    Plus, factors such as listening to equipment that's still cold, after having been switched off since the previous day, can sometimes have an effect on how it sounds, as almost certainly will speakers and things such as phono cartridges, when the ambient temperature of the room is too low, which is why your system invariably sounds better once your speakers have been given a bit of a 'caning' (had a signal going through them for a while) to warm up the voice coils, and the same applies to the generator/suspension system on cartridges, which is why your T/T will always sound better after having spun a few discs!

    Therefore, if you want to minimise the likelihood of experiencing a 'bad listening day', take the following steps:

    1) Fit a dedicated mains radial spur for your system, and/or apply some form of judicious noise filtering.
    2) Listen to music mostly late at night, or after peak mains usage hours, rather than during the day.
    3) Ensure that not only the electronic equipment you're using has been switched on for a while and warmed up, before listening critically to music, but also the room you're in isn't too cold, so that speakers and cartridges can perform optimally (there will be an ideal temperature allowing for such), and which should remain as a constant throughout listening sessions.
    4) Play your system for a while, putting a signal through the speakers, perhaps by leaving a CD on repeat and/or spin a few records on your T/T, in order to 'warm up' the cartridge, before listening critically to music, as that will definitely make a difference.

    And *most importantly* of all:

    5) Avoid listening to music critically, or judging the sound of your system when you're tired and/or in a bad mood!!

    Because even if you've ticked all of the above boxes, unless you're relaxed/unstressed and ready to enjoy a listening session, your system will NEVER sound right, or as it should.

    Marco.
    Main System

    Turntable: Heavily-modified Technics SL-1210MK5G [Mike New bearing/ETP platter/Paul Hynes SR7 PSU & reg mods]. Funk Firm APM Achromat/Nagaoka GL-601 Crystal Record Weight/Isonoe feet & boots/Ortofon RS-212D/Denon DL-103GL in Denon PCL-300 headshell with Funk Firm Houdini/Kondo SL-115 pure-silver cartridge leads.

    Paul Hynes MC head amp/SR5 PSU. Also modded Lentek head amp/Denon AU-310 SUT.

    Other Cartridges: Nippon Columbia (NOS 1987) Denon DL-103. USA-made Shure SC35C with NOS stylus. Goldring G820 with NOS stylus. Shure M55E with NOS stylus.

    CD Player: Audiocom-modified Sony X-777ES/DAS-R1 DAC.

    Tape Deck: Tandberg TCD 310, fully restored and recalibrated as new, by RDE, plus upgraded with heads from the TCD-420a. Also with matching TM4 Norway microphones.

    Preamps: Heavily-modified Croft Charisma-X. LDR Stereo Coffee. Power Amps: Tube Distinctions Copper Amp fitted with Tungsol KT-150s. Quad 306.

    Cables & Sundries: Mark Grant HDX1 interconnects and digital coaxial cable, plus Mark Grant 6mm UP-LCOFC Van Damme speaker cable. MCRU 'Ultimate' mains leads. Lehmann clone headphone amp with vintage Koss PRO-4AAA headphones.

    Tube Distinctions digital noise filter. VPI HW16.5 record cleaning machine.

    Speakers: Tannoy 15MGs in Lockwood cabinets with modified crossovers. 1967 Celestion Ditton 15.


    Protect your HUMAN RIGHTS and REFUSE ANY *MANDATORY* VACCINE FOR COVID-19!

    Also **SAY NO** to unjust 'vaccine passports' or certificates, which are totally incompatible with a FREE society!!!


  3. #13
    Join Date: Feb 2013

    Location: W Lothian

    Posts: 99,005
    I'm Grant.

    Default

    Regards,
    Grant .... ؠ ......Don't be such a big girl's blouse

    I've said it before and I'll say it again: democracy simply-doesn't-work
    .... ..... ...... ...... ................... ..... ..... ..... ..... .....
    FIIO K7 BT, M11 PLUS, BTR7, KA5 - OPPO BDP-103D - PANASONIC UB450 - PANASONIC 4K ULTRA HD TV - PIXEL 6 - AVANTREE LR BLUETOOTH - 2* X600 SOUNDCORE - HEADPHONES INCLUDE, FIIO, NURAPHONES', FOCAL, OPPO, BOSE, CAMBRIDGE, BOWER & WILKINS, DEVIALET, MARSHALL, SONY, MITCHELL & JOHNSTON - 2*ZBOOK'S- MERCURY BD ROM, ROON, QOBUZ, TIDAL, PLEX, CYBERLINK, JRIVER - MULTI HDD'S -

    Oh my god! There's nothing wrong with the bidet is there?

    “Nothing discloses real character like the use of power. It is easy for the weak to be gentle. Most people can bear adversity. But if you wish to know what a man really is, give him power. This is the supreme test. It is the glory of Lincoln that, having almost absolute power, he never abused it, except on the side of mercy".

    “You see these dictators on their pedestals, surrounded by the bayonets of their soldiers and the truncheons of their police ... yet in their hearts there is unspoken fear. They are afraid of words and thoughts: words spoken abroad, thoughts stirring at home -- all the more powerful because forbidden -- terrify them. A little mouse of thought appears in the room, and even the mightiest potentates are thrown into panic.”

    "You don't have free will. You have the appearance of free will.”

    “There's a war out there, old friend. A world war. And it's not about who's got the most bullets. It's about who controls the information. What we see and hear, how we work, what we think... it's all about the information!”


    ***SMILE, BE HAPPY***

  4. #14
    Join Date: Jul 2017

    Location: Kent

    Posts: 550
    I'm Paul.

    Default

    I've had this before. Seems like BS but you sit there in what you would swear are exactly the same conditions yet you do not like what you hear. Maybe a brain ting rather than what equipment is doing?

    Sent from my CLT-L09 using Tapatalk
    Current system:
    RPi + Allo Digione
    Beresford Caiman Seg & Dorado powered by 15v Linear PSU
    Transcendent Sound Mini Beast OTL
    Amptastic Mini-1
    Klipsch KG4.5 Speakers with Titanium Diagphrams and Sonicap Cap upgrade
    110aH Leisure Battery powers the Mini-1 & Digione

  5. #15
    Join Date: Jan 2008

    Location: Wrexham, North Wales, UK

    Posts: 110,012
    I'm AudioAl'sArbiterForPISHANTO.

    Default

    Quote Originally Posted by Pepperamip View Post
    I've had this before. Seems like BS but you sit there in what you would swear are exactly the same conditions yet you do not like what you hear. Maybe a brain ting rather than what equipment is doing?
    Absolutely, although I firmly believe that what I listed in my last post is also applicable. I agree that the psychological factor is highly significant, but the problem is, in terms of the above, they may not be *exactly* the same conditions... Consider this scenario, based on what I wrote earlier:

    At midnight the previous evening, when it was really quiet, the room was warm (but not too warm) and you were totally chilled out, after having sunk a few beers and were feeling good about the world, and your system, having been playing music for hours, was really rocking and sounding fab. Then after you'd finished, you switched off your system, turned off the heating and went to bed happy.

    The following day, you come home from work, tired and stressed, and in a foul mood. It's 6pm and every bugger in town is switching on cookers and kettles to make cups of tea/dinner, and the mains supply is under a heavy load, traffic noise exists in the background, raising ambient nose levels accordingly, even though you're not necessarily conscious of it, the room's a bit cold because you've been out all day, and your gear's been switched off, and along with your speakers, unused since last night...

    So, keen to relax and alter your mood, you switch on your system from cold and play some music...............only to discover that it SOUNDS SHITE, compared with how it did last night, and you've 'done nothing'......... "Eh?", you say to yourself, "what the fuck's going on here??"

    Well, the reality is that the prevailing circumstances/conditions now are rather different from what they were when you were listening to music last night, so in *actuality* even although superficially you've 'done nothing', you haven't replicated those *exact* conditions, vibe and ambience, which existed the previous evening - and most importantly the MOOD you're in now is totally different!

    Therefore, only by repeating the same conditions that existed the previous evening, recreating them again later, and altering your mood accordingly, will your system sound as good as it did the previous evening. It's pretty much that simple

    Marco.
    Main System

    Turntable: Heavily-modified Technics SL-1210MK5G [Mike New bearing/ETP platter/Paul Hynes SR7 PSU & reg mods]. Funk Firm APM Achromat/Nagaoka GL-601 Crystal Record Weight/Isonoe feet & boots/Ortofon RS-212D/Denon DL-103GL in Denon PCL-300 headshell with Funk Firm Houdini/Kondo SL-115 pure-silver cartridge leads.

    Paul Hynes MC head amp/SR5 PSU. Also modded Lentek head amp/Denon AU-310 SUT.

    Other Cartridges: Nippon Columbia (NOS 1987) Denon DL-103. USA-made Shure SC35C with NOS stylus. Goldring G820 with NOS stylus. Shure M55E with NOS stylus.

    CD Player: Audiocom-modified Sony X-777ES/DAS-R1 DAC.

    Tape Deck: Tandberg TCD 310, fully restored and recalibrated as new, by RDE, plus upgraded with heads from the TCD-420a. Also with matching TM4 Norway microphones.

    Preamps: Heavily-modified Croft Charisma-X. LDR Stereo Coffee. Power Amps: Tube Distinctions Copper Amp fitted with Tungsol KT-150s. Quad 306.

    Cables & Sundries: Mark Grant HDX1 interconnects and digital coaxial cable, plus Mark Grant 6mm UP-LCOFC Van Damme speaker cable. MCRU 'Ultimate' mains leads. Lehmann clone headphone amp with vintage Koss PRO-4AAA headphones.

    Tube Distinctions digital noise filter. VPI HW16.5 record cleaning machine.

    Speakers: Tannoy 15MGs in Lockwood cabinets with modified crossovers. 1967 Celestion Ditton 15.


    Protect your HUMAN RIGHTS and REFUSE ANY *MANDATORY* VACCINE FOR COVID-19!

    Also **SAY NO** to unjust 'vaccine passports' or certificates, which are totally incompatible with a FREE society!!!


  6. #16
    Join Date: Feb 2013

    Location: W Lothian

    Posts: 99,005
    I'm Grant.

    Default

    mood and stress levels will have a lot to do with it. also if youve had a loud day that can cause what your hearing to be attenuated
    Regards,
    Grant .... ؠ ......Don't be such a big girl's blouse

    I've said it before and I'll say it again: democracy simply-doesn't-work
    .... ..... ...... ...... ................... ..... ..... ..... ..... .....
    FIIO K7 BT, M11 PLUS, BTR7, KA5 - OPPO BDP-103D - PANASONIC UB450 - PANASONIC 4K ULTRA HD TV - PIXEL 6 - AVANTREE LR BLUETOOTH - 2* X600 SOUNDCORE - HEADPHONES INCLUDE, FIIO, NURAPHONES', FOCAL, OPPO, BOSE, CAMBRIDGE, BOWER & WILKINS, DEVIALET, MARSHALL, SONY, MITCHELL & JOHNSTON - 2*ZBOOK'S- MERCURY BD ROM, ROON, QOBUZ, TIDAL, PLEX, CYBERLINK, JRIVER - MULTI HDD'S -

    Oh my god! There's nothing wrong with the bidet is there?

    “Nothing discloses real character like the use of power. It is easy for the weak to be gentle. Most people can bear adversity. But if you wish to know what a man really is, give him power. This is the supreme test. It is the glory of Lincoln that, having almost absolute power, he never abused it, except on the side of mercy".

    “You see these dictators on their pedestals, surrounded by the bayonets of their soldiers and the truncheons of their police ... yet in their hearts there is unspoken fear. They are afraid of words and thoughts: words spoken abroad, thoughts stirring at home -- all the more powerful because forbidden -- terrify them. A little mouse of thought appears in the room, and even the mightiest potentates are thrown into panic.”

    "You don't have free will. You have the appearance of free will.”

    “There's a war out there, old friend. A world war. And it's not about who's got the most bullets. It's about who controls the information. What we see and hear, how we work, what we think... it's all about the information!”


    ***SMILE, BE HAPPY***

  7. #17
    Join Date: Jan 2008

    Location: Wrexham, North Wales, UK

    Posts: 110,012
    I'm AudioAl'sArbiterForPISHANTO.

    Default

    Yes that, too. Always allow your ears a period of 'readjustment' if working in a noisy environment, or have just been on a long car journey (or whatever), before listening critically to your system, or anyone else's.

    When I used to travel to work, and came home after a long day, feeling tired and stressed, I wouldn't play any music at all until I was in the right frame of mind to enjoy it - or I'd play some at a low volume, so that the system was 'ticking over', and there was music in the background, but it wasn't loud enough to be critical of the sound.

    Then, when I could sit down and relax, with a beer or a glass of wine, I'd turn the music up, and more often than not it sounded great

    The bottom line though, is that you can't expect the same results, if you don't do the same things!

    It reminds me of when my mum used to moan about the pasta sauce not coming out as good sometimes as it did others, when she never measured anything and bought her ingredients from many different places........

    Marco.
    Main System

    Turntable: Heavily-modified Technics SL-1210MK5G [Mike New bearing/ETP platter/Paul Hynes SR7 PSU & reg mods]. Funk Firm APM Achromat/Nagaoka GL-601 Crystal Record Weight/Isonoe feet & boots/Ortofon RS-212D/Denon DL-103GL in Denon PCL-300 headshell with Funk Firm Houdini/Kondo SL-115 pure-silver cartridge leads.

    Paul Hynes MC head amp/SR5 PSU. Also modded Lentek head amp/Denon AU-310 SUT.

    Other Cartridges: Nippon Columbia (NOS 1987) Denon DL-103. USA-made Shure SC35C with NOS stylus. Goldring G820 with NOS stylus. Shure M55E with NOS stylus.

    CD Player: Audiocom-modified Sony X-777ES/DAS-R1 DAC.

    Tape Deck: Tandberg TCD 310, fully restored and recalibrated as new, by RDE, plus upgraded with heads from the TCD-420a. Also with matching TM4 Norway microphones.

    Preamps: Heavily-modified Croft Charisma-X. LDR Stereo Coffee. Power Amps: Tube Distinctions Copper Amp fitted with Tungsol KT-150s. Quad 306.

    Cables & Sundries: Mark Grant HDX1 interconnects and digital coaxial cable, plus Mark Grant 6mm UP-LCOFC Van Damme speaker cable. MCRU 'Ultimate' mains leads. Lehmann clone headphone amp with vintage Koss PRO-4AAA headphones.

    Tube Distinctions digital noise filter. VPI HW16.5 record cleaning machine.

    Speakers: Tannoy 15MGs in Lockwood cabinets with modified crossovers. 1967 Celestion Ditton 15.


    Protect your HUMAN RIGHTS and REFUSE ANY *MANDATORY* VACCINE FOR COVID-19!

    Also **SAY NO** to unjust 'vaccine passports' or certificates, which are totally incompatible with a FREE society!!!


  8. #18
    Join Date: Apr 2016

    Location: Gravesend and France

    Posts: 1,498
    I'm paul.

    Default

    Definitely speakers need warming up when in a god room, my listening is only heated when I Ho in there so I usually switch on and let it play Spotify or tuner for an hour to warm up. When I had the PX25's they liked an hour warm up, sounded distorted and grainy until they warmed up and very noticeable with lowthers. Most of my workshop listening is daytime but unless I'm using power for power tools it's basically a dedicated spur for the music and lighting. I remember one year st scalford a Scottish gentleman in the next room came into my room when he heard the proclaimers playing while I was setting up. I went into his room later and his Cyrus set up sounded dreadful, at the end of the day I went back in and it sounded glorious.
    Bakoon 13r Denon DP80 Stax UA-70 Shure Ultra 500 in a Martin Bastin body with jico stylus, project ds2 digital Rullit aero 8 field coils in tqwt speakers

    Office system, DIY CSS fullrange speakers with aurum cantus G2 ribbons yulong dac Sony STR6055 receiver Jvc QL-A51 direct drive turntable, Leema sub. JVC Z4S cart is in the house

    Garage system another Sony receiver, cassette deck


    System components are subject to change without warning and at the discretion of the owner.

  9. #19
    Join Date: Sep 2017

    Location: Dublin

    Posts: 506
    I'm Pavel.

    Default

    I noticed that my tolerance towards high-pitched sounds varies day to day. On some days trying to listen to something like Coltrane’s Africa/Brass with its screeching brass section drives me crazy and on some days I may even turn the volume up to 11, metaphorically speaking. But I’m sure it depends more on how many cups of coffee I had than on my system’s performance

  10. #20
    Join Date: Apr 2011

    Location: cheltenham

    Posts: 745
    I'm matt.

    Default

    Another thing i've found that's odd is how the volume you play at affects the sound. Sometimes everything sounds a bit thin, but crank up the volume and it's great.

    I know the first thing that will come to peoples minds (Fletcher munson), but I don't remember having that problem with Tannoys. They were full sounding even at very low volume.

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