Night Music Sounds Better - Why?

I'd say lower electricity usage by neighbors and just in general a more relaxed state of mind

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Originally Posted by classicalguy 

So why does music played at night sound so much better than during the day? Is it lower ambient sound levels at night, cleaner electricity, cooler temperatures, or just my imagination?

Unless you have dedicated ac lines with their own breakers that only feed your "Music rooms Equipment" then it's, as I've always been told, less garbage coming across your electrical lines...Many other electrical appliances that usually you/wife or neighbors are using during the day to early evening are not being used late at night......hence a cleaner power source....IMO after you buy a good AC line conditioner the biggest upgrade that I noticed the "most bang for my buck" was when I installed 4-separate  20amp dedicated lines feeding only my music room........A great mood and feeling at peace in your man cave sure helps with the "imagination" process.... But it's the cleaner electric, IMO........

 

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Originally Posted by 9pintube 

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Unless you have dedicated ac lines with their own breakers that only feed your "Music rooms Equipment" then it's, as I've always been told, less garbage coming across your electrical lines...Many other electrical appliances that usually you/wife or neighbors are using during the day to early evening are not being used late at night......hence a cleaner power source....IMO after you buy a good AC line conditioner the biggest upgrade that I noticed the "most bang for my buck" was when I installed 4-separate  20amp dedicated lines feeding only my music room........A great mood and feeling at peace in your man cave sure helps with the "imagination" process.... But it's the cleaner electric, IMO........

 

 

I have been an audiophile in 3 different houses and putting in dedicated 20 amp lines is a must. When I run my KRELL amp I run it on a separate dedicated 20 amp line.  Then I split the other stuff across a few  other dedicated 20 amp lines.   Compared to the price of all the equipment the cost of the lines is nothing.  It makes a world of difference.  I also put in higher quality electrical sockets.  I haven't used any of those audiophile electrical sockets for sale but I have used those hospital grade orange sockets you can get at Home Depot.  They make a nice tight connection.  Even if you don't run new lines you can get better improvement in the upper frequencies by putting in a better receptacle and by cleaning the ends of the copper wire coming out of the wall particularly if the wiring is old and tarnished.  Of the three homes I've wired the one with the absolute best sound was the one I lived in where my house was the first house to receive current from a pole transformer.    

I'm not that experienced with headphone gear, I'm more experienced with full blown systems, but I'm here on Head Fi looking to put a rig together starting with LCD-2's along with a comparable amp and DAC and when I do I'm definitely running dedicated lines for the equipment. 

because you're too damn tired to care...

Quote:

Originally Posted by kite7 

I'd say lower electricity usage by neighbors and just in general a more relaxed state of mind

x2.

I can't say much about the power aspect, I live in a pretty dense urban area so I'm sure there's always lots of stuff going through the lines. Lower ambient noise levels at night definitely helps though (where I live at least), particularly more with speakers than headphones.

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Originally Posted by Uncle Erik 

It has more to do with your state of mind. You're more relaxed and a bit tired. That helps a lot.

The state of mind does help but it really has to do with the cleaner energy source coming into your home.  

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Originally Posted by WarriorAnt 

The state of mind does help but it really has to do with the cleaner energy source coming into your home.  

 

interesting, when I am listening to music late at night out of my portable rig, music sounds better than in the day time

Lower ambient noises + relaxed mind.

Better electricity? I use portables.

less lights. work is over. tired to think importent stuff. a little booze.

why do you have to bring up the electricity and cables and such?

i remember one time when we had a band rehearsal and couldn't get in touch with the "spirit". someone turned off the lights and something mystical happened.

the other time we dimmed the lights to watch a music video in class. when it was over the lights were back on but it totally messed up the day afterwards:) like the world changed a bit.

ban "science"!

Clean power always equals better SQ ( in my experience for what that's worth, 12 apartments, 4 homes so far).......dedicated lines do make a difference despite skepticism to the contrary (there is a caveat see * ). We ALL share a local grid with X amount of neighbors hooked into the same power source...loads of digital gear (phone chargers, laptops, all manner of gear that is always on) fridge & freezer motors, hair dryers, water heaters, AC units etc etc all dump a tremendous amount of noise back into the AC lines which is then shared by everyone else on the same circuit (locally). If you notice a marked difference in SQ between daytime listening and night time then it's time to consider dedicated lines and / or (depending on how bad your line is) a HQ line conditioner. And no you are not imagining this difference.

( * Anyway...if you have no difference in SQ from daytime to nighttime consider yourself fortunate indeed......it is a rare occurrence in my experience when an apartment or house does not need some kind of help with it's AC line noise. I suppose folks in rural areas might have less line noise to worry about ..then again it depends on the electrical infrastructure, it's age and condition.)

For some (or a lot) of us we are not so fortunate and must take extra steps to get the most from our gear. I can honestly say my system sounds it's best no matter what time it is...that result was only possible in my location after installing dedicated lines and using a half decent line conditioner.

It all depends on where you live and how many folks are all packed together on the same grid. Lots of people on the same grid usually means noisy AC lines during regular hours. That isn't myth, it's fact.

Peete.

Listening to music in the dark, in pitch black, is always a different experience for me.  I try to achieve this with night time listening by removing all visuals and rerouting all available focus (voluntary & involuntary) to the ears.  State of mind can be as important as anything else in your chain. 

Sorry, but I don't buy this whole electricity thing. My TV picture looks just as good during the day as it does at night so there's no reason to believe electricity would affect how my music sounds. Electricity is not bandwidth so I refuse to believe increased usage affects the quality that comes into your home.

Music may appear to sound better at night because as others have said, there's less ambient noise, you're more relaxed, etc.