I am perfectly serious.
Try to turn off everything in your house except for your audio system.
Then turn other stuff back on one by one and listen for differences.
Dan.
Solid State ballasts for florescent lights produce a lot of noise around 20KHz to 30KHz. I have demonstrated this running FFTs and turning the lights in my den on and off for successive runs. When the lights are on there is a pronounced hump of noise from about 20KHz to about 30KHz, at -80dB on the plot.
The old Florescent lamps over my workbench have magnetic ballasts and do not cause this problem.
Whether or not there is sufficient noise to impact how a stereo sounds, I can't say as I have never done listening tests to see if I can hear any difference.
My suspicion is that it might raise the noise floor slightly.
The old Florescent lamps over my workbench have magnetic ballasts and do not cause this problem.
Whether or not there is sufficient noise to impact how a stereo sounds, I can't say as I have never done listening tests to see if I can hear any difference.
My suspicion is that it might raise the noise floor slightly.
I used to get noise from my computer flat screen and whenever my fridge kicked in.
At first I added a ferrite to the screens connecting leads which helped a bit.
Since I replaced the last few single-ended interconnects with balanced lines any hints of noise have completely disappeared and I removed the ferrite from the screens leads.
At first I added a ferrite to the screens connecting leads which helped a bit.
Since I replaced the last few single-ended interconnects with balanced lines any hints of noise have completely disappeared and I removed the ferrite from the screens leads.
Electrical noise in the environment is well known, why people have even written books about it.... Most electronics are designed not to be susceptible, I would imagine some audio is less immune due to the slightly off the wall beliefs and practices, such as a hate of ferrite's and whacky beliefs on grounding and shielding...
Again measurements will give you the answers.... Real measurements.
Quick quiz, how many use power line communication?
If you answered yes then you are supporting putting EMC directly onto the mains.....
Again measurements will give you the answers.... Real measurements.
Quick quiz, how many use power line communication?
If you answered yes then you are supporting putting EMC directly onto the mains.....
marce, as a serious question, how would you measure that, and what numbers would you consider to be adequate performance?
I love this guy's videos, but his voice gets to me after a while.
Now these are my favorites. Not much educationally, but hilarious and fun.
https://www.youtube.com/user/Photonvids/videos
EN 55020:2007+A11:2011
Sound and television broadcast receivers and associated equipment. Immunity characteristics. Limits and methods of measurement
http://www.compliance-club.com/pdf/EMCTestingPart1.pdf
http://www.compliance-club.com/pdf/EMCTestingPart2.pdf
http://www.compliance-club.com/pdf/EMCTestingPart3.pdf
http://www.compliance-club.com/pdf/EMCTestingPart4.pdf
http://www.compliance-club.com/pdf/EMCTestingPart5.pdf
http://www.compliance-club.com/pdf/EMCTestingPart6.pdf
http://www.compliance-club.com/pdf/EMCTestingPart7.pdf
🙂
Fast, you continually relate experiences of fixing problems of playback issues regarding digital or electronic problems. Could you provide a specific example of an issue that you found and how you corrected it?
tobydog, as an example of a more subtle issue, which everyone I think would accept as being significant to some degree, is mains power quality. IME, the better the system becomes, the more "transparent" it intrinsically is, the more one will typically be aware of degradation effects from this area.
And the simplest way to test this, is to shut down the house electrically. Literally, switch off every device in the house that is drawing power, and, if you want to be a bit more extreme, pull out every cord from every socket. Does this make a difference to the quality of the perceived sound, especially at high volumes? If so, then there is an issue - either find out which devices drawing power are the worst culprits, make sure they are switched off; or plug them into a circuit where they cause the least audible problems ... or, introduce mains filtering devices to the circuits where the gear is plugged in. I have tried all sorts of ideas over the years - they all do something, and the filtering which is best is the one that works for your equipment; no easy answers, I'm afraid.
Hope that helps, 🙂.
And the simplest way to test this, is to shut down the house electrically. Literally, switch off every device in the house that is drawing power, and, if you want to be a bit more extreme, pull out every cord from every socket. Does this make a difference to the quality of the perceived sound, especially at high volumes? If so, then there is an issue - either find out which devices drawing power are the worst culprits, make sure they are switched off; or plug them into a circuit where they cause the least audible problems ... or, introduce mains filtering devices to the circuits where the gear is plugged in. I have tried all sorts of ideas over the years - they all do something, and the filtering which is best is the one that works for your equipment; no easy answers, I'm afraid.
Hope that helps, 🙂.
I agree, mains quality is important. I have a fairly clean supply and i use a filtered extension block. Living in the wild west of Scotland has some advantages i suppose.
Fast, could you provide an obvious, non subtle example of one of the issues that you have determined, and how you have corrected the problem that you have diagnosed.
I have tried as you said, turning off every thing connected in the house whilst listening to my system. Is it listening in the dark with a few led's glowing in the dark is the route to nirvana?
I have tried as you said, turning off every thing connected in the house whilst listening to my system. Is it listening in the dark with a few led's glowing in the dark is the route to nirvana?
The point is, did it make a difference? That's the aim of the exercise, to find that out - I would always do those sort of tests in the middle of the day, so you're not falling over things, and possibly breaking bones, in your efforts ... 😀.
Okay, since you're taking this seriously
, start with selecting the "right" recording to try and get a good "measuring stick" for the overall exercise - this should be one you're well familiar with, which is a sort of favourite, but which always disappoints to some degree because the quality in the treble area is just not there - there is a part of the track which never quite sounds right, or irritates you in the listening. And that aspect is what you should be listening to when you makes changes, or try things out - how does the quality of that section of the recording alter when you test, ignoring everything else - it's about learning to use your ears to give you the essential feedback.
As regards obvious, vs. subtle, that is going to depend on the individual, what they listen for in a recording. To me, one real obvious one is amplifiers starting to distort in the treble when they go loud, they lose the sparkle - to test, I use a Status Quo recording where the crash cymbals are being hit all the way through the track; at a certain volume for many amplifiers the tone of that cymbal hit will start to go flat, deaden, begin to turn into white noise - the amplifier is losing its ability to output a clean waveform at that point. This is not a speaker problem, this is amplifier misbehaviour - and the solution is usually that the power supply is lacking, and needs work on it to improve its capabilities - what needs to be done here depends upon so many variables, no straightforward answer.
How's that? ... 🙂
Okay, since you're taking this seriously
, start with selecting the "right" recording to try and get a good "measuring stick" for the overall exercise - this should be one you're well familiar with, which is a sort of favourite, but which always disappoints to some degree because the quality in the treble area is just not there - there is a part of the track which never quite sounds right, or irritates you in the listening. And that aspect is what you should be listening to when you makes changes, or try things out - how does the quality of that section of the recording alter when you test, ignoring everything else - it's about learning to use your ears to give you the essential feedback.As regards obvious, vs. subtle, that is going to depend on the individual, what they listen for in a recording. To me, one real obvious one is amplifiers starting to distort in the treble when they go loud, they lose the sparkle - to test, I use a Status Quo recording where the crash cymbals are being hit all the way through the track; at a certain volume for many amplifiers the tone of that cymbal hit will start to go flat, deaden, begin to turn into white noise - the amplifier is losing its ability to output a clean waveform at that point. This is not a speaker problem, this is amplifier misbehaviour - and the solution is usually that the power supply is lacking, and needs work on it to improve its capabilities - what needs to be done here depends upon so many variables, no straightforward answer.
How's that? ... 🙂
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If it's made a difference to you, then it's made a difference. If you go into a bedding store, and you pick the most comfortable mattress, for you - then, that's the most comfortable mattress!
There's a point where subjective interpretation always gets on board - otherwise, for example, you could only go to restaurants where "independent confirmation" stated the food was good - and if you happened to get a terrible meal that night from a "reputable" food place ... well, obviously your taste buds can't be trusted to get it right ... 🙂
Realistically, the trick is to flick between the two states to confirm that a difference exists - if you can be easily persuaded that there is, or there isn't a difference, either way, then you might as well go for the cheapest, easiest solution - you're happy, and that's all that matters ... 😉 .
Thats the closest you've come (that I've seen) to suggesting the effect is neither reliable nor repeatable person to person and so likely a psychological rather than audio-electrical in cause.
Well done.
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