# Night Music Sounds Better - Why?



## 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?


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## kite7

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


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## 9pintube

Quote:


classicalguy said:


> 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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## WarriorAnt

Quote: 





9pintube said:


> Quote:
> 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.


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## buffalowings

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


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## Prog Rock Man

Quote: 





kite7 said:


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


 

 x2.


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## Wulvy

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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## Uncle Erik

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


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## WarriorAnt

Quote: 





uncle erik said:


> 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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## buffalowings

Quote: 





warriorant said:


> 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


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## kostalex

Lower ambient noises + relaxed mind.
  Better electricity? I use portables.


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## miscreant

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"!


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## Pricklely Peete

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.


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## sphinxvc

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.


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## zotjen

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.


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## Paganini Alfredo

And this is why I bought a battery powered amp!


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## yeaman

Im 15 and i for surly believe that music sounds better at night. for whatever reason it does, and im interested in a [size=small]dedicated [/size]line... where can i buy them and what the price? Thanks


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## ert

It's all in your head.  Our ability to process stimuli change throughout the day, and during conditions of stress/relaxation.  The amount of time awake from sleep has an impact.  Most people I know have a drink or two after work.  There are many physiological variables in play.  Yes, AC power may change as well.  I'd like to see measurement evidence that changes in AC line quality affect the output of properly designed audio equipment.


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## Prog Rock Man

I often watch the TV late at night and find I can turn the volume down and still hear clearly what is going on. I think that volume has a major impact on sound quality and low volume sound quality is harder to achieve. For whatever reason, it is easier to achieve late at night.


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## MyVyoo

First off we should ask our blind audiophiles if they think their rigs sound better at night. Personally I think visual details are a distraction to listening.


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## 432789

there is Definitely something to do with the power, even switching off some equipment and lights in my own apartment improves the sound quality, im thinking of buying some ups's or a power filter


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## V1001

zotjen said:


> 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.


 
  
 It absolutely sounds better. Electricity is the lifeblood of your system. As others have mentioned you get a lot more noise on the line during the day. That alone will affect it. But you also can have lower voltages during the day. Actually Electricity can and does vary quite a bit from house to house. Some houses can have voltages quite a bit lower than it should be. So your gear wont' even be running at where it's designed to. Also think of this, you ever use two hand tools on one line? It doesn't even have to be on one circuit even. You turn on one and it sucks the power out of the other one running, you can actually hear it and tell they both go slower. Dramatically sometimes even. That same affect can happen all the time through your neighborhood to a smaller degree. But it does affect your sound. When I was in my other house I had my big ole PC hooked up, when I ran a game or something and it was in full power mode I could actually hear my room fan slow down. Turn on the vacuum and the lights dim a little? Things like this absolutely have an affect on sound and especially amps. That same affect happens throughout your neighborhood constantly. The electrical grid ebs and flows all day depending on demand. Have you ever heard of rolling blackouts in really hot summer or really cold winter days? That's because the electrical grid is only operating on the brink of the low end of where it should be. In fact it's never really ideal, And some power grids are just horrible and aging bad. but at night there is far more available clean raw power. Amps are power beasts and need to be fed clean power. DAC's are very very sensitive to clean noise free power. And they show it. And then you have people actually saying they hear a difference to confirm and back up what is going on. Your gear was designed to work optimally at a constant voltage in a lab and on paper. In the real world you never ever get that unfortunately. The closer you get to that ideal perfect power and correct voltage the better. And this is going to vary for each persons house and where they live so someone may hear a big difference at night and some may only hear a small one. 
  
 But yes ambient noise outside is also a big factor. That makes a big difference. Everything is much quieter. However many people are in basements and well sound insulated man caves and still hear a difference at night. Sometimes it's a very dramatic improvement.


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