Anyone have a believable answer to this???

[georgehifi]

I've been battling for ages whether to post this up or not.

I swear I think my system sounds a little better to me, from morning to late afternoon .

This is any day of the week, spring, summer, autumn or winter.

 

All this I did, did wonders for my systems sound, my power is very consistent, between 230-235v since all below was done 5 years ago. 

I have dedicated hifi power line from the fuse board, all connections in the fuse board have been tightened.

There are no circuit breakers on the hifi line,  just a proper 15amp fuse wire in new h/d very tight fitting brass/ceramic holders.

 

Energy Australia has to do the next bit I had done.

Power wire from the street pole to the house barge board, have been cleaned and tightened both ends.

The Energy Australia guy did the below for me after I flicked him a few bucks, when I asked him I wanted the cleanest stable power. 

He put me on the power line from the rarely used outside road phase (hard for them to  reach across) , not the inside footpath phase that everyone in the street is on. 

 

Cheers George  

Edited May 31, 2019 by georgehifi

[Addicted to music]

I guess you didn't do a DBT to prove it did you?   

[Ihearmusic]

Well...., some folks on this forum believe if you can hear a difference than that difference can be measured.

I say, go and measure!

If you can't measure a difference than it must be a physiological change (happening within those hours) in your hearing-brain interface  or it might just be your imagination.

[wolster]

With your experience,if you hear a difference, you hear it, George

[wen]

I think it also sounds better evenings and late nights ?Nothing rational to back this up, is it the effect the moon has on blocking solar activity, like a tidal effect on water? Only rational idea is the wine relaxes you more so you can enjoy the music with less inhibitions?

[Stump]

2 hours ago, georgehifi said:

sounds a little better to me, from morning to late afternoon .

 

Cheers George  

Thats unusual as I have found there is less ambient noise competing with your music at night.I like what you done with Energy Australia

Stump

[Guest Muon N']

17 hours ago, wen said:

I think it also sounds better evenings and late nights ?Nothing rational to back this up, is it the effect the moon has on blocking solar activity, like a tidal effect on water? Only rational idea is the wine relaxes you more so you can enjoy the music with less inhibitions?

Less activity on the grid, that's my theory anyhow

 

There are also articles of studies suggesting that alcohol damages hearing, but.....I don't want to get into discussions about as too may people shout

[Guest jakeyb77]

My music obviously sounds better at 2am cause the neighbours seem to enjoy it more and start jumping up and down dancing. 

[Ittaku]

I've got a powerline EMI noise meter. It's "noisy" all day long on weekdays and then abruptly drops after 6pm to about 1/4 as much. This is repeatedly demonstrable. I haven't checked whether weekends are any better. Whether this translates into audible noise after the entire audio chain is something I haven't a means to measure, but I don't particularly hear a difference with my system. I suspect the power supply design of components comes into play and mine are fairly heavily over-engineered on that front.

 

[t_mike]

Don't downplay the effects of air density and humidity. Sounds to me like you have a preference for the sound during low humidity periods of the day. Do rainy days make a difference?

[Guest rmpfyf]

3 hours ago, georgehifi said:

I've been battling for ages whether to post this up or not.

I swear I think my system sounds a little better to me, from morning to late afternoon .

This is any day of the week, spring, summer, autumn or winter.

 

All this I did, did wonders for my systems sound, my power is very consistent, between 230-235v since all below was done 5 years ago. 

I have dedicated hifi power line from the fuse board, all connections in the fuse board have been tightened.

There are no circuit breakers on the hifi line,  just a proper 15amp fuse wire in new h/d very tight fitting brass/ceramic holders.

 

Energy Australia has to do the next bit I had done.

Power wire from the street pole to the house barge board, have been cleaned and tightened both ends.

The Energy Australia guy did the below for me after I flicked him a few bucks, when I asked him I wanted the cleanest stable power. 

He put me on the power line from the rarely used outside road phase (hard to  across reach to for them), not the inside footpath phase that everyone in the street is on. 

 

Cheers George  

 

Haven't seen them called that for a while, it's Ausgrid these days!

 

Your DNSP is supposed to balance phase loads in the street at any rate, you shouldn't have to flick anyone any money - cost me zero to have my local DNSP do this for me when we had balance issues in the street that gave a few of us some severe voltage issues. Mind you this is intended to stabilise load, though it doesn't completely solve all power quality issues. The catenary line is meant to be able to serve all mains phases; there should be no difficulty if flipping you or anyone else between red/white/blue phases. 

 

I wouldn't advertise your fuse - not a legal solution nowadays for new boards or upgrades.

 

Would suggest earth quality to be critical and a direct route v useful if practical. 

[PleasantSounds]

This phenomenon has been already explained by the top audio scientists, and has nothing to do with the quality of power:

 

The concentration of alpha rays contained in the daylight excites quantum particles in your room enough to cause the tachyon fields to go out of alignemnt, so that the micro-interferences between the said tachyon fields and oscillating air particles (sound) become more random and turn into inaudible level noise, instead of forming polarised grid, which blurs stereo imaging and destroys all of the sound field height.  As a result, the daytime sound becomes more musical,  faster and spatially extended.

 

It has been first reported by some of the audio gear reviewers, who started receiving complaints from their readers who often had very different perception of the reviewed gear. The first research clue was that the reviewers listen to the gear as part of their day job, while most audiophiles do that in the evenings....

 

[TerryO]

I found this whole day v night improvement in sq thing very noticeable and quite frustrating, as our system nearly always sounded much better in the evenings.

I had hoped that trying a PS Audio P10 Power Plant in my system would rule out this whole clean versus dirty power debate and that I wouldn’t need to spend such a chunk of money, but it didn’t, it proved it.  

Not only to me my ears but to three separate friends who came to visit over two weeks, none of them into HiFi, so no preconceived opinions or prejudices, none of them even knew what a power regenerator was, two had never seen a turntable.

All said the same thing the music sounded better when the big black box was turned on, which was the same for me and my better half.

 

So I bought one and now it sounds as good in the day as it does at night. Sometimes you just have to spend the money.

 

 

Edited May 31, 2019 by TerryO

[ScottR]

Not wanting to make light of the subject, but approximately what time of day do you commence alcohol infusion?   . 

[georgehifi]

6 hours ago, rmpfyf said:

Would suggest earth quality to be critical and a direct route v useful if practical. 

Yes I saw to this as well, earth stake and water pipe earths.

 

Quote

The catenary line is meant to be able to serve all mains phases;

Is that what it's called? he said they "reserve" it for hospitals, but in my area there are just two small private ones.

 

Quote

Haven't seen them called that for a while, it's Ausgrid these days!

Could have been maybe it was 5 or more years ago , they came all the way from Hornsby to North Manly to do it.

 

Cheers George

[Guest rmpfyf]

47 minutes ago, georgehifi said:

Yes I saw to this as well, earth stake and water pipe earths.

It's possible to bypass the earth in your switchboard and tie directly to the stake if you want an uber-uber Earth solution, and then connect additional stakes to drop that impedance a bit more.

 

Hospitals need all three phases! 

 

The only situation I'd think of where this is different is Sydney CBD's 'Triplex' network, where there is literally a double-redundant power distribution network (sort of like an 'only one in the world' scenario) which at some points is reticulated locally in separate feeders and low voltage distribution. That was originally built in the 30's or so such that Parliament House, hospitals etc would have super reliable power distribution. 

 

Not sure if that stretches to Manly. You'd have more than the usual power distribution wire set in your area if so. 

 

Post a photo of what's in the street if you can, it'll show what you've got.

[georgehifi]

1 hour ago, rmpfyf said:

Post a photo of what's in the street if you can, it'll show what you've got.

https://ibb.co/7jK6sn1

 

Pics a bit bent looking google maps

 

Sound of the system and voltage stability were both so much better after they did this, before it varied up to 15v depending the time of day, after they did it around 5v since around 5 years ago and still the same today.

I have noticed since then, during "some" blackouts in my area sometimes I still have power and the rest of the houses in the street are blacked out, even the street lights and traffic lights down the road.

 

Cheers George 

Edited May 31, 2019 by georgehifi

[Guest rmpfyf]

5 hours ago, georgehifi said:

https://ibb.co/7jK6sn1

 

Pics a bit bent looking google maps

 

Sound of the system and voltage stability were both so much better after they did this, before it varied up to 15v depending the time of day, after they did it around 5v since around 5 years ago and still the same today.

I have noticed since then, during "some" blackouts in my area sometimes I still have power and the rest of the houses in the street are blacked out, even the street lights and traffic lights down the road.

 

Cheers George 

 

Looks like a fairly standard three-phase distribution - they've just put you on a different phase. You shouldn't have to pay for that! Tell the dude that took your cash that he owes you a slab for being a scab  

 

To be honest you're not completely put out for cash though. What usually happens is the customer complains, the DNSP says well, we can't trust your data, they make a case to put a data logger there, if they do they look over six months, and then finally at the end they make the decision to move your phase. I'm a little luckier, I have some decent metering here that's uncommon and was able to prove out straight away that something was majorly wrong - also our swings were up to 60VAC under!

 

A telltale sign of load imbalances in your street is when there's partial blackouts - when there's a blackout on usually one phase but not the other two. Having a blackout on the low voltage side is extremely unusual. That'd be a function of sparkies connecting homes to the first phase they see rather than looking up and down the street to check what's loaded (or paying attention to connection documents) like they're supposed to. 

 

If your job was a function of a legitimate complaint they'd have come out within a month (usually shorter) and rebalanced the entire street (or whatever loads exist on the low-voltage side of the supplying transformer). 

 

If the loads are as imbalanced as you suggest then the phase you came from is likely to have greater power quality issues than just voltage - you're likely to have suffered poor harmonics too. Good thing you're somewhere better. 

[JukKluk2]

14 hours ago, t_mike said:

Don't downplay the effects of air density and humidity. Sounds to me like you have a preference for the sound during low humidity periods of the day. Do rainy days make a difference?

Well, around here, they're certainly wetter.

[JukKluk2]

Double posted somehow, sorry.

Edited June 1, 2019 by JukKluk2

[georgehifi]

49 minutes ago, rmpfyf said:

they make a case to put a data logger there

They did for a month, as I told them I repair/calibrate medical instruments and I need clean steady 230v to calibrate them to my satisfaction.

 

Cheers George

[georgehifi]

23 minutes ago, JukKluk2 said:

Don't downplay the effects of air density and humidity.

This is especially with ESL dry days I get 5kv on the panel with my S.I. ESV meter, humid day >70% can be down to 4kv just means you need a be more from the amp. But this is not the difference problem I'm getting for better sound during the day.

 

Cheers George 

[JukKluk2]

16 hours ago, wen said:

I think it also sounds better evenings and late nights ?Nothing rational to back this up, is it the effect the moon has on blocking solar activity, like a tidal effect on water? Only rational idea is the wine relaxes you more so you can enjoy the music with less inhibitions?

Yes, later night is the best time around here as far as SQ is concerned. Not being a drinker of alcohol the theory concerning less inhibitions doesn't stand up to scrutiny, not here a least. I do wonder if it can be down to less all around sensory input (less light, less background noise, possibly less mains borne hash, usually less people to demand your attention etc) and, again in my situation, more subdued lighting allowing me to concentrate more on the music and how it sounds? Wouldn't mind trying one of those PS Audio devices at some point either.

[Jonny]

Yes I agree, less sensory input. 

[Guest rmpfyf]

2 hours ago, georgehifi said:

They did for a month, as I told them I repair/calibrate medical instruments and I need clean steady 230v to calibrate them to my satisfaction.

 

Cheers George

 

Still more a favour than fact - not saying it didn't happen - just that what you're suggesting ('clean steady' 230VAC) isn't a supply requirement. If you need mains quality beyond mains standard (which is not a flat 230VAC all the time) then it's on you to regenerate/maintain it. 

 

If they found a problem with a logger and chose to move your phase you shouldn't have had to pay for it. Your symptoms are more consistent with distribution load imbalance, and that's usually a 'fix across multiple homes'.

 

Most will otherwise have better mains quality at night when there's no local generation, no voltage rise, lesser harmonics (what some term 'hash'), etc. 

 

You should be seeing some voltage rise during the day if there's a few people exporting PV in your area. Better quality during day is consistent with no/negligible export to grid and/or some decent loads at night as people start to come home - statistically more likely with an underloaded supply phase. https://nationalmap.gov.au/renewables/ has maps of distribution network loads that are worth a look if you're interested to get a general sense of what side of the problem you're on, and Ausgrid publishes reports covering known problems and intended expenditures.