Any reason why my system takes up to 4 hours to warm up?

If you read the post link above, you might find what you’re after

That suggests that humidity is the main variable in SQ in your cabin.

More so than noise on the mains, or your mood, or what source or recording your are using, or anything else.

Since you are more or less controlling for temperature, then humidity could in fact be the thing that most changes SQ.

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Are you referring to this text, or another link in a post above?

"Most music follows a form that can be calculated with a fourier transform analysis and time frequency analysis indicating it is not random, which simply means that your system can get into a “rut”. Like going to a gym and training only a few specific muscles for years and then wondering why your body is out of balance. This recording takes your system through a full workout of frequencies and tonal changes that is specifically designed to stretch your system’s components and bring new life into your music.

We place equal importance on all frequencies and even go into deep bass in a way that sub woofers will benefit from while working up through mids into the upper high frequency ranges in a non-sequential , non- Fourier way. There are also no pure ratio intervals to allow your system to slouch while it is having its work out. This is also one of the prime reasons that music played normally is slow to burn in components compared to this tool. Music does not cover your system’s range in a way that exercises the components sufficiently in a mechanical, electronic and magnetic sense to burn in your various components as efficiently."

My understanding us that humidity can affect hearing - one of the reasons why our hearing is not constant, but varies from day to day, or at different times of day.

How often do you use this disc, and for how long, and at what volume?

Did you only do this when some components were new, or at any other times?

Presumably there are videos on YT that contain similar material to what is on your disc.

That wasn’t mine! I meant this, which I linked a few hours ago: Humidity and Sonics - #7 by Innocent_Bystander

Thanks - this is an influence on SQ I have overlooked to date.

Let us know how these expts go.

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Don’t suppose there is any of activity that coincides with your listening schedules? Many systems ago I had Linn pre power and if it was playing the same time as the washing machine / tumble or dishwasher then its timing was right off.

Just a thought if human habits mean you put some sort of appliance on and when it’s done the system comes on song.

I’ve only ever found this with the Linn but just in case it’s an odd one, which would be even more unlikely given you dedicated mains for system.

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I’d guess either a change in variables - possibly mains supply - or it’s the receivers that settle down after a couple of hours relaxation…

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I did this on fairly new equipment - about 2-3 months. The power cable was newer - maybe 2-3 weeks old (but I also read positive opinions from people who had equipment that was several years old). After adding the power cable, the sound changed a lot, it became very warm, a bit foggy, mysterious, which I really liked. After playing the system disc a few times, at normal listening volumes (like I was playing regular music, not too quiet, not too loud), the sound became more organized, as if it had broken through this “warm fog”.

You can probably find such recordings on YouTube. I personally didn’t look for it and bought the WAV version. In my opinion, this topic is definitely not a marketing gimmick and it is worth reading opinions about products from various manufacturers, and maybe someone you know has such a recording and can lend it to you :).

Currently, I no longer see such spectacular effects as I did at the very beginning. But as I wrote, I’m not in a position to play this recording before each listening session. I’m not encouraging you to choose a specific brand, but if you can hear the difference between power and speaker cables and you haven’t tried such recordings, it’s definitely worth taking an interest in the topic :).

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Hi JimDog, I decided to have another listening session today, fired up Quboz, hit play lists and put on a collection of Direstraits, carried on with a few jobs, can back and Tunnel of Love was playing, still sounding closed in and hard.
So decided to put the lp version on, now the Lp12 and the phono stage are still on the original house circuit, powered up album on turned up the volume a little further sat down and after a few minutes I thought this sounds a bit sweeter, as vinyl often can, then I realised that the sound stage had changed, much wider, music easy to follow, played a few more tracks still the same, volume creeping up as you do, sounding really good, first thoughts is the cd input on the 282 iffy?
Switch back to the streamer put Tunnel of love on again, same result, wider sound stage, smoother presentation, easier to follow carried for about an hour same results with pretty much every track!
So my thoughts are is this a dodgy cd input/switch on the 282, is it current related, playing at higher levels.
So switched of TT and phono stage no difference that I could hear, then went for a good walk, system still on but not playing anything, popped Direstraits back on from the streamer and that wonderfully wide sound stage is still there being back everything with it.
Really pleased but I still need to find out why this is happening, is it a current issue, definitely played the system louder today.

Any suggestions would be appreciated :+1:

Hi Adam, no nothing unusual that I can think of.

I think in my collection of cd’s there is a detox disc that I used many,many years ago, might be worth putting it on the stick drive and giving it a try.
From my last listening session the system came back on song after only an hour but I had switched inputs wondering if the 282’s input switches are a little off, one thing I haven’t tried is feeding the streamer through a different input that may so something up, further investigation needed.

It’s currently still a mystery.

It seems likely to me that there is some kind of intermittent fault, or short circuit, or loose connection, or slightly malfunctioning part in one of your hi-fi components.

But then having said that, why is there a predictable sequence where SQ gets better overtime as you play the system?

Or did your recent experience as you just reported it above include more abrupt changes in Sound quality?

I’m thinking along the same lines, intermittent fault or circuit board issue somewhere.

I’m leaning towards the 282 being the culprit, as the sound quality I loose is very similar to the SQ I gained when I added the 282, it’s that spread in the sound stage that seems so obvious, I think when it’s not there the sound is almost compressed between the speakers resulting in a hard confused sound if that makes sense.

My thought are to try connecting the streamer side through a different input but which one, aux1 or 2 maybe or even the tuner input, my thinking being the cd input has probably had a lot of use over the last 20 years so maybe switching inputs might help, unless the issue is with something all the inputs share

I might try to isolate things to try and pinpoint the problem.

I recently had an infuriating problem with hum that had never previously been there suddenly being audible via the phono stage.

In the end I unplugged everything and had the minimum running to support vinyl replay and there was no hum.

As I plugged other appliances in it became apparent that my TV was now putting noise into the circuit. The TV was old (15 plus years) but otherwise working fine, however removing it from the mains circuit got rid of the hum.

Different problem I know, but I would strip your system down to the minimum needed to play one source and with anything else unplugged, no matter how innocuous.

I was really surprised and it just seemed that the power supply in the TV had started polluting the mains.

When I stripped it all down it was down to plugs direct in the wall before adding an extension block etc. It took time but it was worth it.

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Understand what you are saying and as you pointed out yours was a slightly different issue but a methodical process is similar.
The main difference apart from the obvious is your issue was present all the time so a slightly different approach, the difficulty for me is the nature of the problem, it can’t be anything major because of how my system is functioning just not functioning how I know it can.
I know from 30+ years as an engineer is doesn’t take a lot with electrical circuits to cause issues, the normal approach for me would be to start with the obvious, connections, leads etc even the old “give the item a tap and a rattle just to see if you got a reaction, possible but probably not the normal approach with Hifi equipment.
Will try a few things over the coming days and see how it works out.
The dedicated supply is all new so shouldn’t be any issues from that end .
Fingers crossed I will hopefully fine the problem.

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Best of luck, it’s a peculiar one.

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It might be worth testing the system again on the original house circuit, to see how that compares with the streamer and 282 running of the dedicated mains?

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