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Question for Smart People, Lights ON or OFF

99.8.82.107
Posted on July 14, 2014 at 15:59:26
Charlie8521
Audiophile

Posts: 914
Location: South East Michigan
Joined: October 2, 2004
 I stream music through a MacMini from various internet radio sources. The sound actually changes when I turn a lamp ON which has Fluorescent bulb (actually for the better). Is turning on the light creating a buffer in the circuit??? I would have thought it would create noise in the AC power making the sound worse. Is there a way to measure what is happening at the AC Outlet, that is cheap to do? Or am I just WACKO and I should put my glass of wine down.

 

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RE: Question for Smart People, Lights ON or OFF, posted on July 15, 2014 at 09:07:54
Presto
Audiophile

Posts: 5957
Location: Canada
Joined: November 10, 2004
 Could be psycho-acoustic. Have someone turn on / off the lamp while you wear a blindfold and listen for sonic changes then! ;)

Fluorescent ballasts are bad. Compact fluorescent ballasts are worse. These all affect power quality because they have currents with significant harmonic distortion figures (100%) and crest factors as high as 20.

If someone is purchasing high buck power cords and power conditioners, I'd say the first order of business is an overview of the connected load in the house and it's effect on over-all power quality. You can have a pro assess the power quality in your home with a power quality meter. There are ways to trap harmonics with isolation transformers, and it never hurts to have the grounding of your system reviewed either. A highly recommended approach is dedicated circuit to the audio room just for audio gear (no lights or other plugs or devices on them) with over-sized wire. Sometimes guys go as far as to install shielded power cable, but whether or not this kind of noise immunity is necessary often remains to be seen.

The big problem with power quality is switch-mode power supplies and those things are everywhere these days.

Cheers,
Presto

 

RE: Question for Smart People, Lights ON or OFF, posted on July 18, 2014 at 15:21:15
rwa3
Audiophile

Posts: 74
Joined: September 28, 2011
 Is it the wine or are smoking something in the dark?

 

RE: Question for Smart People, Lights ON or OFF, posted on July 23, 2014 at 19:09:32
michaelhigh
Audiophile

Posts: 839
Location: midwest
Joined: August 18, 2010
 If you smoke in the dark, watch out for errant seeds!

We did an experiment in seventh grade band, and it went like this: Pick an arbitrary number of beats (27). Get a tempo cue/count-in from the director, and after the 1 2 3 4, count silently with the lights on, then everyone clap on 27. Result? Everyone's cutting up, counting, distracting each other as to the tempo that was set, and the potentially unison clap becomes an as-expected polyrhythmic-at-best entrance. Now, repeat the test with the lights off. With the sense of sight removed, the adherence to tempo and entrance on 27 becomes acutely more accurate and more unison-like in comparison.
The moral? Eliminate sense of sight, and increase rhythmic and metric acuity as a result.

 

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