Bright or Dim?

Fwiw, I'm with Elizabeth, also listen to my system a lot when not tinkering. In my experience I've noticed during daylight hours the system still sounds great but it is influenced by outside ambient noise. In the evenings with less ambient noise it sounds superior to the daylight play. Light or dark environment does not seem to affect the actual sound. I believe that the level of ambient noise does affect the listening experience. 

 When I go to have coffee, it is not likely to be a casual cup. The coffee, being the main event, is important, but not much more than the environment. Too much noise, crappy music in the background, or worse, two different sources of music playing at the same time. You get the idea, so that would be my point for the listening environment as well. A previous poster did comment that the lights are dimmed just before the orchestra plays. Enticing the mood has it's merits to me.

@geoffkait

I digress. I did see a pair starting at $17k so your most likely correct. 

https://www.thecableco.com/25th-anniversary-luminist-speaker-cable-pair.html

@geoffkait 

Luminist Speaker Cables $25,500

Don’t you mean 2,500.00. I don’t think they were $25k. 

Wolfie sez:

• "Note that dimmers make people look better...especially old people."
  

Hey! I represent that!  :-)  

Geof....I seem to remember Purist Audio had cables that used light to advance the sound  their interconnect and speaker cables.

@elizabeth  

"Sadly I am on the laptop way too much and I notice it really cuts the depth of listening"

let the Church say Amen

Hey, I know a good thing when I see it. 👀

@geoffkait  

i knew new you would not be able to pass that one up. 😂

LoL. I was just waiting LOL. 

rcronk17
Fools at 20 tend to be fools at 70! Fools grow more foolish just like wisdom (the domain of the Wiz - Frank Zappa) may improve with years.

The best bet is to shut your eyes. Open eyes stimulate the optic nerve and make the brain work. Easily seen on brain scans the visual stimulation takes a lot of brain activity and it confounds listening with the distractions. All the visual needs to be screened out if you want undisturbed audio signals for ’receivers’ like your brain stem systems.

>>>>That is especially true when there’s a limited number of brain cells to begin with, like possibly ten or eleven. Multitasking is a skill reserved for the very young or people with huge heads.

cheers,
the inventor of Ortho Ears 

Fools at 20 tend to be fools at 70!  Fools grow more foolish just like wisdom (the domain of the Wiz - Frank Zappa) may improve with years.
The best bet is to shut your eyes.  Open eyes stimulate the optic nerve and make the brain work.  Easily seen on brain scans the visual stimulation takes a lot of brain activity and it confounds listening with the distractions.  All the visual needs to be screened out if you want undisturbed audio signals for 'receivers' like your brain stem systems.

If we think about all the brouhaha about "buring in wires" on our stereos and just transfere those insights to your wires in your head.  To close your eyes and shut off the vision work is like bi-amping your speakers.  

Obviously it's because the light waves interfere with the sound waves.

@stevecham

you know interesting enough I never listen to music with my eyes closed. I will fall asleep. Also I would not be able to keep them closed in a brightly lit room. I guess I have thin eyelid syndrome or something :). I like doing everything with the lights low. My wife is always on me about turning the lights down. She likes bright, well lit rooms. I am more like a vampire. However she likes the blinds in the house closed and I want them open during the day. Go figure. I’m just weird like that I guess so when I comes to listening to music I have to have the lights dimmed else it just does not work for me.

@clearthink: one of the cheapest tweaks around.

Re: PS Harvester.....Plugged one in, the light blinked, the sound was reduced to flat and ugly...two made the sound worse.  Returned all 3 - yuk!

@stringreen  

"Do they sell any of the old 100 watt bulbs anymore?"

https://www.amazon.com/100-Watt-Rough-Service-Lumens/dp/B00C4UYLDG/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&qid=154612...

This is the only place I can find them. So I usually order a bunch.

Shinning bright light 💡 on cables for a few minutes prior to play is a different idea entirely. Amuse your friends.

Dimmers make other people look brighter. And the reverse is true. So depending on your purpose you can act dim or bright. Yes and it does effect your connection to the emotional experience of the sound of your system.

I understand LED's put a lot of junk on the power lines. Do they sell any of the old 100 watt bulbs anymore?

To be clear, LED bulbs and lights which are AC powered cause a lot of noise because they use a switching power supply.  Some of it is really horrible on an oscilloscope.

It is not the LED itself that causes any  noise at all.LED's in audio equipment are fine.

Best,
E

I understand LED's put a lot of junk on the power lines.  Do they sell any of the old 100 watt bulbs anymore?

I do my best work in the dark. 

Note that dimmers make people look better...especially old people.

LoL. 

With the lights dimmed you get a much blacker background.

@elizabeth nice

@elizabeth 

Hey Elizabeth. This is a little off topic but question for you. You say you listen to music all day and all night. So do you turn on your system on in the morning and leave it on all day until you go to bed even when you run out for an errand? Just curious. I turn my system on and leave  it on all day. I only turn it off if I know i'm either not going to listen that day or I know I will be gone most of the day. Im sure that has been a topic of discussion someplace on this forum but thought I would sneak a quick off topic question in. Im sure this could be a topic all by itself. 

@larry5729 

"For the past 31 years we used our living room twice a year. We referred to it as our museum. Now we call it our music room."

Larry your story sound exactly like mine. Up until the past 2 years we NEVER went in our living room. I used to tell my wife all the time "lets turn it into an office or something" It seemed like such a waste of space. Maybe thats why home builders stopped building houses with formal living rooms. Anyway. I purchased a nice system to go in that space and now I use it almost daily. Plus I have two places in my home to get some solitude. Best decision I have made, and the WAF was good because I call that system "her" system lol. Hey do what you have to do right.. lol

Music creates mood and so does lighting.  I purchased a pair of 2800K (warm white) LED floor spot lights and placed them behind my towers.  This is the only light I use in our living room when listening.  My speakers now look incredible.  This shows off my speakers and helps to set up such a great ambient mood in the room.  Very relaxing and it helps me to focus more on the music.  A great sound system combined with subtle lighting enhances the feeling you get when sitting down to listen to music.  We now spending more than 50% of our time in our living room than in our family room.  For the past 31 years we used our living room twice a year.  We referred to it as our museum.  Now we call it our music room.

"Lights off is very real and very physiological when it comes to attention paid via hearing. Human hearing is an alarm system which never sleeps. But it does vary in the brain power allocated to it.

At night it can save your life, so when dark, it becomes highly attuned. Highly. Shut off the conscious mind and the eyes, then the hearing really perks up. Maximum attention, maximum brain power applied, when it comes to sustained darkness. It is an autonomous function or process, for the most part. Outside of your conscious control, to a notable degree. Just like all parts of our day to day cyclic but varied (in level) functions.

It’s built right into you. Core function."


Nice. Makes perfect sense to me. No authority on the matter but makes sense. I was thinking along those lines in my opening post. It just seems like as the environment gets darker the hearing gets more sensitive which in tern makes the music sound that much better. Add a little color to that and ...pure nirvana 

Lights off is very real and very physiological when it comes to attention paid via hearing. Human hearing is an alarm system which never sleeps. But it does vary in the brain power allocated to it.

At night it can save your life, so when dark, it becomes highly attuned. Highly. Shut off the conscious mind and the eyes, then the hearing really perks up. Maximum attention, maximum brain power applied, when it comes to sustained darkness. It is an autonomous function or process, for the most part. Outside of your conscious control, to a notable degree. Just like all parts of our day to day cyclic but varied (in level) functions.

It’s built right into you. Core function.

Ok so I think this is in line with this topic. I have incorporated a lava lamp into he equation. With the lights even dimmer and the lava lamp on makes quite an interesting way to listen to your favorite music (mine being jazz) not sure it would have quite the same effect as listing to Rock.. 

Ok So here is a question. Does the genre determine if the room is better dim or lit? I would think Rock especially some Stones or Hendrix for example would maybe sound better in a brighter environment. No?? How about Sabbath or Parliament.. Would that dictate?

@elizabeth

"Yes am retired..Nine years now. All I do is lay around, listen to music. I am old..."

Thats whats up. Congratulations. You deserve to to exactly what you want to do if you have worked to be able to retire. I want to be just like you when I grow up :) Your not old...you’re wise. How about that.

@nonoise LOL no you did not do that.... too funny.

Mood is everything.
+wine

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CtGxusvUT3k&frags=pl%2Cwn

I love to dim the lights or turn them off when listening. I enjoy the music more. I hear greater dimensionality and become more attuned to the whole picture, but especially microdynamics. My theory (based on absolutely nothing at all) is that limiting your senses to one concentrates and/or enhances the brain's perceptive abilities with respect to that sense.  

FWIW, ever wonder why they dim the lights at a music venue as the band is getting ready to play? Just saying.

The 'dimming of the lights' is an example of a ritual to initiate this for some (centering and focus).

david_ten

"This is about the ability to center oneself and the ability to direct and isolate focus. Those good at it can do so under remarkable conditions or circumstances."

Thats a excellent point. Never thought of it that  way. 

@elizabeth All day? Must be nice. I wish I could listen to music all day everyday. Spoken like a retiree (thats just a guess no harm meant) 

This is about the ability to center oneself and the ability to direct and isolate focus. Those good at it can do so under remarkable conditions or circumstances.

@glupson haha. Yep. Agreed. Maybe sounds better is not a good way to phrase it. Im sure that " music" sounds the exact same unless audio equipment knows when its dark or light lol. So lets go with that..."more enjoyable" That way its totally subjective and no-one is wrong! wow that might be a first in audiophile history lol. Oh and I do agree about the car thing.