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How does relative humidity affect our music?


Winter is here in the Northern Hemisphere, so things are changing both outside and in.

Last week I posted a thread because I cleaned my current CD player for the first time using an old Milty CD Lens Cleaner that I found when I rearranged my CD rack. I thought, and still think, that perhaps one or more pieces of the brushes broke off and were still on the lens. The music wasn't a precise as it was before, and I was fearful that I'd damaged the laser with the cleaning.

Another thing that was noticeable was a very significant amount of excess bass. That didn't make any sense to me because I couldn't see how anything like a laser misreading would increase the bass like that.

Now I'm wondering if the excess bass might be a result of low relative humidity in my room. I checked it and it was 30%. I pulled the humidifier off of the shelf in the garage and set it up between the living room and dining room but couldn't even get the humidity up to 40%, so I went and bought a second one for the back part of the house. Now I have the relative humidity up between 40%-50% and the bass sounds fine.

My question is: was it the lack of humidity that caused this problem and if so, why? Did it affect the sound waves traveling through the air? Did it in someway dry out the absorption panels, making them more reflective instead of absorbing as they normally do? I also noticed that my sinuses were congested due to the change in the weather, so was it just my hearing?

Has anyone else noticed this, or have any thoughts on this?

Thanks,
Chuck
krell_man

Showing 4 responses by mapman

mapman's avatar
mapman
21,823 posts
 
Since humidity changes the density of the air, its a pretty safe bet that transmission of sound waves formed by differences in air pressure will vary somewhat as humidity varies. The question will be how much different and whther significant enough to make a difference or not.

If you can do controlled listening tests where you are able to control the humidity and do some sort of objective listening test, you are probably in the best position to determine if in fact it is worth worrying about or not.

OF course, it can be hard to set up such tests properly where any changes heard are accountable to a specific dependent variable, like relative humidity. What if barometric pressure is significantly different? That could have a similar effect.

But relative humidity having some effect on sound is certainly a possibility FWIW, I would say. Not sure how much sleep I would loose over it though.
mapman's avatar
mapman
21,823 posts
 
Worrying about marginal things in particular that one has little control over normally probably negatively affects our ability to enjoy the music more than that thing itself.

I say just put the right gear combo in place for enjoyment, and then actually focus on enjoying what it delivers, and thinking about how the humidity is affecting things or not will become a distant memory.

If you were married to a supermodel, would you spend the time enjoying the splendor of her beauty, or fretting about whether a new boob job is needed or not?
mapman's avatar
mapman
21,823 posts
 
" in my case the bass was overwhelming and overpowered everything else"

Of course room acoustics is likely a much bigger culprit than humidity, but if humidity is easier to control and has the desired effect, then case closed.

I notice your speaker placement is fairly close to walls and corners as well, which almost always leads to the most bass, FBOFW.
mapman's avatar
mapman
21,823 posts
 
Krell,

Tweaking speaker location even just slightly, or even possibly toeing in tweets towards listening position, might be easy ways to adjust the tonal balance as needed if not spot on as desired normally for whatever reason, humidity or otherwise.

That's normally what I end up doing if things sound off over time for whatever reason. Nothing stays exactly the same for long usually. Too many things can change. Humidity, barometric pressure, temperature, state of mind, acuity of hearing, which is often related to ability to focus. There are many reasons that might account for why ones ability to focus the same way is not a constant day in and day out.

Unfortunately, its not possible to control everything, but not so hard to make certain minor tweaks like adjusting speaker location/orientation if needed.

If things then head or remain south for an extended period of time, then perhaps more serious corrective actions may be in order. Electronic devices are like people, they do not always perform consistently day in and day out or over teh very long term.

"Happy Thanksgiving to all. Given we can enjoy this hobby as we do, we have much to be thankful for."

Amen to that, brother!
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