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Soundstage there/gone/moves - poor current ????

Here is my problem. My system can have a huge soundstage which fills up half the room. Imaging is beautiful. Everything has its own place in space. The sound is comming from everywhere but the speakers. The problem is this just does not happen very often. One day it can sound very good and the next very bad. It can sound very good for several hours and then sound bad the next hour. I can listen and hear the soundstage change from good to bad or bad to good. I can hear the drums roll across the ceiling and 30 min. later it will roll across the floor. I have trouble shot everything. This will occur with all sources(CDP,TT,Tuner). It happens with 3 different amps, 3 different preamps, and 2 different speakers. My system is in the master bedroom. My question is has anyone had this kind of problem and what was done to fix this? Can poor current cause this problem? I am going to put in some dedicated lines with porter ports hoping this might clean this up. I have had some help and this was suggested. Even if it does not work it still will be a good investment.

Any suggestions would be appreciated,

Mark
cmcrbeas

Showing 2 responses by flex

flex
292 posts
 
Can you provide a clearer idea of what is going on? (you yourself may know but aren't describing it). Do you mean that you take the same track at the same volume and get all this variability in its playback from hour to hour? Do you live in the center of a city where you are subject to a lot of vibration from traffic? Have you charted your line voltage to see how stable it is over a 24 hour period. Is there a time of day when the sound is consistently best (e.g. late at night) Do you live in an old apartment building with substandard a/c. High RFI area? Sounds silly to say, but are the door and windows always open/closed? Room acoustics are big factors in imaging, and hallways have major effects.

By the way, have you also checked your ic's, sc's and pc's?

With untreated a/c, the standard issues are smearing, coloration, and poor resolution, but not the sort of large scale variability you are describing. If it were my situation and I believed it to be a/c related, I'd do basic measurements on my a/c (check the amperage of current loops and what else is on each of them, what appliances share the same phase as your audio, grounding quality, voltage variability over the day, line integrity). This is good info anyway, but if nothing checks out obviously badly, then I'd borrow a good line filter for the front end and preamp and investigate whether it stabilizes your sound problems.
flex
292 posts
 
I agree with Nighthawk - it sounds much more like a system problem (including line, breaker, cable and connection integrity) than a line conditioning issue.

Judging by what you've swapped out already, I'd go systematically through cables and power cords next. Also check outlets on a different current loop if you're able (by using a heavy duty extension cord and forget the additional noise). I know you've done a good deal of troubleshooting already but have you tested simple things like (a) the continuity of your outlets and power cords with a line continuity tester and (b) checked for really corroded connections anywhere along the power/cable routes? I've found stock power cords that tested as having an open neutral(!) yet still conducted (some) current this way.

In my area, the city power regularly cycles on a daily basis from 120 volts to below 114 V, and a few towns away, people report city voltage above 130V. Just more issues to look at when you're on a gremlin-chasing spree.
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