• WANTED: Happy members who like to discuss audio and other topics related to our interest. Desire to learn and share knowledge of science required. There are many reviews of audio hardware and expert members to help answer your questions. Click here to have your audio equipment measured for free!

Does your stereo system ever sound bad?

direstraitsfan98

Addicted to Fun and Learning
Forum Donor
Joined
Oct 1, 2018
Messages
826
Likes
1,225
I swear some days my system sounds really crummy. I’ll put on song after song I know is amazing and it sounds dull and uninteresting, even bad at times. Then, a day or two later I’ll get that wonderful magic sound and get totally engaged with the music again.

Am I crazy and it’s just me?

I wonder how much correlation there is to how my system sounds and my stress level. Usually I don’t even listen to music if I’m not in a good mood as it is.
 

Helicopter

Major Contributor
Forum Donor
Joined
Aug 13, 2020
Messages
2,693
Likes
3,944
Location
Michigan
Try 4mL wine / kg body mass over 2-3 hours or equivalent Et-OH and see if that brings things back to center. ;)

But in seriousness, yeah... just depends how moody you are. I am no oak here, and my perception varies a lot. The quality of the recording is still always the most important factor, but alas, my system is well into diminishing returns and my room is outstanding.
 

AdamG

Proving your point makes it “Science”.
Moderator
Forum Donor
Joined
Jan 3, 2021
Messages
4,636
Likes
14,919
Location
Reality
You could have a sinus condition that partially blocks your ear canal and inpairs your auditory ability. There may be other ear health related reasons. Maybe go have a doc take a peek in your ears? Cant hurt and it will rule an ear related cause out or it.
 

H-713

Senior Member
Joined
Jan 24, 2021
Messages
379
Likes
666
Never underestimate the effects of stress, depression and sleep deprivation on your body.

As an example, if I've just spent 12 hours writing a report, you could put almost any decent speakers in front of me and they'd sound the same.
 

posvibes

Senior Member
Joined
Jul 4, 2020
Messages
362
Likes
490
Perhaps not bad, but not as good. I have just replaced three large windows in my front room, from the original 3mm thick window glass to a 6mm laminated window glass. It has had a deleterious effect on the sound of my set up, I have no means of measurement, so I am talking subjectively, but it may just be me getting used to it.
 

Thomas savage

Grand Contributor
The Watchman
Forum Donor
Joined
Feb 24, 2016
Messages
10,260
Likes
16,298
Location
uk, taunton
Yes , iv experienced this . We are the least reliable part of the HIFI chain .

Also what can happen with me is id be listening to something and enjoying it, revelling in the splendour of stereo only to change to another album and notice how ' bad ' it sounds . EQ can help a little with that but it can also make one a bit mad , changing and chasing to fix the unfixable.

I tend not to let myself be lead down this maddening rabbit hole these days . Nothing good comes of it lol
 

jonfitch

Senior Member
Joined
Sep 2, 2019
Messages
479
Likes
532
Yes, stress does trigger it, but only with speakers that are more forward. I've never felt the KEF Reference 1s sound bad no matter how stressed or tired I am because of their rolled off nature. Same thing with my Hifiman HE1000s that Tyll Hertson's at Inner Fidelity used to call "floating in the clouds" because of how soft it sounded. You trade off some resolution in exchange for them not sounding bad with any music and always feeling like you're on cloud 9.
 
Last edited:

sergeauckland

Major Contributor
Forum Donor
Joined
Mar 16, 2016
Messages
3,440
Likes
9,100
Location
Suffolk UK
My system always sounds the same regardless of my mood, intake of social intoxicants, or stress levels.

What changes radically, from one day to the next is what I feel like listening to. One day it'll be Baroque chamber music, another day Opera, a third a rousing symphony, then Cool Jazz, then vintage rock, then perhaps whatever Radio Paradise is playing.

Ditto with digital and vinyl, one day I'll just feel like playing LPs all evening, then won't touch them for another week.

Strange things, people.

S.
 

thewas

Master Contributor
Forum Donor
Joined
Jan 15, 2020
Messages
6,747
Likes
16,186
I swear some days my system sounds really crummy. I’ll put on song after song I know is amazing and it sounds dull and uninteresting, even bad at times. Then, a day or two later I’ll get that wonderful magic sound and get totally engaged with the music again.

Am I crazy and it’s just me?

I wonder how much correlation there is to how my system sounds and my stress level. Usually I don’t even listen to music if I’m not in a good mood as it is.
Its not only you, happens to me all the time and seems to depend on stress, tiredness and previous listening levels.
This question comes often up also in audiophool forums and the typical answer is that its result of "dirty AC" at some times of day and week and you need snakeoil products to correct that. :facepalm::D
 
Last edited:

BDWoody

Chief Cat Herder
Moderator
Forum Donor
Joined
Jan 9, 2019
Messages
6,948
Likes
22,625
Location
Mid-Atlantic, USA. (Maryland)
I swear some days my system sounds really crummy. I’ll put on song after song I know is amazing and it sounds dull and uninteresting, even bad at times. Then, a day or two later I’ll get that wonderful magic sound and get totally engaged with the music again.

Am I crazy and it’s just me?

I wonder how much correlation there is to how my system sounds and my stress level. Usually I don’t even listen to music if I’m not in a good mood as it is.

Definitely not just you...

I'll go from system to system, without finding anything that makes me want to just sit and listen to any of them at times.

Sometimes there's too much going on in my head to really be able to listen to anything, and it's almost annoying, no matter what I'm playing.
 

Katji

Major Contributor
Joined
Sep 26, 2017
Messages
2,990
Likes
2,273
^^In which case it sounds different. Is perceived different, seems different, pick the word/s you prefer, they're words.
 

restorer-john

Grand Contributor
Joined
Mar 1, 2018
Messages
12,580
Likes
38,281
Location
Gold Coast, Queensland, Australia
Sometimes there's too much going on in my head to really be able to listen to anything, and it's almost annoying, no matter what I'm playing.

This is so true. Albums, songs and performances you know and love can be utterly putrid to your ears some days (or nights).

And then, another time, they can be wonderful and bring you to tears. I guess that is what it is to be human.
 

precisionav

Member
Joined
Feb 25, 2021
Messages
13
Likes
21
I agree with Helicopter that the source material recording quality is the major contributing factor to how the system sounds( when system is known to be high quality and can deliver). I own recordings that I want to sound good because I love the music but production quality just isn't there. Good sound systems reveal the best of the best recordings and worst of the worse.
 

Robin L

Master Contributor
Joined
Sep 2, 2019
Messages
5,211
Likes
7,590
Location
1 mile east of Sleater Kinney Rd
One's mental state is the primary determiner of sound quality in music. The Busch Quartet recordings of Beethoven's last quartets are sublime if one is tuned into the music. The sound quality is, objectively speaking, bad. But if one is tuned in to the music, it's heavenly. And if you're not in the mood or distracted by other voices in your head, it's another awful sounding recording from the 1930's with noisy surfaces and lots of distortion.
 

muad

Senior Member
Joined
Jun 8, 2019
Messages
415
Likes
471
Yes, stress does trigger it, but only with speakers that are more forward. I've never felt the KEF Reference 1s sound bad no matter how stressed or tired I am because of their rolled off nature. Same thing with my Hifiman HE1000s that Tyll Hertson's at Inner Fidelity used to call "floating in the clouds" because of how soft it sounded. You trade off some resolution in exchange for them not sounding bad with any music and always feeling like you're on cloud 9.

I agree with this. When I had more forward speakers, my enjoyment of them would fluctuate with the time of day and my mood etc. With my latest speakers, they pretty much always sound good to me, and that's with a full 10db in room tilt.
 
Top Bottom