Cleve Posted March 24, 2004 Share Posted March 24, 2004 ... or does it sound worse at certain times of the day? My cable provider, Time Warner, offers the Music Choice service with its digital line up. It sounds decent during the day(I work at home) I don't know if it's my imagination, but it seems like in evenings the sound quality deteriorates. It sounds more distorted to me - instruments, voices, sound kind of grainy and harsh. I never noticed it before I got the CF-4s, or maybe I just wasn't listening as closely? Has anyone else noticed this, or am I just an 'audio-chondriac?' Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
D-MAN Posted March 24, 2004 Share Posted March 24, 2004 It could be, but I suspect that it is probably the power grid, typically filled with hash during the day... I notice that my stereo sounds best late at night. Your audio gear may be sensitive to it. If it only happens with the cable as a source, then you nailed it. DM Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
3dzapper Posted March 24, 2004 Share Posted March 24, 2004 No you're not certifiable! The quality of the signal does seem to vary. I'm not sure if it is time or atmospheric related. The cable companies recieve the signal from a satallite. Clouds, ionic disturbances and air traffic all could be a factor. Rick Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wrench_peddler Posted March 24, 2004 Share Posted March 24, 2004 My wife works for Cox cable and solar activity gives them fits. Nothing they can do but use it for an excuse. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Griffinator Posted March 24, 2004 Share Posted March 24, 2004 ---------------- On 3/24/2004 8:00:59 PM D-MAN wrote: It could be, but I suspect that it is probably the power grid, typically filled with hash during the day... I notice that my stereo sounds best late at night. Your audio gear may be sensitive to it. If it only happens with the cable as a source, then you nailed it. DM ---------------- If it's a heavy residential area, 5:00 on is peak power usage time, which would explain the evening "hash" for the first guy. Are you close to an industrial or commercial zone? That might explain your troubles. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DrWho Posted March 25, 2004 Share Posted March 25, 2004 one thing you might try is to turn down the volume on the cable box and then correspondingly turn the volume back up on your reciever or amp or wherever your speaker volume is. It's possible that during different times of the day, there are different operators back at the cable company that spit out different volumes, and it's possible that at night the dude spits out a volume where if your volume on the cable box is all the way up, that you get digital distortion. i have this problem all the time at my friend's house where we spend lots of time watching TV when we hang out and as the day goes on, the distortion gets worse and that's what we do to correct it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cleve Posted March 26, 2004 Author Share Posted March 26, 2004 Well, since I posted this, I haven't noticed the poor sound quality since. Go figure! I'm listening to the 'Soundscapes' channel as I type this, and it sounds perfectly normal. I thought that it might have been a bandwidth issue - because when I did notice it, it seemed to be at night. Maybe it does have something to do with power quality - I live in a rural area and sometimes we experience voltage fluctuations, brown-outs, ad nauseum. The other thing is - I live in a rental house (building next fall) and the electrical outlets are kind of crappy. Sometimes, I'll get a fairly loud hum through the entire sound system - it necessitates me wiggling one of the plugs (weirdly, not necessarily the receiver's plug) in the electric socket, and then it disappears. And there seems to be a constant, pervasive hum on the AM band - I've noticed it on every radio in the house - its been that way since I moved in a couple years ago. Maybe I do need a power conditioner? Perhaps I could buy one from my area Klipsch dealer on the 'condition' that I can return it for a full refund if I don't notice any difference/improvement. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
phatbass Posted March 26, 2004 Share Posted March 26, 2004 There is one thing that will also affect the sound later in the day, and that is you. Your ears can get tired throughout the day, driving around and hearing lots of noise can trie your ears. To prove this listen to your speakers in the morning, and do a lot of things during the day in fairly noisy enviroments and then come home and listen to them. Normally the speakers will sound a little harsh and fatiuging(sp?). This may not be the cause of all the troubles you are having but can be a factor. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cleve Posted March 27, 2004 Author Share Posted March 27, 2004 ---------------- On 3/26/2004 1:26:24 PM phatbass wrote: There is one thing that will also affect the sound later in the day, and that is you. Your ears can get tired throughout the day, driving around and hearing lots of noise can trie your ears. To prove this listen to your speakers in the morning, and do a lot of things during the day in fairly noisy enviroments and then come home and listen to them. Normally the speakers will sound a little harsh and fatiuging(sp?). This may not be the cause of all the troubles you are having but can be a factor. ---------------- Interesting. I wasn't aware of this. Thanks for the help Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BBB Posted March 27, 2004 Share Posted March 27, 2004 Take my word for it from experience. You nailed the problem in your first sentence. "My cable provider, Time Warner" Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PAR69 Posted March 31, 2004 Share Posted March 31, 2004 Cleve: While the power grid maybe part of the problem, my best guess is that it is actually bandwidth, especially if any of you local channels are carried in High Definition. Cable headends and DBS services (Dish, Direct and Voom) all have the ability to vary the digital bitrate of each channel's transmission on the fly. To most people the quality loss is negligible - in video you tend to see a little "blockiness" or aliasing, graphics do not look as smooth and for audio it will sound more like an mp3 with a low bit rate then a CD. If you want proof of this, Saturdays and Sundays during football season look at some of the less watched channels - any of the news and weather channels, the local access channels, the cartoon channels and even TCM and AMC - all will look worse than normal. I hope this helps, Paul Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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