Could power grid disturbances change sound that much???

[Filip I]

Guys please help...this is happening for the first time, completely confused. I know this is more general topic but hope some of you experienced members went trough this kind of trouble sometimes so you could shed some light on this gremlin in my system.

Last night had some friends, played some tunes but we instantly realised that sound is much weaker than usual and muffled...kind of dark,bass lost a lot of punch...I have to crank it to 11 o clock to have same amount of sound where it was originally at 9 o clock.To sum it up it was working just much weaker and bleaker ( if that is proper term )

Swiched to the second amp, second pair of speakers, unpluged all the cables, interconnects...plug in again, same thing...

So equpiment should be good, no crackle, no signal/channel loss, distortion, heat... ( I sincerely dubt that 2 amps and 2 pairs of speakers went down at the same time,that would be real hi fi curse )

Only thing that could be taken into account here is power grid/ disturbance but honestly I never experienced so dramatic outages that could even consider them to have such big impact on system.

Any toughts? System is playing fine now, all good, still a slightly lighter than usual but better than last night...

 

[Hyperion]

It would have to be quite a serious 'Brown Out' event for it to be that noticeable. If you didn't notice your room lights dimming then look elsewhere for the cause.

 

[Filip I]

Hyperion many thanks for swift reply. Just red in news that euro grid had major outage yesterday, biggest from 2006. Romania power plant was the cause( going down 90 from 230 V ). Since we are next to Romania ( living in Serbia ) and share a lot of grid, this was probably the glitch we noticed.

Feeling better now knowing my equipment is ok and I am not going crazy.

 

[trinhsman]

Glad you found out what it was. I have even noticed different weather can affect the quality of the sound. I have never documented what I am hearing and what that day is like, but I know there are differences, depending on what the weather is like that day.

 

[Filip I]

Glad you found out what it was. I have even noticed different weather can affect the quality of the sound. I have never documented what I am hearing and what that day is like, but I know there are differences, depending on what the weather is like that day.

Thanks man! Although we cannot measure everything I sincerely believe that many factors outside the main set up ( amp,speakers,source,room )can contribute to bad/good sound. Most of these things are subtle and I know very very debatable among the members here, but this thing yesterday was so obvious. First hand experience with dirty grid and it was nasty.

 

[Skywatcher]

Hyperion many thanks for swift reply. Just red in news that euro grid had major outage yesterday, biggest from 2006. Romania power plant was the cause( going down 90 from 230 V ). Since we are next to Romania ( living in Serbia ) and share a lot of grid, this was probably the glitch we noticed.

Feeling better now knowing my equipment is ok and I am not going crazy.

Yeah I saw that in the news about power problems. Some other regions are having power issues too. The low voltage causes many issues, and on top of that if the frequency changes it can make things sound a bit "off" too. In the U.S we are supposed to have 60Hz and I have seen it vary between 58Hz and 63Hz a number of times. When below 60Hz, I can see the lights "flicker" more than usual. Synchronous motors change speed too when that happens. Tape decks and turntables that use synchronous motors become quite noticeable during those times with speed changes. My one old telescope with a synchronous RA drive motor will see the stars drift one way or the other all of a sudden.

 

[Filip I]

Yeah I saw that in the news about power problems. Some other regions are having power issues too. The low voltage causes many issues, and on top of that if the frequency changes it can make things sound a bit "off" too. In the U.S we are supposed to have 60Hz and I have seen it vary between 58Hz and 63Hz a number of times. When below 60Hz, I can see the lights "flicker" more than usual. Synchronous motors change speed too when that happens. Tape decks and turntables that use synchronous motors become quite noticeable during those times with speed changes. My one old telescope with a synchronous RA drive motor will see the stars drift one way or the other all of a sudden.

Spot on! A bit " off " is the feeling. Everything works but sound off. I supose 220v to 90v drop could do that

 

[SaturationPt]

220V to 90V? Wow, that's a huge change, could cause AC motors to run slow and burn up (refrigerator compressor for example), significantly dimmed lighting, and no your audio system power supply is not designed to produce proper internal voltages at that input voltage level if a 220V unit.

Do you know if and how much change was at your home? Just curious.

The thing that will change the most noticably in slight voltage swings is usually partially-dimmed lighting in the home. Many of my lights are on dimmers, they react noticably to the slightest power dip.

 

[Filip I]

220V to 90V? Wow, that's a huge change, could cause AC motors to run slow and burn up (refrigerator compressor for example), significantly dimmed lighting, and no your audio system power supply is not designed to produce proper internal voltages at that input voltage level if a 220V unit.

Do you know if and how much change was at your home? Just curious.

The thing that will change the most noticably in slight voltage swings is usually partially-dimmed lighting in the home. Many of my lights are on dimmers, they react noticably to the slightest power dip.

No, didn't mesure. Just red day after. No dimming or any indicators except the audio system which was playing at that moment. Also I believe 50 Hz went down which is even bigger issue.

All good now, talked to some local hi fi guys, apparently grid in SE Europe is not that stable and drops are common although not extreme.

I currently have really good custom made extension cable handling lightning, overcharge etc. still I believe I am ready for decent UPS...

 

[SaturationPt]

I have a ferroresonant (constant voltage) transformer that is excellent at damping voltage changes, if you are experiencing ths much variation, it might be worth looking into.

 

[JOMARK911]

Best way to regulate the voltage is a auto voltage regulator.
I use 4 of them , i live in greece and voltages here are also weird.
Something like KEBO savr 3000 for instance. It's chinese but very good , servo controlled , stabilises voltage really good.

 

[whoaru99]

...

The thing that will change the most noticably in slight voltage swings is usually partially-dimmed lighting in the home. Many of my lights are on dimmers, they react noticably to the slightest power dip.

Yeah, for incandescent lamps even a relatively small change in voltage, say 5%, changes the brightness something on the order of 15-17%.

 

[50nstillhifi]

Agreed you need a monitor, if not to validate your suspicion to monitor the line. You can get a good one from ESP, Next Generation, Surge Protector. They are relatively inexpensive, given what they do and those components they will protect.