OT Temperature Change

So hear in the midwest the temperature has dropped and my speakers character has changed with it. It seems that the bass has moved up in the audio spectrum and speakers sound much more forward with less timber... I havent changed anything in my system and this phenomena has happened with both sets of my Altec speakers. I think it has something to do with my listening space, the humidity in my house, or cold windows and walls. The walls in my listening space has very hard reflective board on the walls, with 5 large windows, 2 behind the speakers and 3 to the left. The one bank of windows behind the speakers is 5' X 5'. the other is 9'X5'... Any ideas why the sound of my systems has changed so much? Has anyone experienced something like this? Thanks

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Originally Posted by juniper

So hear in the midwest the temperature has dropped and my speakers character has changed with it. It seems that the bass has moved up in the audio spectrum and speakers sound much more forward with less timber... I havent changed anything in my system and this phenomena has happened with both sets of my Altec speakers. I think it has something to do with my listening space, the humidity in my house, or cold windows and walls. The walls in my listening space has very hard reflective board on the walls, with 5 large windows, 2 behind the speakers and 3 to the left. The one bank of windows behind the speakers is 5' X 5'. the other is 9'X5'... Any ideas why the sound of my systems has changed so much? Has anyone experienced something like this? Thanks

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- Lower Humidity is my guess . I notice this effect also .

- My system has more apparent UHF when the local air dries out ( or my ears hear differently when the humidity drops ) . Same net result .

- Timber ? You must mean Timbre ? Yes, everything is "sharper", even "quicker" sounding .

- Don't Panic ! ( as Douglas Adams might say ) , there's always a reasonable explanation .

http://www.hostboard.com/forums/hbmc.../2012/12/1.jpg

:)

The cones tighten as the moisture gets lower. In Our copy center at work during the summer the paper is crazy warped from the 80-90% humidity. In the winter it's flat as can be but sticks together more because of the static electricity that becomes way more prevalent in drier air. And yes mine sound different too in the winter than they do in the summer.

Also the moisture the cones absorb makes them heavier and lowers the free air resonance. just get a cheap humidifier.

Juniper, I don't know if this is relevant to your situation but it is interesting.

Air and Water: The Biology Adn Physics of Life's Media - Mark W. Denny - Google Books

Maybe it's just a tumor? :)

I wonder if air pressure plays a part too? If there's a high outside it might tend to make them work a little harder than if there's a low pressure outside? Although usually I figure out that it's just my ears reacting to the weather outside. :)

Yes, sound quality changes along with seasonal changes.
And the culprit is the moisture content of the air. (OG is spot on here)

The change is more apparent with bigger boxes with larger drivers. Smaller boxes with smaller drivers are not so much affected.
This phenomena also affects studio floors, where instruments sound less fuller. Some even humidify the space to improve the sound.

I used this web page in my excel sheet I built to calculate Vas and other T/S params.
It's an interesting read.

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Originally Posted by mah

Juniper, I don't know if this is relevant to your situation but it is interesting.

Air and Water: The Biology Adn Physics of Life's Media - Mark W. Denny - Google Books

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Thanks for the link to that fascinating reference book, Mah .

:)