Power update

Just a quick note to record an observation.

Last night the sun was setting late as spring progressed, I managed to escape to the living room early enough to sit and listen to a couple of excellent albums, zoning out as light disappeared and just enjoying the wonderful soft play of music.

At some point I realised there was almost no light left in the room and got up to switch on a stand lamp from Ikea with three small energy-saving bulbs inside, plus a couple of decorative lamps in the corners of the listening room, one of which also has an energy-saving bulb in it.

Sitting back down again, I tried to zone out and couldn't. The magic had somehow also leaked out together with the darkness.

Hmm... could be just the fact that I roused myself to get up and switch on some lights; could be a psychological effect from listening in the dark; could be the power to the system being corrupted by the hum from those pesky lightbulbs.... I wonder if it is the latter, because the effect was in fact quite pronounced.

The question here is one of filtering versus 'better mains' overall; by which I mean, filter type solutions can - allegedly - affect power delivery and somehow constrict dynamics. I have heard this myself. Non-filtering solutions, such as just a new, thick mains cable (one that isn't necessarily designed to filter out noise like those from Lessloss) might improve the mains by having lower impedance or more free electrons or whatever, but don't necessarily constrain dynamics.

I'll elaborate more later; more testing to conduct. The snag is I think I have to consider a filtering type solution if the problem is indeed those light bulbs or other sources of grunge. How interesting...