Naim and the current hot weather

I'm more concerned about people working in the Naim factory.

I noticed last winter my Atom which I had at the time, sounded better when the house heated up, my house is old and normally pretty chilly in winter and the warmer my living room got with my wood burner going the better the sound. I’m thinking this might be something to do with warmer air carrying sound better/differently to cool air and also speakers are probably more supple the warmer it is. 

I would expect loudspeaker drivers to be most affected by higher temperatures. The mid/bass suspension is likely to more compliant which may soften transients.

My 250 is about the same temp but my home is air conditioned ????

Yes, and not just with Naim gear.  Warm room equals warm and richer sound.  I'm not convinced it's specifically anything to do with the amp.  And I have equally found that a very cold room delivers a brighter and cold sound compared with what one might consider normal.  Personally, I wonder if it's more speakers that thrive in warm conditions, particularly paper cones, but I prefer the warm sound either way.

My ability to really give music a detailed listen wanes as temperature increases, our rooms in the lower floor is 24 to 25C, but I still get fatigued. But I think Simon you may be on to something, listened to some music that I normally flick thru, tonight played whole albums?

I am sure that Naim look after their workforce as the Roy George retirement and recent factory visit to a local concert would suggest. Our factory visit by the forum was wonderful on many levels, but the people were pleased to see us. I know myself these visits can be a pain to organise for the staff. So hopefully they are getting plenty of icecreams????

Increased temperature makes them more Class A.

Decreased temperature (just switched on) makes them less class A. (more class B)

Prompted by this thread I just checked my unit temps with my IR temp gun.  Nothing startling,  I had measured stuff a long time ago when my room temp was 21'C,  now its 26'C in the room (I have windows open & an evening breeze blowing through)  & I note the case(s) temperatures have gone up in line with room ambient.   NDX is the unit that runs a little warmer than others & its case temp is around 16'C above room temp with the case temp between 42 to 45'C depending on where the IR dot is.  the front panel left side & centre is warmer than right side (the right side has the unused power transformers & regulators behind it.

Does it sound different ??  not that I've noticed.   But with the weather, temps, humidity & having spend the early evening packing & frustration of checking in on a defective airline website, now relaxing with a cold one or three,    maybe I'm not the best to judge that.   

Could also be the audible effect from having really hot sweaty ears and its inner parts working differently from blood swelling the delicate tissues.    If only I could flap them about like a hot Heffalump.

I have definitely noticed a slightly richer and fuller presentation recently. I have the ATC SCM11 speakers and I'm sure I read a review some time ago saying that the tonality of the SCM11 changed as the room temperature increased. I'm not sure if this generally applies to all speakers in warmer conditions?

Ian.

Cheers ladies and gents... as I suspected possibly 101 things... listening in my rather warm living room with windows wide open and in the dark apart from the glow of my iPad and faint green of the Naim logos ( and a sprinkle of colour from my Hugo)... sadly almost no breeze in this part of Suffolk tonight.. but enjoying my tunes of 1920s and 1930s swing recordings.... they sound wonderful.

I do notice differences in sounds every now and then. But so far I always attributed it to the quality of the electricity and how stable that’s. Will keep this in mind and see if I also observe this pattern.

while I always have the feeling that the systems starts to sound better, the longer I play or more accurately after the initial 15/20minutes.

hey 

i live in a warmer part of the globe and you think i am enjoying a warmer and richer sound ( for a comparable system ) ?

so maybe global warming is good for the music industry ?? 

regards

Humidity and temperature greatly affect how sound travels and how you perceive it. My system sounds totally different in high humidity despite the fact the air conditioning keeps the actual temp in the room fairly stable year round.

fatcat posted:

Increased temperature makes them more Class A.

Decreased temperature (just switched on) makes them less class A. (more class B)

???

There is more to amplifier class configuration than the bias setting of the load line... or were you referring to something else?

Warmer and more humid air must have an audible effect upon loudspeaker drive units; cabinets; internal stuffing, electronic components and the air itself, conveying the sound. I guess that can work positively or negatively depending upon all sorts of factors.

I used to do very little serious listening in very warm summery conditions and am not sure if it was because warmer/humid air adversely impacted SQ for me, or if I was not mentally attuned to enjoy it because I dislike excess heat and humidity.

I had a domestic air-conditioning system installed in 2014 and apart from the obvious benefits it brings by day and night; I now use and enjoy my sound-systems much more than I used to in summer.

John.

I also wonder if having large windows wide open changes the room acoustics... as I fairly certain I notice usually positive changes here whether it’s very hot and or humid or not.

There can be more obvious issues too. During a particularly humid monsoon this year, the veneer on my bookshelf speakers blistered.

I also wonder how severe humidity cannot be bad for paper cones, doped or otherwise.

For me, at the moment, this is slightly academic as all my gear's currently switched off, as we are having a huge thunder/lightning storm, accompanied by a torrential downpour...

For me, at this moment, it’s very not even close to slightly academic,  the Naim is all powered off & I’m on a rooftop in Munich,  warm & humid,  probably about 24’C. With a small group of old work colleagues & partners,  very nice jazz band, hint of funk, dixie, trad & prog. Good wines & the beer - it’s Munich, what’s to say - and the moon & mars are putting on a real out of this world show   An evening we will not forget,  sounds very good despite the humidity & no Naim.  

Open windows undoubtedly change room acoustics, the larger the window and the wider it opens the more the change - however if you have neighbours and turn it very low when windows are open you may not notice the change.

As for direct effect of temperature, in most cases rooms surely arent more than 10ºC warmer than normal summer temperatures, which I suspect is unlikely to be very significant other than convection cooling of power amps if they normally run close to maximum temperature (depending on how loudly played (othr than class A amps), effectiveness of amp heatsinking and openness of amp location, when 10ºC could make the difference between thermal overload/cutout or kicking in of amp fans if fitted.

Humidity is another matter, if extreme and prolonged, though I don’t think that has been the case in the UK - people living in tropical or sub-tropical countries must have problems with veneers, as already mentioned, and it could well affect sound more noticeably. I’m not sure about paper cones, though unless treated they certainly will vary in weight, softness and possibly size with humidity - but I don’t know how many speakers use untreated paper cones.

Mars in present retrograde, the full blood moon eclipse and the cleared air from a right royal storm up, seem to be making shimmers more shimmering for me right now.

TOBYJUG posted:

Mars in present retrograde, the full blood moon eclipse and the cleared air from a right royal storm up, seem to be making shimmers more shimmering for me right now.

Lovely red moon ... invisible above the cloud!

oddly, yesterday the moon looked red, around 9-10pm.  Must have been a pre-eclipse, or at least a premonition.

I posted something similar in the past and definitely concur with the "richer" sound coming out my SL2s when the room is warmer. Bass particularly is very nice, and slightly meatier on some thinner recorded albums. My lawn on the other hand.....

Good excuse for a power-off and re-boot of everything last evening, when the thunderstorm (and rain) arrived here. Dunno whether it's partly psychological, but a re-boot generally seems to freshen-up the sound after two or three months of permanent power-up.

John.

managed to switch off just before a short but violent thunderstorm -- will connect it all back now that the weathermen think we are clear.

enjoy

/ken