This is an observation about why your stereo sounds bad some days for no reason. It is only a partial explanation which is to say (as always) there are usually several things involved when your stereo sounds bad even though it only takes one it's often at least two.

Any time my stereo sounds bad I wonder why and usually try to figure it out. Some days I can't find anything wrong with it and just give up and don't listen. When this happens I always wonder how much of it is in my head... you know... the bad sound. What if the stereo sounds great and I just think it sucks. That would technically mean I actually suck. Well we can't have that, so of course let's blame the stereo.

I try to pay attention to my mood and how it relates to the experience or likelihood of having a good listening experience... but's it's not easy, so many other variables. I mean often I've been IN a good mood until the sound of my stereo sucked and then I was IN a bad mood after that...

Last week I had what I feel is a concrete answer when after several days in a row of rather blissful sound I took the weekend to work on my 72 Monte. Chasing a coolant leak for weeks and it was time to start taking the engine apart. New intake, water pump, hoses, etc. The day after, fathers day morning it was time to go for a drive and test it out. Instead I found out I have to take it apart and redo the intake again. During my repairs I could find no evidence of a water leak, but now I have just created one. This is a picture just after I finished it and before I took it apart and did it all over a second time.



Needless to say I was feeling less than optimal and decided to listen to the stereo, perhaps make a video, have a beer. Literally, no matter what I did that evening the system sounded like crap. I finally had to give up and just went to bed. The next evening everything sounded blissful again and has since that time.

I'm pretty sure the stereo actually sounded good that night, but I can guarantee you it sounded like crap.

In a stark irony, how good your hotrod runs could also be partially in your head -- but in contrast to listening, the worse the mood I'm in the better the car always runs without exception. That's why I think me and the car have this thing... because there has been a few times when I was pissed and the car offered up what felt like several hundred more horsepower just for the occasion. ; )

Steve

Steve, thanks for this post. I found this definition for those that might be interested:

psy·cho·a·cous·tics
noun
the branch of psychology concerned with the perception of sound and its physiological effects.

It's the psychophysiology of sound.