When will the reign of terror end?

[Soothsayerman]

When will the reign of terror of the blue LED light end?

I think most people "like" it because it is in vogue.  I usually seriously listen to music in the evenings and all the searing blue LED lights do for me is 1)draw attention to themselves 2) burn tiny holes in my retinas.    Since the blue has caught on, it's domain has spread to almost every manufacturer and now people are retrofitting their non-blue  audio equipment to blue which to me is insane.   I usually listen to tubes, but I have an Exposure amp I try out occasionally and it stares at me with piercing blue LED's.   I have to throw a towel over it to shut it up.   A bit like a parakeet when you put it to bed.

 

 

[esldude]

I thought it wasn't in vogue now.  Thought it was like last decade fashion.  

 

We had red and green and those combined for yellow for so long when blue LEDs became available at good pricing it was a thing for a time. 

 

Now I actually don't mind the blue.  What I find for some reason is a tendency for the blue LEDs to be so much brighter than was the case with other LEDs.  I also have some gear with white LEDs.  Those too are rather bright, and I've either covered them or moderated the brightness (a touch of tape with a pinhole in it).  My power amp has a long blue LED illuminated strip, but it has a pot so you can adjust it to your preferred brightness including off.  

 

Your example photo is sure a case of overkill.  I'd expected they would have LED strips on the sides of the speaker.  

[Ralf11]

alert for @AudioDoctor !!

[Ralf11]

[Ralf11]

[daverich4]

32 minutes ago, Ralf11 said:

 

Which is it? Golden Retrievers or The Krell have taken over the world?

[Soothsayerman]

1 hour ago, daverich4 said:

 

Which is it? Golden Retrievers or The Krell have taken over the world?

 

It may have been Krell that started the blue LED's tyranny.  Not sure though.

[Ralf11]

1 hour ago, daverich4 said:

 

Which is it? Golden Retrievers or The Krell have taken over the world?

 

 

The Krell ARE Golden Retrievers

[AudioDoctor]

Can't I just like the way it sounds?

 

Edit: My new car has Ambient Lighting in the interior and I find myself going between blue and red colors most frequently.

[Soothsayerman]

A retrofit by a disciple of "the blue"

 

[AudioDoctor]

Before I sent my Marantz 2230 to my Nephew, I replaced the lights with LEDs that are more blue than the green-blue the incandescent lights it came with, were.

[tmtomh]

10 minutes ago, AudioDoctor said:

Before I sent my Marantz 2230 to my Nephew, I replaced the lights with LEDs that are more blue than the green-blue the incandescent lights it came with, were.

 

I think some of the green color in the green-blue Marantz units with original lights is actually due to the yellowing over time of the paper/vellum backing of the lights. The original color, I believe, was not quite as pure blue as LEDs but was notably bluer and less green than a lot of unrestored units now appear.

[esldude]

I remember Marantz being pretty much blue green back in the day.

[John Dyson]

7 hours ago, Soothsayerman said:

When will the reign of terror of the blue LED light end?

I think most people "like" it because it is in vogue.  I usually seriously listen to music in the evenings and all the searing blue LED lights do for me is 1)draw attention to themselves 2) burn tiny holes in my retinas.    Since the blue has caught on, it's domain has spread to almost every manufacturer and now people are retrofitting their non-blue  audio equipment to blue which to me is insane.   I usually listen to tubes, but I have an Exposure amp I try out occasionally and it stares at me with piercing blue LED's.   I have to throw a towel over it to shut it up.   A bit like a parakeet when you put it to bed.

 

 

There *has* been some notice that the blue LEDS with their short wavelength output might be a bit damaging to vision over a long period.

Blue was so cool because it was hard to do and seldom seen, now you can get semiconductor UV lasers if you want  (at least, UV leds), so blue isn't so cool anymore, gotta be UV!!! :-).   Some of those UV leds are actually immediately dangerous and should be treated carefully -- luckily, they tend to be fragile, so the few kids putting together 100's of them into a flashlight won't be blinding people or causing skin cancer.  (I am more worried about stupid adults -- well, also the higher power UV LEDS still tend to be insanely expensive.)

Those things can do the just above 240nm range without playing games...  That is serious stuff.

 

John

 

[AudioDoctor]

1 hour ago, tmtomh said:

 

I think some of the green color in the green-blue Marantz units with original lights is actually due to the yellowing over time of the paper/vellum backing of the lights. The original color, I believe, was not quite as pure blue as LEDs but was notably bluer and less green than a lot of unrestored units now appear.

 

I think you're right. I have seen some people get a much closer color to the way it was by using that paper with the LEDs.

[John Dyson]

LEDs will be a boon for room lighting...  Last time I purchased some 'light bulbs', I had 4 choices of color temperature.  Before, a 'light bulb' with a non-red color temperature/smooth spectrum would burn out more quickly (such as bulbs used for photography.)  But, it *is* possible to tune the colors fairly accurately if really desired.  LEDs are really cool & flexible nowadays...  In the old days, it would be difficult to even see a RED led in daylight, now we have wonderfully powerful flashlights built with LEDS.  Even traffic lights use LEDS quite often.

 

John

[emcdade]

[esldude]

I've used blue LED night lights for a few years.  Blue light is harder for the eye to focus, especially at low light levels.  There is more internal scattering in the eye.  So why would I choose blue?  If you wake up in the middle of the night, the indistinct blue light doesn't seem to fully wake me up like other colors.  It has a dreamy soft quality, which makes it easier to make a trip to the bathroom or to fetch a sip of water, and then fall back to sleep.  

[TheAttorney]

For years I've solved the "piercing blue LED" issue with a dab of permanent black marker onto the very tip of the LED. 

This leaves a gentle blue glow, but masks the piercing bit in the middle - without spoiling the overall look of the equipment. I use a thin tipped write-4-all marker that will stick to any plastic. This for equipment I intend to keep for a long time.

 

For a less permament solution, I cut a small circle of masking tape (or use precut liitle sticky-back paper dots). With some black marker on top of the tape/paper to further darken as necessary. This doesn't look as tidy as the permanent solution.

 

Whilst I hate piercing blue "power-on" LEDs, I'm quite happy with the gentler backlit meters style of Marantz - from what I've seen in the hifi stores, as I've never owned them.

 

 

[AudioDoctor]

11 hours ago, esldude said:

I've used blue LED night lights for a few years.  Blue light is harder for the eye to focus, especially at low light levels.  There is more internal scattering in the eye.  So why would I choose blue?  If you wake up in the middle of the night, the indistinct blue light doesn't seem to fully wake me up like other colors.  It has a dreamy soft quality, which makes it easier to make a trip to the bathroom or to fetch a sip of water, and then fall back to sleep.  

 

Interestingly, they say blue light makes it harder to fall asleep, and due to that I have a program that cuts the blue light in the evening on my computer screen to help me sleep.

[Jeff_N]

20 minutes ago, AudioDoctor said:

 

Interestingly, they say blue light makes it harder to fall asleep, and due to that I have a program that cuts the blue light in the evening on my computer screen to help me sleep.

Me too, and I also have an app on my phone that filters out the blue part of the spectrum.

[Soothsayerman]

50 minutes ago, AudioDoctor said:

 

Interestingly, they say blue light makes it harder to fall asleep, and due to that I have a program that cuts the blue light in the evening on my computer screen to help me sleep.

It's true it does.  I can't stand blue lights.  I thought the lights on audio equipment looked better in the 80's but it's just a matter of taste.

[Ralf11]

didn't bother me before, but after reading this thread the small blue LED on one DAC is very annoying

 

and - worse - the two small blue LEDs on my other DAC look like tiny eyes of a predator that wants to eat me and digest my bits

[WAM]

What's wrong with blue lights? (Disclaimer: no MQA involved.)

 

 

 

 

[Ralf11]

1 hour ago, WAM said:

What's wrong with blue lights? 

 

Nothing.  Nothing at all.

 

keep repeating that