Is it me? - The curse of blue LED's

Stealing one of Terry Wogan’s infamous catchphrases is it me…

Or should super bright blue LED’s be banished from home electronics products? I’ve recently acquired two Network bridges. The one in the living room has been hidden inside a cabinet as the blue LED is just horrible at night with the lights down low and the one in my bedroom I’m looking to try and find a hiding place for. Fantastic devices in every other dimension

Given the link between bright blue / white lights and the impact on sleep and Hifi often being an evening / late night passion, surely a calmer lower lumen option would be nicer to live with? To me the fewer LED’s the better and screens that can be turned off add to the late night listening experience with the lights down low.

Or… is it me?

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You could put something opaque (bandaid?) over the LED. I had to do that with an obnoxious red LED on my bedroom house alarm control panel.

Or cover the LED with a small piece of neutral density plastic sheet ( available in various degrees of light attenuation).

I agree with Jennifer. Some LEDs are just too bright and without dimming options. My bugbear is the blue one on my Melco S100 switch.

I don’t have an issue with the LED’s on any of my gear. Never really think about them.

An SRS Perf10 added to a Vivaldi Clock is the sort of thing that will make anyone reconsider that.

I reckon you’ve just not met your electronics Christmas tree yet :crazy_face:

(Made a worthwhile difference to the sound, but I had to hide it.)

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Yes. I seem to recall that @PaleRider found its display a little, er, insistent. :smiley:

A way to solve this problem is buying a dCS Vivaldi set up…there is no led, you can shut down the display, no light, only the music :laughing:

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You can buy adhesive stickers from Amazon that are designed to dim or black out LED lights entirely. For $5 you can get a pack with many different sizes. I use them in many places around the house.

Look for something like “LightDims Original Strength - Light Dimming LED Covers and Light Dimming Sheets for Routers, Electronics and Appliances and More. Dims 50-80% of Light, in Minimal Packaging.”

Lovely, Andre. Found the LightDims on Amazon here in Germany. Thank you! :smiley:

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Guys,

thank you for sharing. My frustration with leds particularly bloody blue ones is that I have a system in my bedroom and light pollution is so frustrating. Likewise in my living room late night listening is largely illuminated by the wood burner and the warm glow of some valves. My NB is now hidden away. To me the idea of buying nice gear and using the various solutions suggested doesn’t appeal, maybe I’m highly subjective but ergonomics and aesthetics really matter in luxury products. I don’t envy any company in designing products as non functional requirement such as these are so subjective. But blue led’s seem to be a fashion curse. My other NB is about to get hidden away too. As we do house renovation more and more of the system will be out of sight.

What pulled me to the NB was the ease of app integration, I had one of the first linn ds off the production line and a few generations of the platform since, it’s always felt buggy to me, but the NB joined the network and once tidal creds were added worked and works well with my local nas too. Really pleased.

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gaffers tape. Leaves no residue upon removal.

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It’s not you, I raised this very issue.

On a great piece of audio gear with a purposely simple ergonomic aesthetic, it’s a glaring design flaw, pun intended.

I’m typing this a few meters away from my Network Bridge on my hi-fi rack and the blue led shining like a lighthouse and that’s with lights on; with lights off its a floodlight.

If dCS are good to stick a floodlight on the from of the Network Bridge there should be an option to dim or better turn off, Chord Electronics allows dimming of the colour balls!

yes, they suck. I’ve brought it up with some manufacturers and they don’t see it as a problem… obviously, or they wouldn’t do it. I cut small squares of blue painter tape and add layers until just a soft glow when the room is dark. I understand the fundamental aversion to having to stick tape on an expensive component, but it works.

As you (and dCS) can see, you are not alone. I am also one of those that think it is both silly and user unfriendly to have a high end product double as a lighthouse in the dark. I could not agree more with Jennifer’s statement that “ergonomics and aesthetics really matter in luxury products”.

While I do understand that many thought Krell Industries were really cool when they started using blue LEDs back in the dark ages, I was one of them. Today, blue LEDs are everywhere so that premium feeling is long lost.

Somehow, my blue McIntosh meters do not bother me that much. Perhaps because I can turn that light off when I want to? McIntosh do not allow for turning off their green lit logo, backlit text and their red LEDs but at least that light is much easier on the eyes in a dark/dimly lit room.

We all now the easy fix is to either hide the Network Bridge or use tape/stickers - which really ought to be quite far from the designer’s intention…