there don't seem to be an end to my power woes. lately, the AC supply to my house is absolutely horrendous even at 1am in the morning, rendering a very thin and shrilly sound which is unbearable to my ears. listening is no longer a joy.
yet some experts in the circle think that whatever i have tried - be it shunyata, ps audio or RGPC - are not good enough, and that they can build something better that can tackle my power problems.
as much as i am cynical about D.I.Y. solutions, i am open to anything. seriously, i am open.
so, here's the challenge - and this challenge is open to any hifi retailer, distributor, manufacturer (wherever you are from), D.I.Y. guy, general electrician, electrical engineer, or even technician from TNB (local power company) - if you can build a permanent solution to address my problem, i am willing to offer RM10,000 (USD3,000) to you. of course, you need to come out with your own money to buy the materials (parts) to build your hardware.
to prevent naive experimentalists, let me state that my AC does not suffer from the following:
[1] fluctuations - my voltmeter reading is a solid 240v at all times. so don't waste your time suggesting power stablizers or regulators
[2] EMI/RFI - my shunyata hydra already tackles this very well. so whatever ready-made power conditioning hardware that you suggest, chances are it won't work either
[3] also if you don't know high-end or appreciate what a high-end sound is, don't need to apply. i am not snobbish, i just don't want to waste your time and my time.
criteria of challenge:
> that your solution must give consistent great sound at all times of the day
> that your solution must not alter the tone of the sound
> that your solution must not act like steroids to add false energy to the sound
i hope someone will take the challenge!
p/s if all else fails, i will consider moving house :-(
infrequent updates
8 years ago
29 comments:
ha ha... sounds like u have to move out of the country! Come to HK....
can rm10k buy your own gen set ?
Maggie,
save your money,Go to Virtual Dynamics website,order the Armoured BX cable to replace the cable fr the fuse box to your receptacles and use their recommended receptacles...You can actually share the armoured cables with at least 5 friends..If it doesn't work I will belanja you..
I live in Kenny hill and the power supply is crazy-poor,but after replacing the house cables with armoured bx.....well try it and let us know
Dear Maggielurva,
I think you are blaming the wrong folks,
I think the culprit is your contractor for using cheap wires.
You need to change /make a new run fr your fuse box to your receptacles using shielded ,high powered cables[if your wires are cased in PVC based casing you are screwed..You can contact a lot of local manufacturers that make such cables..I also advise you to change the fuse in yr fuse box to the audiophiles grade fuse[At least 20 A]and have 2 indepedant seperate run for your source&preampand another run for your power amp/monoblocks.
believe me your life will never be the same again,and it will only cost you about 2-3k..
In Japan,We audiophile always change the fuse in the main board,
Then must have 2 different run of wires.Wires must be good{shielded,noPVC pipe!!!!!very,very bad for current!!!
Wire must have high current,{Sumitomo,mitsubishi,Acoustic Revive,oyaide}then must use good receptacles.
Receptacles cannot be plastic,Very,very bad!!!!
Then sound very good,guranteed
maggie,
I must agree with both Hafiz and Junichi,
The power supplied by national utilities are corrupted by the way the national grid is designed even in the US.
What you can controlled is elegantly described by Junichi.You must start from the fuse box.change the supplied fuse with a 20- 30 A fuse Audiophile grade fuse[Try Hi-fi tuning.com]Then,you have to use the high current,shielded cables used in Robotic and oil and gas industries,have I run for each your source and a seperate run for your power amp,Then, you should only use high quality {Seymour etc]receptacles of corresponding Amp.
I also recommend you to use extra grounding mafe by Acoustic revive/ginko audio .You have got to listen to believe how badly wired our houses are!!!![True worlwide]
the Cuircuit should be replaced once every 10 years,because of oxidization,and it shouldn't cost that much.I would also recommend the use of audiophile grade fuse to replace the Normal fuse in your components,and to use deoxit contact cleaner every 2 months.
You try all that Maggie, Your live will never be the same again!!!!
ENJOY!!!!
Anonymous,
Even your own generator emits a lot of noice from the transformers.
The main thing is to control the wiring from your fuse box {and I must agree that PVC pipes absolutely must be banned from any audiophiles wiring..
I also agree with Mr Hafiz that Armoured Bx wires are probably the best for us,you can try to call the wire manufacturers they probably will not understand your need.
Contrarary to popular believe,Having a dedicated phase is not the solution you still get a lot of contaminations from the mains.The Key is to control the run from the fuse box to your equipment..I assume you have replaced all the fuses in your equipment and mains board right?
Agree with the above.
I personally prefer the Acrolink wire Seymour receptacles..
As fot the The fuse I prefer the German made 20 amp ceramic fuse for each run and the gold fuse for the equipments
Maggie,
Liam is right.
There is absolutely nothing TNB can do to supply good quality power,
but the contractors normally use the cheapest wires that they can get.
You will notice that a lot of us in the UK made sure we buy our own shielded,high current wires and Instruct the electricians to do it as we wish.
I am also a firm believer in investing in extra grounding as popularized by the japanese[Ac Revive for example].
The fuse is where the bottleneck happens,and as rightly mentioned if you haven't chucked the supplied fuse with the audiophiles ones you are exposing your system to a lot of bad current
I Really feel for you Maggie,but I think I might be able to help.
Contrarary to popular belief the electrical supply in Malaysia is amongst the best in the world but the wiring done are just atrocious.
Just like audiophiles everywhere else ,a lut of Malaysians audiophiles has a dedicated cuircuit but everytime I ask about dedicated Grounding they just stare blankly.
I believe you have a dedicated cuircuit but I do not think you have a Dedicated ,ISOLATED grounding for EACH of your Receptacles.The Quality of the grounding is of PARAMOUNT importance...most of the Chinese electrical contractors in Malaysia i know will use the cheapest ground ing material they could get.Please run away from them.Ignore dedicated grounding at your peril.I recommend the use of XIT grounding from the US.
You certainly need to search for a good Electrical contractors especially those that are involve in Hospital Wiring..
What Mr Junichi and the rest said is also true and you wouyld have many happy hours of listening
Btw I am an American living in Malacca under Malaysian my 2nd home programme.the audiophiles here are a sure dedicated bunch ,
Yup ,Malaysian electricians are generally clueless about quality isolated grounding......If they can't tell you off hand how to do it you shouldn't even talk to them!!!!
Good Reviews by your readers.
They are generally on the pulse on what is needed for high Quality power needed for ultra high end system.I particularly would like to emphasize the need for good isolated grounding.XIT grounding is seriously good{and seriously expensive compared to your typical chinese made ground cables
Next we can discuss on how to get the best out of the room-Resonators
Maggie Hello,
Do not ever make the mistake of making the contractors supply you with thehardware.You should get everything to them including nuts and bolts[never use stainless steel ones]
they will always take short cuts to maximize profits
Hint, hint......try the Acoustic Revive Ground Conditioner along with the power conditioners/isolators that you currently use. Report back what you hear......
Maggielurva,
Now is the time to rewire your lines,
the price of copper is spiralling out of control,soon you might have to pay double of what yuo are paying now
An alternative to the Expensive{no doubt effective]Armoured Bx is to use Cardas in wall mains supply cables.It is just abt USD 12.00 per metre and you can use ACME audio outlets as an economic substitute.My system never sung like they do now after I have changed the in wall cables to the 'proper' ones.
the TNB supply is actually quite respectable in term of voltage stability ,so I have removed my TICE Titan voltage stabilizer and use the RGPC for my source and preamp only.
I also agree that you must do the shopping for the "raw' material and let your contractor just do the job.I also recommend that you get The electricians that actually has TNB licenced ,they tend to make less mistake.
Good Luck and happy listening
granite audio ground zero is another superb ground loop eliminator that must be Used,especially if your contractor used chinese made grounding material[so much ground leakage you wouldn't believe it!!!]
The problems of grounding for audiophile is a subject that is often neglected especially in older houses[.>10 yrs old]It is especially seen in the so called dedicated cuircuit{1 hase out of 3] that is the vogue here.If you do use a phase of dedicated curcuit ,you certainly need an isolated grounding for each of your receptacles,plus ground loop eliminator.Ask your wiremen to tests the grounding and if he doesn't know kick hom out before he do more harm
Maggie,
I think you underestimate the problem of EMI/RFI.there is no way in the world ANY power conditioner could eliminate RFI/EMI on its own
You must start with the wall cables that is shielded......
I certainly concur with the above.
The Granite Audio in My opinion works better than the Acoustic Revive one.
Everyone ,especially if you are using adedicated line and power conditioner.,need this..
IMO the power conditioner is almost always the culprit to introduce the ground loop,followed by expensive high impedence cables
ground loop and sibilance can kill your system.
has your system got a dedicated isolated HIGH QUALITY ground?
Sibilance thand to be more underdiagnosedc than ground loop...It normally comes from Power cord or Conditioners
Maggielurva,
I think you should seriously moved away.
You have a dedicated 3 phase system which in most audiophiles' home is already adequate.
I agree that changing the wiring in your home would be good but can it be done?
Maggie,
i think aken wants you to be you neighbour
Becareful!!His amp will suck out all the power nothing left for you
A dedicated 3 phase system IMO is an overkill.
Most of the 'noise' you get are actually are borne.Hence the foremost principle is to use High quality metal breaker,Shieldied in wall wire[Armoured Bx makes superb cables!!!]good receptacles and Isolated high quality grounding...
So if you do not use good shielded cables ,the 3 phase system actually do more harm than good.
See what the cat revealed under a Virtual Dynamics cable
http://www.head-fi.org/forums/f21/my-cat-tore-up-my-virtual-dynamics-power-3-a-293165/
Virtual quality too... ;-)
See what the cat revealed under a Virtual Dynamics cable
http://www.head-fi.org/forums/f21/my-cat-tore-up-my-virtual-dynamics-power-3-a-293165/
Virtual quality too... ;-)
Anonymous,
What is the relevance here?
What has VD has got to do with Maggie's power problem?The Armoured cables are made by the best manufacturer in the world..
"The Armoured cables are made by the best manufacturer in the world.."
Such an overbearing assumption..
Here's more irrelevant links to thrash it...;)
http://www.audioasylum.com/cgi/vt.mpl?f=tweaks&m=154170
hi folks,
wow, thanks to all these well-meaning suggestions.
fact is i have done almost everything that is needed - dedicated one-phase line, audiophile-grade fuse, audiophile-grade outlets, good cables, good grounding etc etc.
how else could you explain the superb quality of sound when the AC is "normal"?
i really think the problem is a complex one. besides, lest i sound arrogant, one has to come to appreciate what level of resolution i am playing. really, even a 2-5% degradation is discernible in my system.
i am still investigating. should i come across any breakthru i shall report here.
aboon,
you want to write for av xpress? we need more humour in this hobby ;-)
Post a Comment