Soldato
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It was to the guy that suggested it was feedback from solar panels, surely if it sounds the same day or night, it can't be related to panels.
HiFi sounds better with CH on
- Thread starter BallisticGT3
- Start date
I don't know the correct term to use, but has anyone considered it's low power in your area at peak times. For example I use to live in a house that around 8am the kettle took longer to boil due to other households I presume also boiling tea at that time. Is there any device that could measure this?
Soldato
The issue with solar panels is actually an issue 24/7 because regardless of day or night, the inverter that solar panels feed is on 24/7. The inverter itself is the biggest polluter of mains electricity.
Caporegime
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mine only comes on when it has sufficient power from the panels iirc.
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You might be on to something here. The more I think about it, I'm convinced it's a mains issue and as I've previously mentioned, I mostly listen to music late Saturday afternoon, early evening, which could well be a peak time on the national grid round here. I've noticed many a time that my hifi does sound better after around 6.00pm and over the years there have been a few power cuts around this time as well.
I want to get to the bottom of this and get it resolved as when everything is working to its full potential, its quite magical, rather than the rest of the time when it sounds harsher and tiresome when it's only running at about 90% of full potential.
I will happily fork out for a 'something' that will improve my mains supply if someone can demonstrate to me that their solution will make the difference.
PS Audio Power Plants do apparently. From everything I can gather these units convert AC power into DC, then reconvert the DC into AC. The AC output to your hi fi gear is then 'perfect' or close as regardless of how poor the incoming mains AC is.
You can think of it like charging a battery from an AC mains adaptor. Then when you use the battery the output will be the same regardless of how dirty or poor the AC was to charge the battery.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XaRuFeEYTWQ
Soldato
In other words, a balanced power supply. No need to pay thousends of pounds/dollars for one either. As i said earlier, Airlink a British company make and sell them for well under £500 for a 3KVA unit.
Caporegime
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i've been doing some reasearch on the surge conditioners that are extension leads.
basically snake oil. they will help you if you have issue sbut if you don't they won't make any difference.
FYI I have solar panels on my house. I have zero issues with my 2 soundbars, my 5.1 system or my 3 tv's or dual monitors. i also have a external DAC/AMP set up on the pc for my £3K headphone collection. no issues there either.
basically snake oil. they will help you if you have issue sbut if you don't they won't make any difference.
FYI I have solar panels on my house. I have zero issues with my 2 soundbars, my 5.1 system or my 3 tv's or dual monitors. i also have a external DAC/AMP set up on the pc for my £3K headphone collection. no issues there either.
Not my experience with the Tacima mains conditioner, improved bottom end of sound. This is on Pioneer DAC/AMP and Yamaha floorstanding speakers.
I also did a test where I ran a Powerline adapter from the mains conditioner, and the Powerline adapter reported significantly lower sync speed.
Last year I installed one on a friends HiFi, however he has really bad house electrics and clicking into stereo from fridge. It took 3 seconds for me to know there was a sound improvement on his HiFi thats how pronounced the improvement was, he also reported all his clicking from fridge had gone.
I don't think its anything to do with your power. Esp if your amp is has a switch mode power supply.
Far more likely is RF interference or poor grounding somewhere between your input /amp or the amp and your speakers. Or a failing component like a capacitor.
Isn't this thing a voltage regulator? I'm not surprised it would mess with powerline sync speeds. The regulated AC is probably out of the powerline adapter's spec.
Far more likely is RF interference or poor grounding somewhere between your input /amp or the amp and your speakers. Or a failing component like a capacitor.
Isn't this thing a voltage regulator? I'm not surprised it would mess with powerline sync speeds. The regulated AC is probably out of the powerline adapter's spec.
Those mains conditioners apparently take any peaks or spikes out of the AC.
I work from home most days, and as it happens i'm sitting in my front room now and just tested my down stairs stereo with and without the mains conditioner. It's subtle however with the mains conditioner the sound has more body and less muddy, more important sound is more relaxing with the mains conditioner, as said it's subtle however the difference is there.
Hmmm. Depends about the peaks and spikes, but really, it shouldn't make any difference. It's AC. it's going through a transformer well before it gets near the signal path. SMPS will take pretty much any old dirty AC and turn it into clean DC power.
Mains conditioners are really more useful to limit the current so less power is wasted as heat in transformers and power units.
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As said I don't really understand how they work, however I can hear an improvement in the audio so I keep using them.
Hmmm. Well they don't work by improving the audio.
They regulate the voltage. So eg, a "conditioner" might regulate a 240V AC to 200V. That would mean that the supply, which might be anywhere UP TO 240V, with dips below, would now be at a stable 200V if the dips never go below 200V.
If your audio equipment sounds better with a conditioner it's because it's picking up RF interference from somewhere which is lessened by the regulated AC. Or it has failing components (and a crap transformer) that's not dealing with the 240V as it should.
A properly functioning hifi amp doesn't care about the voltage so long as it's enough for the transformer to function. The transformer doesn't care about spikes either so long as they don't overheat and melt the windings.
It's like saying the noise your dishwasher makes changes when you turn on the tap. It might, but that would most probably be because the pump is crap or failing.
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I have a few of the same Pioneer DAC/Amps and the mains conditioners improve them all in the same way, so there is nothing wrong with my Amplifiers.
As said I have used one on a friends house that improved sound also.
I expect whats happening is the conditioner is taking out some interference and this is effecting switching in the transistors in the amp/dac.
The bottom line is i'm hearing improved sound with them in use, it's a subtle difference, better bottom end and less muddy and more relaxing to hear, I have A/B'd many times and the difference is there.
As said I have used one on a friends house that improved sound also.
I expect whats happening is the conditioner is taking out some interference and this is effecting switching in the transistors in the amp/dac.
The bottom line is i'm hearing improved sound with them in use, it's a subtle difference, better bottom end and less muddy and more relaxing to hear, I have A/B'd many times and the difference is there.
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Soldato
I will point out to you gentlemen that there is no similarity at all between a Mains Conditioner and a Balanced Power Supply.
A conditioner is what it "says on the tin", it attempts to even out spikes and troughs. If during the course of it's use it also gets rid of clicks and also improves the perception of audio quality, then that's a Brucie bonus.
A balanced power supply though totally eliminates all RFI and also delivers pure power to whatever is plugged into it.
A conditioner is what it "says on the tin", it attempts to even out spikes and troughs. If during the course of it's use it also gets rid of clicks and also improves the perception of audio quality, then that's a Brucie bonus.
A balanced power supply though totally eliminates all RFI and also delivers pure power to whatever is plugged into it.
Caporegime
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so you only need a conditioner if you have crappy electrics and a crappy amp/dac which can't deal with the RFI (possibly due to it being defective or on it's way out or cheap)?
therefore if i'm having zero issues i don't need one?
therefore if i'm having zero issues i don't need one?
Actually it's the reverse. If you have a poor quality dac/amp/speaker chain your system won't have the resolution for you to hear any small changes a mains conditioner could make. My system I can pick up subtle differences between phono and speaker cables also, I can even remove the speaker grill covers and it changes the sound.
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I have viewed the PS Audio videos and they seem to talk a lot of sense.
I will speak to the local PS Audio dealer to see if they will do a home trial.
I can't find anywhere to trial one of the Airlink balanced power supplies and I'm not going to rush out and buy something without trialing it first to see if it makes n improvement.
I don't understand as to why the PS Audio power supplies are so much more expensive than the Airlink (apart from being in a fancy case); are they both achieving the same thing, or does the PS Audio offer something more?
I will speak to the local PS Audio dealer to see if they will do a home trial.
I can't find anywhere to trial one of the Airlink balanced power supplies and I'm not going to rush out and buy something without trialing it first to see if it makes n improvement.
I don't understand as to why the PS Audio power supplies are so much more expensive than the Airlink (apart from being in a fancy case); are they both achieving the same thing, or does the PS Audio offer something more?