irregular problem

Thats a very true statment.......it depends on the quality of your mains.

The best results I've had have been with transformer basised conditioning, ratherthan the coils and caps approach.

There's been number of articles on mains in pink fish ....by Roy.K.Riches have a quick look at these....very intresting.

 

Zanash - "transformer based " meaning......... a transformer by your electricity meter, or, a box sitting between hifi and mains socket in living room ?

I'll have a look at Pinkfish too.

Issac and Zanash have pointed out that how far mains treatment will make a difference depends on how bad it is in the first place which will obviously vary between households. However, unlike many hifi industry tweaks like mains conditioner boxes, expensive speaker cables and power chords, the cost of electrical trade works is minimal.

That is why I feel I would want to take the chance anyway that it will help. After all it is at the foundation of things hifi. Its not like I'm going to be able to do an A-B comparison, realistically. So its a question of faith, yes, but at insignificant cost.

You see my reasoning ?

But I have to gather a simple list of things to pass to my electrician. Way to separate from other rings, any special materials, type of sockets, any normal mains components to avoid, etc etc.

 

I've had a positive experience with transormer based solutions (Ben Duncan variety), particularly in removing DC, which was causing a buzz in the power supply transformer in my CD player at the time (a Tube Technology CD64).

But to address your question. To use a transformer on your entire domestic supply would be:

a) seriously expensive

b) probably impractical, due to the physical size of the beast!


To avoid problems, you should also aim for a factor of 10 of the rating of the transformer vs the power (note, power) required for the piece(s) of kit being used. i.e. a CD player requiring say 20W would be ideally have a 200VA transformer (VA as this is AC as opposed to DC). You can work on a smaller factor than this, as doubtless others will say! (5 would be a mimumum though, IMHO). Thus you can see that for a system requirement of 500W you'll need a big (& also expensive) tarnsformer. Also, I've found that transformers are OK with source items, but often detrimental with amplifiers, due to their much higher power requirements.

Naim amplifiers are notorious for buzzing, so Naim owners may like to experiment with tarnsformers as a possible solution (my view is that Naim should get their collective act together on this and specifiy more suitable transformers for thier power supplies).

 

Sticky mains thread?

Yep, I'd support this.

About a year ago, I needed extra sockets and bought a Russ Andrews 6-way block by mistake (i.e I was hung over - what I really wanted was a standard block from the supermarket, because mains blocks don't make any difference, right?).

Once the boozefog lifted I spent a couple of days kicking myself. Sixty quid on a mains block??? MORON.

Anyway, I plugged it in and you can guess the rest - it sounded significantly better. Took it out again to see if my ears were fooling me. They weren't - where did that great sound go? Put the block back in, back came the improvements. Took it to a friend who has a totally different kind of system: me - 12 watts of valve, mega-sensitive horns; him - 100 watts solid state, low sensitivity AE's. If anything, it improved his sound even more. How the heck can you hear a piano cord that wasn't there before just by swapping the mains block?

Don't ask me. All I know is, it works. So.....let's have that sticky thread.

 

I believe there's a lot to be gained by a mains filter device(s) locally to the audio kit, as (depending on design) this can provide a local earth reference relative to the live and neutral.

ie. the local components between live and earth and neutral and earth will help define the earth potential for the system.

DIY filtering had an audible (and affordable) effect for me.