Improving power for apartment / condo dwellers

I would recommend the Running Springs Audio stuff. They are line conditioners. Audience Response are pretty good too. Try used and see if you like it. I have a Dmitri which dramatically improved my system, if you're ever out my way I can AB it for you. Not subtle. If you can go to 3k you can get one used and unload it for similar if you cant hear the difference(but I'd be surprised). They are made by a real engineering company who design proprietary caps and equipment. No audiophile gimmickry or sales claims. I've compare to shunyata, monster, APC, honestly with those I wasn't even sure I heard a difference.

 

Are they still doing good work though since they sold out to API?

 

I think Elizabeth has the best solution I've ever heard for power issues in an apartment. She described simply moving everything off one circuit, and plugging the hifi into it, effectively creating a dedicated circuit.

 

I'm looking at the mains power also, but here I have two issues with the power.

Firstly the 230vac that is on paper doesn't reflect real life, as I myself get a near constant 250vac at the power point, not at all uncommon here in Australia. Some folk here have to deal with even higher!

Second is what I'm going to address first....and that is getting the DC component out of the mains, causes my transformers to buzz and will be effecting the quality of sound, have someone that is going to drop off a DC Blocking unit for me to try soon.

 

My understanding is the components are built to the same spec, just less marketing. I have not done a pre and post comparison.

 

Try a hospital-grade outlet from Home Depot for $15 before you do anything.

 

I would just mention Levitron outlets really suck (for audio use) The basic, cheap $3 heavy duty Pass & Seymour one can find at Menards are much much better than Levitron one finds at Home Depot.
Seriously Levitron duplex really really suck. (and Home Depots main brand is Levitron...)

 

It's Leviton, and I'm sure the cheap ones suck but the hospital grade MRI receptacles are one of the best as they have no magnetic parts at all.

 

The Leviton orange face hospital ones have/had some sort of oil in them which soon degrades the sound. (I guess the oil was to stop sparking in Oxygen environments in hospitals?)
many posts about the Orange face Leviton over on Audio Asylum.
They sound fine at first, but then they really actually SUCK. I mean you start to wonder 'WTF has gone wrong with your system' bad...
The only solution it to replace them with some other outlet. (as I mentioned these posts are over at A.A. Several other members had the same experience. The posts are many years old. maybe by now the outlets have been changed. But back then it was a horror story.)
I had it happen. And seriously it was as i described.

 

There are definitely DC stopper filters that folks build -- simple capacitor and diode circuits of some sort -- that will work on that score, and if your voltage is consistently +20 VAC, you can get a variac of sufficient current delivery and heat dissipation to power all your gear and just dial the voltage down to 230. A harder problem to address is continually fluctuating voltage.

 

You probably still have a shared ground with everyone else in the building and every other circuit in your apartment, so there's still plenty of potential for line noise.

 

Yup, the one I'm going to be trying is over built, can't take chances where 240vac and electrolytic caps meet

It's pretty consistently in this flat, but consistently around the 250 mark.

You mean +10v, if you want an average of the real voltages here you are looking at 240v......I made sure the power transformers where made for 240vac as I have been aware of the power situation here down under for some time.

 

Wow, interesting.... I have not had that issue with the MRI outlets, thank god. That sounds horrible!

The oil may also be to stop corrosion. Some electronics cleaners leave a residue for this purpose, including Caig, but we hope that sounds good! Corrosion is why I like plated connectors. They are more expensive, but no need to worry about corrosion. Years ago, I purchased some unplated Wattgate AC connectors and they do tarnish/require cleaning.

While Furutech products are pricey, I'd definitely pony up for at least the FPX receptacles, which are made of their excellent phosphor bronze (I can't believe I wrote that about bronze but it's true), if not the top of the line GTX pure copper receptacles...

 

Oyaide outlets are working well for me too.

 

Interesting... neither I, my father, several friends or Soundhounds in Victoria (which recommended this outlet) has ever had an issue with them that I'm aware of (last time I was at Soundhounds in June they were still using them).
What exactly happens? My line is dead quiet and very clean (I checked it just a couple months ago with a sniffer). I've had the orange receptacles for three years now.

 

Well I bought the receptacle and installed it in the wall at my last place somewhere around ?? 2001 (I went back and look for my posts.)
Seeingas it as already 13 years old.. The problem may be totally gone now.
And since no new posts about that are being produced.. I would think the issue has been solved.

Quoting myself: ""I too had the orange outlet fron Builders' Square and it too was the isolated ground.... Well at first all was just as the above member describes, little did I know what lay in store.... To make a long period of frustration short: I just realized all the constrained dynamics and too thin midrange and gradual decay of the sound of my system (15K$ 2 channel stuff) was due to a STUPID damn wall socket thing. After I replaced the wall thing with a common $6.00 "spec" grade 20 amp and I was back to what my system should sound like.
I absolutely can't BELIEVE what a bad thing happened just from a dumb outlet!!!!!
I remember reading somewhere about problems with these sort of outlets so I decided to try to change it. Lucky for me!!! I remembered the post and decided to try a different wall outlet!!! If I hadn't happened to see that one post I might never have realized what the real problem was for years!!!!!""

 

I have a quad outlet where two outlets are Oyaide and two are contractor grade Leviton. The Oyaide are noticeably better in sound and construction. The Levitons have a nice "death grip" though. I use them for some minor lighting.

 

Just catching up on this post since I've been traveling. Great advice on diagnosing the "problem" first. That said, I'm not sure how to even go about doing that.

My building is fairly new, however, given the urban area I'm 99% certain that I have significant line noise given the size of our building and the high density of tech businesses in my neighborhood. The thing I see is lights frequently dimming significantly before returning to normal. I suspect I will notice the line noise more readily when it's gone.

It sounds like the primary suggestions have been to try to get my system on its own dedicated line. Not sure if that will be possible, but I'll have an electrician take a look.

Next it sounds like people are suggesting that a power regenerator would be best. This makes a lot of sense to me, but a lot of product descriptions aren't very clear in whether they are a regenerator or line noise reducer or something else.

My dealer has an Isoclean 60A3 RF & Noise filter he's selling as a demo. It's pricey, but really beautiful (see pic below).


SixMoons did a review of the Isoclean setup and it looks like they sell an "isolated transformer" (I assume this is a regenerator). The model is called the PT-3030G IV. I'd also need a power cord or two if I went this route and it's a lot more than I was initially planning to spend, but the reviewer was VERY pleased with the results (http://www.6moons.com/audioreviews/isoclean/isoclean.html).

I've gotta think about whether I'd want to spend this much, but I kind of look at it like, other than the room, power is the foundation of the entire system,. Any improvements here should be shared by every component in my system. Given where I live, I suspect I'd see a lot more improvement in this area than many people here and I'd expect a good product like this to last a lifetime.

Anyone have any experience with Isoclean they can share? Or maybe point me to similar more inexpensive setups?

 

An isolation transformer is one theng, a regenerator is another.

 

I'm not a fan of regenerators. I use a Running Springs Audio "Maxim"

 

Wow, I thought the Isoclean stuff was pricey. The Running Springs stuff is even higher.

Their site says that the Maxim is for amps, while their Demitry is for front-end components. Together with the appropriate power chords, that would be over $10K. Definitely much more than I'm looking to spend. On the plus side, that makes the $6K I'd need to spend on the various Isoclean components seem like a bargain.

 

I only needed 4 outlets (preamp, 2 monos, SACD player) so the Maxim was right for me. The Dmitri has 6 outlets. I bought a new unit that was at a discount price from one of the major on-line stores (I can't remember which one). I paid under $4000.

I wish I could have afforded the extra dollars for the HZ (High Zoot) Crown Jewel cord (made under licence byRSA from a CH Acoustics design) instead of the middle-tier Mongoose cable. Eventually I will splurge for another power cord between the Maxim and the wall.

http://www.chacoustic.com/HZCrown

 

For someone not willing to drop the big cash for cords, conditioners and such I would highly recommend having new high quality wall outlets the like of hospital grade installed and have the outlets checked for proper polarity too.

Then any extension cord on the audio system that is not at least 14 gauge for regular components and 12 gauge for amplifiers should be replaced with good quality construction grade extension cords.

I once got a new washing machine, it's motor smoked out, got a replacement same thing, on the third replacement I was unplugging it when I smelled yet another motor overheating. The plug was quite hot. Turns out nothing was wrong with the washers, it was my old, worn outlet causing too hard of a draw on the AC killing the motors.

Moral of story? Considering most homes will have old worn or even new but very cheap outlets those should be the first things to have replaced.

 

Totally agree. Outlets are an easy change, and if you live in an old apartment, as I do, they are probably the originals and you may get (as I did) a surprising improvement in the sound of your system.

 

So, how can someone check if their power supply is 'noisy' in the sense that it will be damaging to music? Mention of 'sniffers' have been made on here but a search on the internet reveals no products that measure what we want, as far as I can tell.

What do we need to measure? Consistent voltage and frequency, radio frequency noise, earthing? Anything else. Do electricians have tools like this?