Dedicated spur = mains Nirvana????

[roger06]

I've been reading some interesting stuff here lately about mains.

We had our house rewired and I'm lucky enough to have a dedicated spur for my hi fi / AV kit. Does this means that all other mains improvement products would be superfluous? Or can my mains still be 'dirty' or susceptible to interference etc?

(Please – I don't want to kick off another general debate about mains!!!

)

 

[Andrew Everard]

(Please – I don't want to kick off another general debate about mains!!!

)

Duck and cover, roger06, duck and cover...

 

[Frank Harvey]

Having a dedicated mains spur is one of the biggest steps you can make. After that, other products can still make a difference. It'll be a case if trying them out and see if you think they're worth the outlay.

 

[Craig M.]

i researched having a dedicated spur a while back, my understanding is that as everything is still connected to the consumer unit, a dedicated spur won't stop any 'noise' on the mains.

 

[roger06]

i researched having a dedicated spur a while back, my understanding is that as everything is still connected to the consumer unit, a dedicated spur won't stop any 'noise' on the mains.

Thanks. Then as Frank writes - try out some additional mains products and see (hear)...

 

[True Blue]

From my personal experience, I had a dedicated radial cct fittd to my consumer unit (32A MCCB) and the benfits of doing that were a lower noise floor, especially from such things that were sharing the ring main prior IE fridge freezer, washing machine, haidrriers etc etc. So their use and switching no longer affected the HIFI cct.

However doing this alone still means that you are sharing an Earth Connection with the Consumer unit and its loads. So any noise in the earth "can" be transferred to audible noise.

A dedicated CCT as you have should bring many benfits but to enhance it further think about installing a seperate consumer unit for your AV / HIFI equipment with its own independant Earth. The main incoming supply to the house will need to be split to facilitate this.Therefore a qualified domestic part p installer is required by law.

The consumer unis which are used for extensions or garages should do the trick nicely, these generally have two MCCB's fitted one 32A and one 16A, so one could be used for AV the other HIFIor indeed one for amplifiers and one for source componants.

It should cost approx £100 + the cost of the consumer unit (approx £50 several companies supply audio grade ones, silver plated if you fancy that) and should take a qualified electrician a couple of hours to complete.

Hope this helps

 

[roger06]

Thanks True Blue – really useful.

So in simpleton's terms - my dedicated spur is (potentially) still susceptible to noise from washing mashines etc as it's sharing the same consumer unit?

Would one of these do the job?

Also - my wireless internet router is right next to the consumber unit. Might removing that improve things?

Fortunately I have a fantastic sparky who charges extremely reasonably. (he does insist on talking me thru everything he's doing tho so all I hear is, " blah blah volts, blah blah blah watts, blah blah blah earth...". Bless him)

 

[True Blue]

Yes, any noise in the Earth line will be / or can be transmitted to the earth line on your HIFI.

Yes the attached consumer unit would be suitable, and it complies with the current building regs ie it has a RCCD fitted.

If I was you I would move the Wireless as far away as practicle, but would not loose too much sleep over it tbh.

 

[aliEnRIK]

Never given a dedicated spur a go as im wanting to move house (As and when I feel safe in my job)

What I personally use is a 'balanced mains transformer' which removes most mains noise.

I can say without question its made one hell of a difference to my system - both audio and video