Power Cable Question

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heh, I just noticed, I am creating a new post and it says 'your reply' by the text box... anyway. Getting all these separate amplifiers instead of my 8000X7 (having been ripped off on ebay). I've got a new problem, power sockets. Too many wires and plugs. I was wondering if anybody knew of an elegant way of splitting the IEC mains plugs - rather than just getting *another* 4 way. So perhaps get one power plug that leads to 4 or 5 IEC mains plug sockets? Ok fusing might be an issue here, but if the product exists I can make sure that it is all rated properly myself.
 
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Anonymous

Guest
Most of you seem to have misunderstood what I want...

Although the hydra extreme is kinda the thing, it's a bit elitist as I am not a mains cable proponent (so much, perhaps for something higher end).

i want, at one end, a standard 3 pin mains plug, at the other I want *multiple* IEC mains plugs. So I can power many amplifiers with mains using only one socket..

For perspective, I have one double mains socket going to 2 4ways. I power my Pc and peripherals on 1 and phone charger and the other has 3 power amps and 1 pre-amp/processor. The 'other' has reached its capacity and rather than add *another * 4 way and bring myself to spaghetti central I'm looking for an elegant solution that allows me to hide all these cables.

In my current state of hifi migration, I still have no power sockets for my blu ray player and SACD player, by the way;). I need a solution to my sucky socket situation...
 

gpi

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My advice then is ask a qualified electrician because any advice from here could be dangerous. With the old three-pin round sockets, my dad used to discard plugs and insert bare wires into sockets using matches! (you didn't read that here btw.)
 
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Anonymous

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Why not make your own Hydra then.....You can get the multiway plugs at any electrical retailer so all you have to do is cut the plugs off standard IEC cables and wire them to the multiway plug....job done for less than a tenner.
 
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Anonymous

Guest
Maplins sell a multiplug (4into1) which would tidy things up. Am a bit concerned over the amps you are drawing off the double socket/ring circuit, plus the amount of mains RF polution on it.
You have a decent system but you are not getting the best out of it by a long chalk.
 
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Anonymous

Guest
[quote user="trevor79"]Am a bit concerned over the amps you are drawing off the double socket/ring circuit, plus the amount of mains RF polution on it.[/quote]

It's all relatively low current, so no problem. What's mains RF pollution?
 
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Anonymous

Guest
With hi-fi equipment it is not only the availability of a continuous electrical supply that is important, but also the quality of that supply. Some people may be surprised that electricity can be discussed in terms of quality but there are a number of factors which affect its quality and suitability for powering hi-fi equipment. They are:

Low voltage
RFI (Radio Frequency Interference)

Voltage spikes

Fluctuating voltage (surges)

High impedance

All the cabling in your house and on your ring main can and does act as a large ariel, picking up radio signals which interfere with the supply. The effect of this means that background noise is generated along with a more closed in sound with less definition to the music.

To understand why a 'contaminated' supply to your hi-fi affects the sound quality, I will use the analogy of water. The electrical signal which is produced by the signal source component is tiny and needs to be amplified in order to be strong enough to drive the loudspeakers. This is achieved by adding more electricity to it from the mains supply.

Now if we start with a a pure signal (uncontaminated water) and add polluted electricity (dirty water) to it we finish up with a contaminated signal. So the added electricity needs to be as clean or pure as possible = enjoyment of the music!

Hope this all helps.

Trevor
 
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Anonymous

Guest
[quote user="trevor79"]

With hi-fi equipment it is not only the availability of a continuous electrical supply that is important, but also the quality of that supply. Some people may be surprised that electricity can be discussed in terms of quality but there are a number of factors which affect its quality and suitability for powering hi-fi equipment. They are:

Low voltage
RFI (Radio Frequency Interference)

Voltage spikes

Fluctuating voltage (surges)

High impedance

All the cabling in your house and on your ring main can and does act as a large ariel, picking up radio signals which interfere with the supply. The effect of this means that background noise is generated along with a more closed in sound with less definition to the music.

To understand why a 'contaminated' supply to your hi-fi affects the sound quality, I will use the analogy of water. The electrical signal which is produced by the signal source component is tiny and needs to be amplified in order to be strong enough to drive the loudspeakers. This is achieved by adding more electricity to it from the mains supply.

Now if we start with a a pure signal (uncontaminated water) and add polluted electricity (dirty water) to it we finish up with a contaminated signal. So the added electricity needs to be as clean or pure as possible = enjoyment of the music!

Hope this all helps.

Trevor

[/quote]

So again, given a surge limiter, no problem, at best a solution for a problem you are unlikely to have.
 
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Anonymous

Guest
Em, if mains shielding was of no benefit to the signal path why do you think that hi end audio manufactures go to such lengths to build separate power supply supply units (PSU's), chassis copper shielding, star earthing, overspecified transformers, use bypass capacitors on the main reservoir caps, os-cons on the signal path etc?

A pure mains supply feed makes an astounding difference to all equipment, unfortunately few have had the experence of hearing it.
 
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Anonymous

Guest
Hi Trevor you seem to know your stuff about all this. Do you know how RFI in particular manifests itself through the speakers via, lets say for instance, a Roksan Kandy set up in a house with an "average" electricity supply?
 
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Anonymous

Guest
[quote user="trevor79"]Em, if mains shielding was of no benefit to the signal path why do you think that hi end audio manufactures go to such lengths to build separate power supply supply units (PSU's), chassis copper shielding, star earthing, overspecified transformers, use bypass capacitors on the main reservoir caps, os-cons on the signal path etc?

A pure mains supply feed makes an astounding difference to all equipment, unfortunately few have had the experence of hearing it.[/quote]

may i predict Masterblusters reply? Basically it will involve an assertion that hi-end audio manufacturers (and in particular high-end audio cable manufacturers) are trying their hardest to swindle us gullible hi-fi folk out of our hard-earned. he will go on to state that all these products make no difference to the sound of your system as there is no problem with the mains supply in the first place.

Trevor, you seem like a very knowledgeable person. I will have to warn you though that you a wasting your time trying to talk sense to some people on this forum (i you read the other cable threads on this forum you will see who i mean).
That is not to say there are not people on this forum that dont need help from people like you, just that you need to make sure you dont start banging your head against a brick wall (it does start to hurt after a while)
 
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Anonymous

Guest
Hi, you will find a lot of mains pollution is generated in the home off things like fridges, TV, washing machines, dishwashers and fluorescent lights.

There are a number of measures that can be taken to improve the electrical supply which is feed into our hi-fi equipment. If you are serious about getting the best out of your system, you should consider installing a dedicated power supply from your consumer unit. (if you have a fuse box this needs to be replaced!)

Circuit breakers are essential (rather than fuses) as they do not restrict the flow and demands made on the current to the transformer, which in itself is subject to reacting to supplying the bridging rectifier, followed on by the main reservoir capacitors.

DEDICATED POWER SUPPLY - A mains 'ring' or spur that supplies your hi-fi equipment and NOTHING ELSE.

CONSUMER UNIT - The box which is connected to the meter and into which all the electrical circuits in the home are connected via circuit-breakers.

The amount of work (and disruption) this entails is dependent on where your listening room is in relation to your consumer unit, what kind of consumer unit you have, whether it has the capacity to add another circuit, and how easy it will be to install the new cables.

I can say, from my own experience, that all the trouble and expense is worth it. Modifications to the electrical supply have made noticeable improvements to the sound of my hi-fi system. And remember, the final signal which drives your loudspeakers contains a higher proportion of added (mains) electricity than the original signal. So, no matter how good your equipment is, the sound will still be dependent on the quality of the power supply.

Having a dedicated mains supply is the building platform on which you can continue to provide better power to your equipment.
A dedicated mains supply will isolate your hi-fi equipment from the rest of the electrical wiring in your home which will cause electrical interference.

However, you should still make sure that the rest of the electrical system in your home is not producing any unwanted nasty effects. Make sure that the wires into each socket are secured and that the retaining screws are tightened. Check all earth wires are securely connected.
Make sure all your electrical appliances are in good working order and check that the wires in the plugs are secure and that the clamping screws are tight.

Some appliances like refrigerators produce interference when the thermostat switches the cooling system on and off.

Reading the boards I can see some people remain skeptical about these things.I would ask you all to consider this, why is it that your music sounds so much nicer in the early hours rather than other times?

I hope I have got you all thinking, why not try looking on the Internet and finding out a little more about this.
 
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Anonymous

Guest
This is really helpful Trevor and thanks for the fullness of the info. I've just moved house and it needs a complete rewire. I'm also have photovoltaic panels installed in mid May so have the potential, I think, to have an isolated power supply and was looking at the cost benefits (if any) of doing a lot of what you were suggesting anyway. However my sparky has quoted me a price which I think might put to better use in a serious hi-fi upgrade. I'm sure there are benefits in sound quality with all of the things suggested but I need to work out whether it is all worth it. Because:

[quote user="trevor79"]Hi, you will find a lot of mains pollution is generated in the home off things like fridges, TV, washing machines, dishwashers and fluorescent lights.

There are a number of measures that can be taken to improve the electrical supply which is feed into our hi-fi equipment. [/quote]

So if you had a poor supply and poorly shielded cables would this manifest itself in the speakers for instance outputting a white noise, and this would be discernable without a source? I'm asking this because my Kandy set up is next to the fridge at the moment while my kitchen is being refitted and I hear the faintest of white noses with my lug pressed to the speaker and the amp is set to 9' o clock but can't hear any white noise at all from 0.5m + away.
 
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Anonymous

Guest
I recently had my fuse box replaced with a consumer unit (bought off E Bay for £30) and a spur fitted off it. An electrician (came recommended) only charged me £80 for fitting it all.
Buying also a Tacima block (£25 E Bay) it made a massive difference to the Onyko 875, especially on its various 5/7 chanel settings, which now sound almost as pure in sound as the 'Direct' setting! Also before there was a big difference between my Meridian 207 cd player and the hard drive (stored CD's) on my Sony HDX960 recorder, now (with it running the signal through £100 analogue interconects) there is no difference!!! I couldn't believe my ears.
These mods improved the sound stage in every area giving openess, detail, attack and depth that is spot on.
I just now need to upgrade the crossovers in the RS8 speakers to bring out more the midrange detail to achieve the clarity I used to enjoy on my modified Rogers 7's.
When I bought the 875 amp I never thought I could achieve the musicality that I have been used to over the years (cyrus, audiolab), but feed it with a good source (both power and signal) it shines!
 
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Anonymous

Guest
This Hydra business always struck me as a risky path to be going down. Two areas in particular would lead me to be cautious. The first is that if you ask a normal electrician to do it, he'll look at you in a funny way and tell you to get stuffed. The second is that the Naim system it appeared on years ago would have been, preamp, power amp, turntable or CD player- in addition to this the amp would have been throwing out all of 30-40 watts (admittedly big angry, Salisbury watts but a low output all the same). I'm not sure that doing the same trick with seven beefy power amps was quite what Mr Vereker had in mind.
 
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Anonymous

Guest
Wouldn't say it's unique but I do agree with the results. It's a bit like running your car on low quality fuel, the wheels turn and it goes but feels lethargic, put decent stuff in and it is transformed into an enjoyable drive!

Its sophisticated engineering and design make the POWERIGEL unique in the hi-fi market. The POWERIGEL makes audio components sound more powerful and greatly improves tonal balance, clarity and rhythmic precision.
 
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Anonymous

Guest
[quote user="Leonard Hatred"]This Hydra business always struck me as a risky path to be going down. Two areas in particular would lead me to be cautious. The first is that if you ask a normal electrician to do it, he'll look at you in a funny way and tell you to get stuffed. The second is that the Naim system it appeared on years ago would have been, preamp, power amp, turntable or CD player- in addition to this the amp would have been throwing out all of 30-40 watts (admittedly big angry, Salisbury watts but a low output all the same). I'm not sure that doing the same trick with seven beefy power amps was quite what Mr Vereker had in mind.[/quote]

I dont understand your concerns.........

(1)....why would an electrician refuse to wire this up???

(2)....as with any electrical assembly of this type, you have to be aware of the total loading on the socket you are using. This would be the same whether you are using a hydra or 4 way plug board. As long as the total Amperage is not exceeded there shouldnt be a problem if it's constructed properly.
 
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Anonymous

Guest
[quote user="trevor79"]

Some people may be surprised that electricity can be discussed in terms of quality but there are a number of factors which affect its quality and suitability for powering hi-fi equipment. They are:

Low voltage
RFI (Radio Frequency Interference)

Voltage spikes

Fluctuating voltage (surges)

High impedance

[/quote]

A mains conditioner has no effect on high mains impedance or fluctuating voltage but might remove the clicks and pops that can sometimes be heard when, for example, a fridge turns on and off. It will have no effect on overall sound or picture quality.

If you don't hear any pops and clicks a surge limiter is really all you need.
 

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