If your AC power source is full of noise primarily from EMI (electromagnetic induction) and RFI (radio frequency interference) your output signal will be polluted as well. There's a reason you have to power down electronic gear when taking off and landing in an aircraft. Everything from CPU's to RAM chips to transistors and op-amps emit "pollution" on our signal that starts from the power supply to the membranes of your headphones. There's not a whole hell of a lot you can to short of linear power supplies and tube based amps.
But the subject I would like to suggest is what to do about the noise coming from you wall plug. We are all hooked up to one source of power: the alternating current produced by whatever power generating station you're hooked up to. It could be coal, nuclear, hydroelectric, but the bottom line is the power you run your system with is the same power source your neighbors use. Example: Your neighbor is using his table saw or microwave oven with the same power you run your system with. Noisy signal in, noisy signal out.
There are 2 ways of dealing with this problem: passive and active. There are a plethora of gear on the market to address these issues. Passive gear contain filters including baluns which are signal wire wrapped around magnetically sensitive materials, the basic being ferrite They resemble small transformers. With each signal wrapped around each side, RFI is reduced by phase cancellation. Most passive units also isolate digital and analog plugs and should have surge and spike circuits to protect you gear. There are many other ways companies pull this off. A disclaimer: I use a PS Audio Duet what is no longer being made. It set me back $300 and was worth every penny.
I can do A-B comparisons of my DAC and Amp plugged into the wall and plugged into the duet. The improvements are not jaw-dropping, but they a unmistakably there. The Duet has 2 isolated outlets. In the open plugs I have 2 PS Audio Noise Harvesters. In case you've never seen one, there about the size of a half a pack of cigarettes with male plugs on one end and a blue LED. On the other. How they work not something PS Audio goes into detail about but when they detect noise energy into light energy. As all you physics buffs out there know energy can neither be created or destroyed. It can only be converted into another form. Here it's noise to light.
Now active devices take current from the wall and regenerate into a perfect signal. The only company that's been doing this for years is once again PS Audio and there line of Power Plants. They take the AC current from the wall, converts it to DC, and then after digital signal processing, re-coverts is to AC. No noise. The sine waves can be adjusted. Basically it's a power amp that's designed to run other gear. The downside is price. They start at $2500 for the P3 which has tons of power to power ANY headphone based system. My advice would to to go to PS Audio's website and read up on these things. The only real controversy was people with huge power amps and whether they get enough wattage even through the P10($5000).
I also have the HeadRoom Micro Stack(Dac stacked on amp) and I have large ferrite core clamped around the power cords coming in from the power supplies and ferrite cores clamped around the USB cable at both ends.
AC noise pollution is a real problem and I know there are many ways to deal with it. I'd like to hear how everyone else deals with this issue. If you don't deal with it at all, I'd seriously give it some thought.
Peace,
Chris
But the subject I would like to suggest is what to do about the noise coming from you wall plug. We are all hooked up to one source of power: the alternating current produced by whatever power generating station you're hooked up to. It could be coal, nuclear, hydroelectric, but the bottom line is the power you run your system with is the same power source your neighbors use. Example: Your neighbor is using his table saw or microwave oven with the same power you run your system with. Noisy signal in, noisy signal out.
There are 2 ways of dealing with this problem: passive and active. There are a plethora of gear on the market to address these issues. Passive gear contain filters including baluns which are signal wire wrapped around magnetically sensitive materials, the basic being ferrite They resemble small transformers. With each signal wrapped around each side, RFI is reduced by phase cancellation. Most passive units also isolate digital and analog plugs and should have surge and spike circuits to protect you gear. There are many other ways companies pull this off. A disclaimer: I use a PS Audio Duet what is no longer being made. It set me back $300 and was worth every penny.
I can do A-B comparisons of my DAC and Amp plugged into the wall and plugged into the duet. The improvements are not jaw-dropping, but they a unmistakably there. The Duet has 2 isolated outlets. In the open plugs I have 2 PS Audio Noise Harvesters. In case you've never seen one, there about the size of a half a pack of cigarettes with male plugs on one end and a blue LED. On the other. How they work not something PS Audio goes into detail about but when they detect noise energy into light energy. As all you physics buffs out there know energy can neither be created or destroyed. It can only be converted into another form. Here it's noise to light.
Now active devices take current from the wall and regenerate into a perfect signal. The only company that's been doing this for years is once again PS Audio and there line of Power Plants. They take the AC current from the wall, converts it to DC, and then after digital signal processing, re-coverts is to AC. No noise. The sine waves can be adjusted. Basically it's a power amp that's designed to run other gear. The downside is price. They start at $2500 for the P3 which has tons of power to power ANY headphone based system. My advice would to to go to PS Audio's website and read up on these things. The only real controversy was people with huge power amps and whether they get enough wattage even through the P10($5000).
I also have the HeadRoom Micro Stack(Dac stacked on amp) and I have large ferrite core clamped around the power cords coming in from the power supplies and ferrite cores clamped around the USB cable at both ends.
AC noise pollution is a real problem and I know there are many ways to deal with it. I'd like to hear how everyone else deals with this issue. If you don't deal with it at all, I'd seriously give it some thought.
Peace,
Chris
