[johnjen]

Why stop there?
Make one with a negative impedance and win the nobel prize!
hahahahahahahahahaha

JJ

 

[bcowen]

I have to draw the line at the Furutech GTX-D. We best not start on fuses or men in little white coats will be knocking at the door. LOL!

 

[Zachik]

I have to draw the line at the Furutech GTX-D. We best not start on fuses or men in little white coats will be knocking at the door. LOL!

What a bargain!!
Bill - do I need to upgrade just the AC receptacle my audio equipment is plugged into, or the entire house?
BTW, I live in a condo - so maybe upgrade my neighbors as well, to avoid them introduce noise into the mains?!

 

[flailure]

I have to draw the line at the Furutech GTX-D. We best not start on fuses or men in little white coats will be knocking at the door. LOL!

That is truly ridiculous, if people are going to invest in those, why stop there, power companies should invest in special gold audiophile transformers to step down the 14000volts to 230v, so they can upcharge to for your whole house, and I wonder how many of those tiny audiophile spaghetti wires would need to be twined together to replace the main 200amp service wires feeding your house, and let's not forget the breakers, special gold contacts on those for sure. And let us not forget the main ground wire needs to be some hybrid metal, palladium and enriched uranium and maybe a hint of moon rock dust to enhance the bass...

Yeah, I agree I will definitely set my line before that, maybe even a few steps back just to be sure, but it was good for a chuckle, even if I did shake my head at the thought someone must be buying these...

 

[johnjen]

That is truly ridiculous, if people are going to invest in those, why stop there, power companies should invest in special gold audiophile transformers to step down the 14000volts to 230v, so they can upcharge to for your whole house, and I wonder how many of those tiny audiophile spaghetti wires would need to be twined together to replace the main 200amp service wires feeding your house, and let's not forget the breakers, special gold contacts on those for sure. And let us not forget the main ground wire needs to be some hybrid metal, palladium and enriched uranium and maybe a hint of moon rock dust to enhance the bass...

Yeah, I agree I will definitely set my line before that, maybe even a few steps back just to be sure, but it was good for a chuckle, even if I did shake my head at the thought someone must be buying these...

I would guess that you hadn't read my posts about the delivery of ac power I have achieved just by improvements made to the one dedicated branch circuit that feeds my audio system.
I was able to deliver up to 2Ka out of a 20amp breaker by the improvements I made using better receptacles and a box of 12g romex from my local hardware store.

This entire series of interrelated posts starts with diving into ASCC (Available Short Circuit Current) which is an electricians test for the 'health' of a branch circuit.
This is the 1st post of this series.
https://www.head-fi.org/threads/the-diyrs-cookbook.781268/page-43#post-12738982
And the last post.
https://www.head-fi.org/threads/the-diyrs-cookbook.781268/page-45#post-12794986

Which in turn is followed up by this series on fuses and how they all tie together.
https://www.head-fi.org/threads/the-diyrs-cookbook.781268/page-46#post-12835717

And when coupled with the testing I did on the time window that current actually flows into a headphone amp, it can provide some insight into why these aftermarket 'accessories' can and do make a difference.
https://www.head-fi.org/threads/the-diyrs-cookbook.781268/page-92#post-14746426

This series of investigations show that just by tweaking the ac power that supplies the power for our audio gear, along with using 'better' fuses, cables, receptacles, etc, they can provide a beneficial improvement in how our gear operates.
There are additional factors which also affect all of this and can limit how much improvement can be achieved in any given system, but going into all of that would make this post MUCH longer.

So if you are curious enough to investigate, there is some food for thought in these posts.

Also for reference the 1st post of this thread lists all of the topics covered in this ongoing thread.

JJ

 

[flailure]

Lol, nope I'm out, not going down this road. Enjoy your cleaner sound. Have a nice day.







Psst (anyone else reading this, nod your head and move along, don't buy the gold plated outlet, little observation to point out, I don't see any gold plating on the screws on that 140 dollar outlet, semi-conceding: though they could be on the anvil, but to point out, how do you attach the wires on the backside of that outlet to maintain the supposed integrity of ac power (which apparently must be very fragile) for it to necessitate a 20 amp service for a micro wattage headphone amp (yes i know micro is the wrong word but it sounds cooler than milli or centi, and we are definitely veering into subjectivisms and away from science right now, so cooler is allowable). It might make sense if we switched out incoming power to dc voltage residential and nobody bothered to let me know about the swap. Heck, why stop there, like I was saying, if ac is really that fragile, run a wire, doc brown style (back to the future), straight from the 14000 volt power wires to your headphone room bypassing transformer and breaker box, and go straight into a gold/platinum hybrid step down transformer (semi practical, it will keep your room warm year round, and if you use it for a table for your headphone amp it will keep your headphone amp warmed up and ready to go) and output straight into your amp, no fuse required, just to make sure that delicate power doesn't flutter in any sort of audible way (by the way, fuses and breakers work much differently, and while I won't get into specifics here, breakers have a solid point to point connection that is not restrictive in any way at reasonable loads, and absolutely required for your homes protection, so don't ever bypass them please, they don't effect ac voltage at all). Leave out the flux capacitor, it does funky things to your power unless you live in a DeLorean.


Ps, if you do have audible distortion at your amplifier (typically a humming) you may have some ground loop issues, they don't come downstream from the breaker box usually (unless the electrician screwed up, its been known to happen, and that is a case where something is installed incorrectly, not that it needs upgrading), mostly they are caused by issues that go upstream (check your loads, grounds, isolation).

 

[johnjen]

Lol, nope I'm out, not going down this road. Enjoy your cleaner sound. Have a nice day.
snip

For someone who isn't "going down this road" with a seemingly fixed and certain understanding of the way of things you certainly like to share your opinions.
Which reminds me of this quote from Rev. William H. Poole 1879…
“There is a principle which is a bar against all information, which is proof against all arguments, and which cannot fail to keep a man in everlasting ignorance—that principle is contempt prior to investigation.”

So be it, perhaps others will have enough curiosity to consider what the tests and collected data show.
I know what I've found and what gains it has resulted in and that is why I wrote it all up and offered it for others to consider, or not, as it changes none of the gains to my system.

Lastly this quote, could provide additional insight.
'It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it.' – Aristotle

JJ

 

[bcowen]

What a bargain!!
Bill - do I need to upgrade just the AC receptacle my audio equipment is plugged into, or the entire house?
BTW, I live in a condo - so maybe upgrade my neighbors as well, to avoid them introduce noise into the mains?!

For best effect, you need to upgrade every outlet that's connected to *all* the wiring emanating from the electrical substation serving your abode. Depending on the size of the substation, that may require 20k - 50k outlets, but if you're a true audiophile the cost is totally irrelevant.

More seriously, I hear a difference with the Furutech. Huge? Nope. There? Yes. Would I buy another? Probably not, as the improvement wasn't commensurate with the cost....for me. Might be different for someone else. Quite honestly I got a *bigger* improvement by replacing all the crap contractor-grade outlets in the branch circuit that feeds my audio gear with some good quality Cooper outlets that have screw-in clamps for the Romex. IIRC, those were around $5 each. The crap contractor outlets were connected by stripping the Romex and sticking the bare wire in the little spring clamp hole in the back. Most every hot and neutral wire was loose enough to wiggle around, and at 15 years old I can only imagine the oxidation that occurred in a non-gas tight connection. If your condo is less than 25 years old, I can almost guarantee you have similar crap outlets connected in the exact same crap way (which I find amazing it's even allowed by any building code). I don't know if it was the loose and vibrating wire (flowing electricity creates resonance) or the oxidation that was responsible, but getting every outlet in a tightly wired, non-oxidized state made a very significant improvement.

 

[Tjj226 Angel]

For best effect, you need to upgrade every outlet that's connected to *all* the wiring emanating from the electrical substation serving your abode. Depending on the size of the substation, that may require 20k - 50k outlets, but if you're a true audiophile the cost is totally irrelevant.

More seriously, I hear a difference with the Furutech. Huge? Nope. There? Yes. Would I buy another? Probably not, as the improvement wasn't commensurate with the cost....for me. Might be different for someone else. Quite honestly I got a *bigger* improvement by replacing all the crap contractor-grade outlets in the branch circuit that feeds my audio gear with some good quality Cooper outlets that have screw-in clamps for the Romex. IIRC, those were around $5 each. The crap contractor outlets were connected by stripping the Romex and sticking the bare wire in the little spring clamp hole in the back. Most every hot and neutral wire was loose enough to wiggle around, and at 15 years old I can only imagine the oxidation that occurred in a non-gas tight connection. If your condo is less than 25 years old, I can almost guarantee you have similar crap outlets connected in the exact same crap way (which I find amazing it's even allowed by any building code). I don't know if it was the loose and vibrating wire (flowing electricity creates resonance) or the oxidation that was responsible, but getting every outlet in a tightly wired, non-oxidized state made a very significant improvement.

Yeup. I did this to our old house and it made a big improvement. Now I live in an apartment and can't touch anything. This is part of why I am looking at power regeneration as an option.

 

[chrisdrop]

Now I live in an apartment and can't touch anything. This is part of why I am looking at power regeneration as an option.

FWIW - In steps, I upgraded bits of my power chain. Upgrading from consumer-unit/fuse-box (reasonable cable/sockets/etc), adding additional ground/earth direct from consumer-unit/fuse-box, and adding regenerator. IMO the regenerator had a similar effect to the upgrading the entire mains power chain to the socket, but the added benefit of voltage regulation, which helped me more than it might others, I had an issue with very variable voltage; (uk/city/home from 1800s/etc). I think you can get a very similar benefit to upgrading the mains power chain by using a regenerator. Both is slightly better, but you can't return an electrical mains upgrade, so I kept both . So, short story; recommend regenerator, especially if you can't upgrade the mains chain. FWIW - I didn't have any improvement with a load of other 'devices', but regenerator and mains power chain certainly offered solid benefit.

 

[johnjen]

I went so far as to solder the leads at the one break in the dedicated branch circuit for my audio system feed.
I was shocked at the difference it made and especially when I soldered the ground wire by itself.

Most homes have 'contractor grade' duplex receptacles (think 49¢ each) installed, which as you might guess is "cheap" no matter how you cut it.
And they wear out all to easily, and who EVER thinks of replacing them, because most don't know how etc.

Not to mention making sure ALL the circuit breaker clamp screws that squeeze the wires are tight and have not over heated…

These are 2 easy to address ways to 'clean up' the distribution of the branch circuits, not to mention performing an ASCC test using a dedicated testing tool or a volt meter and and HD hand drill to measure the voltage sag for each branch circuit.

JJ

 

[bcowen]

Not to mention making sure ALL the circuit breaker clamp screws that squeeze the wires are tight and have not over heated.

JJ

Glad you brought this up. I borrowed a FLIR (thermal imaging) camera from work one weekend. We use this to routinely scan breaker panels in the plant for hot spots that would indicate a loose, oxidized or carbonized contact. The first shot I took of my home panel looked pretty good. Then I started turning stuff on. The breaker that feeds 220v to my clothes dryer went bright yellow (in the thermal image) within a minute of starting the dryer. Not good. The breaker feeding the audio system went a little orange...not as bad but still not good. Most of the other breakers were OK. I have no issues changing outlets on my own, but messing inside an electrical panel is well above my pay grade. Fortunately I have a friend that's a licensed electrician, and he got everything put back in order for the price of a few beers. . The breakers were all fine -- the heat was due to loose screws.

 

[Speedskater]

Why stop there?
Make one with a negative impedance and win the nobel prize!
hahahahahahahahahaha
JJ

No, actually it's easy to do. A DIY amplifier article showed how to do it. But didn't recommended it (as I recall).
Note that a SMPS has a negative input impedance. If the line voltage drops, it just draws more current so that the output power remains the same.

 

[gefski]

I went so far as to solder the leads at the one break in the dedicated branch circuit for my audio system feed.
I was shocked at the difference it made and especially when I soldered the ground wire by itself.

Most homes have 'contractor grade' duplex receptacles (think 49¢ each) installed, which as you might guess is "cheap" no matter how you cut it.
And they wear out all to easily, and who EVER thinks of replacing them, because most don't know how etc.

Not to mention making sure ALL the circuit breaker clamp screws that squeeze the wires are tight and have not over heated…

These are 2 easy to address ways to 'clean up' the distribution of the branch circuits, not to mention performing an ASCC test using a dedicated testing tool or a volt meter and and HD hand drill to measure the voltage sag for each branch circuit.

JJ

Also, duplex receptacles should be contact cleaned (TURN OFF) like we do our interconnects, etc. Cotton pipe cleaners fit nicely. After dry polishing, any traces of cotton can be sucked out with a vacuum cleaner hose.

 

[Zachik]

...the heat was due to loose screws.

Bill, you're too hard on yourself