ultra clean power

[MANTIK]

I have an audiophile friend at work. He has this thing and swears that what ever you connect to it runs better; whether it's audio, video or a shaver.

http://www.ticeaudio.com/frm_bloc.htm

I just ordered one.

 

[audiowkstation]

I agree. It is very audible simply running the power amp of my systems to Mains. Any filtering and restoration to the sine wave f 60hZ 120Volts will yeild more accuracy to the system.

If you really want a shock (shocker..no pun really intended) , run SO cable 6/4 stranded to the mains pre-meter (Illegal but Power co let me do it for experimental sake). The inductance caused by the Electric meter alone is enough to change the shape of the wave big time, tap from main 120/E/120 transformer is quite nice...but Illegal.

These devices are designed to restore the meter /wire/breaker/termination problems to pre meter quality...and mind you..they work as well.

There is your Power myth exposed.

Power conditioning is a must for all audio equipment..especially in the mastering chain.

 

[MindMeld]

What about balanced power?
Marsh

 

[Michael Fossenkemper]

The new thing now amongst the audio junkies is replacing the outlets with hospital grade outlets and deep freezing them to 350 degrees below zero for 48 hours. The Hospital grade outlets and plugs have a much better contact due to the fact that there is a lot of oxygen in hospitals and they don't want any little sparks blowing the place up. I'm not sure exactly what's up with the deep freezing part but they say it works. There is also a company now that is deep freezing just about everything, they say it's a noticable difference especially with tubes. power conditioners can definately help a lot in urban areas especially if you work in a high rise building. I have just about everything in my studio running through them and the higher resolution your system is, the more you be able to tell.

So much to tweek, so little time....

 

[joe lambert]

Freezing the outlets. Wow, I never heard of that.

 

[EdWray]

It's called cryogenic hardening. I seem to remember that super cooling stuff slows down the molecular jitter. The timing of the cool down and warm up is controlled so that when brought back to room temperature the molecules supposedly stay lined up.

I bought guitar strings once with this treatment but they didn't stay new sounding any longer and they still broke about the same time as untreated strings. This isn't to say the technology doesn't work. I read that it does wonders with razor blades and motor cycle engines.

Maybe Stephen Paul knows what effect this super cooling has on the electrical properties of these outlets. A reduction in resistance would be my guess.

 

[Macaroni]

I recently read many "over the top", rave reviews for products from PS Audio...

http://www.psaudio.com/

So I bought their Utltimate Outlet & Juice Bar, which have those superior outlets on them, along with other features. But I sent everything back ($600) because it didn't make any noticeable difference with all my A/B tests.

I live in a house in the San Fernando Valley in LA.

Here's my basic setup...

Mac G4
Logic Audio Platinum 5.5
RME Multiface + PCI card
Mackie HR824 monitors
Mogami/Neutrik cables

My room is tuned nicely and all mixes play well outside on all systems, so I know my room is reasonably accurate. I get great sonic quality and definition.

I wonder if the products mentioned in the first post are similar in function to the PS Audio stuff. I'd be willing to pay bucks if it really makes a noticeable difference.

Any further comments...?

Thanks.

Ron...

 

[Kurt Foster]

Ron,
The answer is no. The device you friend is speaking of from Tice audio is a power filter. The P.S. Audio box cleans up the audio by converting it to DC and then back to AC, thereby restoring the waveform. There is another type of device available from Equitech and Furman called a "balanced Power Transformer" that works in the same way that a balanced mic cable works. AC from the wall has one wire that is hot and one that is cold. With a balanced Power Tranny it takes the hot leg at 120 V and splits it into two 60 V but out of phase. When your gear pulls the power any noise that is induced into the line is cancelled out. If your having power problems the first thing to do is replace all the breakers, switches and outlets in the building. Worn breakers, switches and outlets arc inducing hum. Fluctuating power levels can be smoothed out with ISOBAR or other types of filters. Most of this stuff is audio voodoo and really doesn't do that much. Upgrading all the switches, outlets and breakers usually does much more for these kinds of problems than anything else. ....... Fats

 

[Macaroni]

Hi Fats...

Thanks for the insight.

I'm not actually noticiing any power related problems, ie: noise, hum, fluctuations, etc.

FWIW, I've got relatively high quality surge protectors and a very clean and high quality audio chain overall.

At some point, I'll probably upgrade the sockets, but for now everything appears to be OK.