All well known and understood. Transients of 900V are not at all uncommon. Whoever disbelieves only has to attach a 'scope and look for himiself.
Regardin safety, I beg to disagree. Not one unit was ever returned or reported as failing in any way pver 13 years now, all but the one with me, which I believe does have a shorted cap somewhere, thetrick is finding which one. No too hard, just takes some space and time, time i have, space not just yet but very soon, within this month I hope.
However, I'd like to point out that this has absolutely nothing to do with John Curl's Blowtorch preamp, because as far as I know John does not have any one of my filters, and I usually know where my units are. Just wondering, who here has built a power line filter by himself?
Regardin safety, I beg to disagree. Not one unit was ever returned or reported as failing in any way pver 13 years now, all but the one with me, which I believe does have a shorted cap somewhere, thetrick is finding which one. No too hard, just takes some space and time, time i have, space not just yet but very soon, within this month I hope.
However, I'd like to point out that this has absolutely nothing to do with John Curl's Blowtorch preamp, because as far as I know John does not have any one of my filters, and I usually know where my units are. Just wondering, who here has built a power line filter by himself?
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Work recently chucked out a decent truckload of obsolete/lightning damaged IT gear all full of power filtering goodies.
Of course I couldn't help myself and half of it is in my garage awaiting trashing/raping for parts.
Currently I am running medical grade (screened, 300VA) isolation transformers to power my system (eBay auction, $30.00 for six of them)..they have made a nice improvement to the sound of my setup.
With my wealth of new parts I intend going the whole hog and building a properly serious snubberised power filter box, with multiple DC isolated channels/outputs.
I do have a Belkin Pure AV filter box bought locally real cheap ($35.00).
It's in the garage because it actually degrades my system sound.
The only good part of it is the mega fat silicone sheath IEC power input cable.
Dan.
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A filter totally of my own design was used with the Philips HT; two of, one for main unit, one for subwoofer - this was of the light, rather than heavy, bulky part construction - but effective: it completely silenced the speakers even when interference from extreme arcing was injected into the mains socket directly feeding the audio gear ...
Went down that road a little over 10 years ago. Isolation 1:1 TX with ES shield, over-sized core to keep magnetisation levels in the more linear part of the BH curve for less distortion. Multiple stages of CM and DM filtering.
Improvements noted each time stages were added. At the end the difference between raw mains was quite astonishing.
Put SLA batteries on the equipment and that smoked the mains filter unit. Dismantled the mains filter to use the case for a battery charger for the SLA batteries.
Quite amusing exercise. For most people SLA batteries are not practical, so conditioned AC is worth considering.
Sorry Frank once mixed they can not be separated only filtered together by the same amount. A rumble filter is a lot cheaper.
You need to take a listen/experiment with them to understand the subjective changes.
Pavel, you are familiar with listening to lead, tin, copper, aluminium, steel, iron, ferrite, boron, arsenic, phosphorus, silicon, glass, epoxy, ceramics, polyester, polypropylene, polyethylene, teflon, etc, etc, etc.
Other elements and compounds have different properties and different consequential sounds.
The BQPs contain elements and compounds that you/most are not generally familiar with.
Just ignore the website nonsense and listen for yourself.
I am not endorsing BQPs because I consider the price somewhat excessive, AND I have heard/experimented with what I consider to be a much better solution, both sonically and economically.
That said, I do recognise and appreciate Mr Bybee's invention.
Dan.
I've said this before. While I don't know what Bybees do, I had a guy want them in a filtration device I made for him. It was the only "upgrade" left.
What do they do? **** if I know, but I promise they do something.
Audience Adept uses non-x-rated capacitors and they're one of the biggest dealers there is for filters. However I can tell you one of the bigger complications isn't the type of the capacitor, but rather how many and how much.
This should be a different topic, but ironically this is the first thread where it's being taken remotely seriously.
What do they do? **** if I know, but I promise they do something.
Audience Adept uses non-x-rated capacitors and they're one of the biggest dealers there is for filters. However I can tell you one of the bigger complications isn't the type of the capacitor, but rather how many and how much.
This should be a different topic, but ironically this is the first thread where it's being taken remotely seriously.
If you look at the datasheets for X2 caps, their max pulse rate is much higher than other caps. Say you have two appliances with a cap across the line. One is plugged in, and the other gets plugged in as the line voltage peaks. You now have one super-low impedance capacitor discharging into another, which can result in hundreds or thousands of amps in an instant. Typical caps can struggle to stay within their ratings even if you do nothing but flip the switch when the line voltage happens to crest.
Current pump?
That's a complication of using enough capacitance to make a difference, the interaction qualities.
In the US a 220 volt line nominally is 240 volts RMS AC that would require a DC rated capacitor of 680 volts. Of course the line can swing higher which is why testing is done at 2,500 volts.
Now in a filter application the inductors would tend to decrease some peaks.
Years back someone did a study as to why synchronous motor clocks failed. It came out that the insulation on the coil failed due to high voltage spikes on the AC line.
I used to service tape players that used a motor run capacitor, the capacitors failed regularly. They were rated at 250 VAC.
Now I did build a 60 hertz resonant AC line filter using loudspeaker inductors and motor run capacitors. This were fused and sealed in a rated steel enclosure. The tuning switches were rated at 30 amps and would weld if switched during operation.
The unit did make an easily noticed improvement in the sound system.
Other filtering approaches did not work as well.
Now in a filter application the inductors would tend to decrease some peaks.
Years back someone did a study as to why synchronous motor clocks failed. It came out that the insulation on the coil failed due to high voltage spikes on the AC line.
I used to service tape players that used a motor run capacitor, the capacitors failed regularly. They were rated at 250 VAC.
Now I did build a 60 hertz resonant AC line filter using loudspeaker inductors and motor run capacitors. This were fused and sealed in a rated steel enclosure. The tuning switches were rated at 30 amps and would weld if switched during operation.
The unit did make an easily noticed improvement in the sound system.
Other filtering approaches did not work as well.
George,
I didn't work on repairs of planes unless you call my having to make special tooling at a moments notice to replace a part on a plane that was no longer available. I had more than once when somebody drove over an access panel or something like that on a plane with a forklift and I had to make tooling to make replacement parts in a couple of day, AOG was the term used. Even made tooling for B52 replacement panels no longer available anywhere anymore. Mostly I have worked in development in my professional career. Now I have been brought into a new group to be the industrial designer/ mechanical designer. The offer was to good to pass up, 20% of the company and a free hand at product design. Working on quotes for tooling and production of up to one million units per year at the moment and they just threw me another project a couple days ago. Opportunities come from the strangest places, this started from someone remembering my work from over 20 years ago, they came and found me.
Dvv,
You have one of the most knowledgeable designers of line filtering right on this thread. Richard Marsh has done much work in this area and I would say his designs seem to be more advanced in execution though I can't stand the company that is selling his products. That has nothing to do with the fact that there are many on this thread that understand this type of design better than many will ever have the knowledge base to understand. I can name at least three plus on here but will leave them to make their own comments.
I didn't work on repairs of planes unless you call my having to make special tooling at a moments notice to replace a part on a plane that was no longer available. I had more than once when somebody drove over an access panel or something like that on a plane with a forklift and I had to make tooling to make replacement parts in a couple of day, AOG was the term used. Even made tooling for B52 replacement panels no longer available anywhere anymore. Mostly I have worked in development in my professional career. Now I have been brought into a new group to be the industrial designer/ mechanical designer. The offer was to good to pass up, 20% of the company and a free hand at product design. Working on quotes for tooling and production of up to one million units per year at the moment and they just threw me another project a couple days ago. Opportunities come from the strangest places, this started from someone remembering my work from over 20 years ago, they came and found me.
Dvv,
You have one of the most knowledgeable designers of line filtering right on this thread. Richard Marsh has done much work in this area and I would say his designs seem to be more advanced in execution though I can't stand the company that is selling his products. That has nothing to do with the fact that there are many on this thread that understand this type of design better than many will ever have the knowledge base to understand. I can name at least three plus on here but will leave them to make their own comments.
But not too seriously, because as far as I can gather, most ardent objectioists have in fact never tried it themselves, they seem locked onto the sales blurb. If I cared muc for sales blurb, I probably wouldn't try anthing at all, because it seems a given that copywriters get too enthusiastic, even orgasmic, far too fast. And these are usually people who know next to nothing about electronics in general.
John liked the Bybees and said so. He was immediately ripped apart by a few people here who object to anything he writes, and moreover, who deny the value of anything they do not immediately recognize. I am all the more disappointed as that group has some seasoned and well proved people I would expect to keep a more open mind, stupidly written ads notwithstanding. Has anyone ever seen a truthful ad stating the naked truth like: "This is just another run-off-the-mill device, everybody has a model so we had to have one too. It doesn't sound like much, but it shure looks good and for this dough, that's enough".
There is much vanity at work here, a few of them could make a good amp, but would be insulted to the bone if you then said that an external power filter improved their sound. I've seen this effect at work many a time. Only once in my entire life did I run into an amp/preamp designer who said that my filter was a lesson to him because it improved the sound of his work, and in his view that was not supposed to be possible, so he'd have to rethink his internal power supplies. Not that my filter is any work of genius, it's built on principles well known for over 70 years, but I did avoid all cost-cutting, if it needs a more expensive part, it will get it, period.
I know one amplifier builder that claims due to purely the fact there is more capacitance on the DC side for the PSU in amplifiers, that no amount of line to neutral capacitance could compete at any reasonable level.
And yet, it does, repeatedly; enough so that reviewers and skeptics still end up using them. His amps sound good, but I almost wonder if he even knows why since he's clearly wrong on this subject.
What page did this thread end the discussion of the actual preamp? I've been sent numerous references to this thread, never once did it entail anything to do with the Blowtorch.
And yet, it does, repeatedly; enough so that reviewers and skeptics still end up using them. His amps sound good, but I almost wonder if he even knows why since he's clearly wrong on this subject.
What page did this thread end the discussion of the actual preamp? I've been sent numerous references to this thread, never once did it entail anything to do with the Blowtorch.
Unfotunately, far too many comments depend as much on who posted them as what was actually said. That is NEVER good. As for Richard Marsh, I have noticed that he is conspicuosly absent from the current discussion.
You know, whether I understand how something works or not has nothing to do with whether it really does work or not. But I don't write something off just because I don't understand how it works, much less because so and so mentioned it. I prefer to give it a go hands on, listen for myself and try to find the difference. Sometimes I do, sometimes I don't, but that's how it goes, I end up richer by one more experience at least, so to me, it's a win-win situation. I dismiss nothing on basis of surface data, and least of all on basis of the sales blurb, which I usually never read anyway. For example, I have never liked NAD as a company, after their 3020 amp I never heard anything from them that didn't make me yawn, yet I ended up with their CD player because they did make me look up with interest and did let me hear what I don't get to hear too often. So, my general outlook on the campany aside, I bought it and never looked back. If I held on to my general view, I would have made a hell of a mistake, because nothing else in that price bracket available to me for an audition even comes close. The point being, a closed mind may eventually lead you to situations where you might be making a mistake without even knowing it.
Dvv,
I always say that some of the best lessons are the failure we have, they make you look for what went wrong and often you discover something you would never have found if everything went perfect to begin with.
As far as advertising goes we all know that most people who write that text are just doing a job and may know nothing about what they write about. At the same time I think a manufacturer has a duty to weed out the outright lies in any advertisement and most of what Bybee does print to sell their product is just purely misinformation and lies. This is no different than someone telling you to take a vitamin because it is an essential element we all need but then add that it will cure cancer or some other pure lie. I would never trust that manufacturer in anything they say, the lie is bigger than the truth you could say.
Anyone who says that we just don't understand about some new element is pulling your leg most of the time. there is little in that regard that is not known by learned people. New combinations of know elements is not the same as saying you now have some unobtainium material that nobody else knows about and it a military secret. Watch what happens if that is truly the case, that person would be imprisoned so fast you wouldn't know what happened to that person. Reality says that Bybee is a charlatan, a snake oil salesman with a background in military work he uses to make his statements sound real, they just don't hold water.
I'll leave it to people like Max to tell us that he can hear the device in his circuit chain. I won't argue that fact, but the explanation of what is truly going on makes no sense. Those claims are to easy for someone with the knowledge and skills to disprove by simple noise analysis. The claims are just to outrageous to ignore.
I always say that some of the best lessons are the failure we have, they make you look for what went wrong and often you discover something you would never have found if everything went perfect to begin with.
As far as advertising goes we all know that most people who write that text are just doing a job and may know nothing about what they write about. At the same time I think a manufacturer has a duty to weed out the outright lies in any advertisement and most of what Bybee does print to sell their product is just purely misinformation and lies. This is no different than someone telling you to take a vitamin because it is an essential element we all need but then add that it will cure cancer or some other pure lie. I would never trust that manufacturer in anything they say, the lie is bigger than the truth you could say.
Anyone who says that we just don't understand about some new element is pulling your leg most of the time. there is little in that regard that is not known by learned people. New combinations of know elements is not the same as saying you now have some unobtainium material that nobody else knows about and it a military secret. Watch what happens if that is truly the case, that person would be imprisoned so fast you wouldn't know what happened to that person. Reality says that Bybee is a charlatan, a snake oil salesman with a background in military work he uses to make his statements sound real, they just don't hold water.
I'll leave it to people like Max to tell us that he can hear the device in his circuit chain. I won't argue that fact, but the explanation of what is truly going on makes no sense. Those claims are to easy for someone with the knowledge and skills to disprove by simple noise analysis. The claims are just to outrageous to ignore.
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