BTW- Anyone try a power cord other than a standard PC power cord?
I know this takes a back seat to so many other adjustments and tweaks. However, in 10 minutes, I made a simple power cord with 3-conductor electrical wire, Marinco and Watt Gate plugs. There was a nice improvement, particularly in the stability of the image. Also the sound stage opened up a bit more or it might just have been because the image was more stable.
Complex music became more interesting and less clouded.
Anyway, without getting to crazy about the topic, I'd like to hear your thoughts.
I know this takes a back seat to so many other adjustments and tweaks. However, in 10 minutes, I made a simple power cord with 3-conductor electrical wire, Marinco and Watt Gate plugs. There was a nice improvement, particularly in the stability of the image. Also the sound stage opened up a bit more or it might just have been because the image was more stable.
Complex music became more interesting and less clouded.
Anyway, without getting to crazy about the topic, I'd like to hear your thoughts.
I use the less expensive Marinco models and even some Chinese knockoffs. they all offer better grip then any off the shelf stuff. Cannot hurt, and you have better control of quality of the contact and the wire. I also swapped my sockets for the red Hubbell hospital grade ones. It's not necessarily about sound improvement but better engineering for me.
I did. It's a CAT5 umbilical.
Uses a CB radio connector or 4 pin DIN from Radio Shack. Build quality of the DIN plugs is suprising. Has a screw down nut to lock in place.Could probably find the same parts from Mouser or Digikey for half the cost, but didn't want to wait.
Whole embilical cost around $16, not including the CAT5 cable.
You can find isolated ground outlets at Home Depot. They are the ones that are orange and have a green triangle on the face of the outlet.
My friend pickup the same thing, but with a built-in line filter from McMaster Carr for somehwere between $50 and $60 each.
Pretty much the same stuff as hi-end outlets, minus the cryo and Tesla treatments.
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It's been more than 1.5 years since I got the parts for my Pearl II and now I have finally started the project. To refresh my somewhat rusty soldering skills (not done something serious in over 20 years) I started with the power supply. This is the standard version as mentioned in the article by Wayne. Mine has a 2x 24V 50VA toroid in it, and the output is around 38V DC unloaded. Hopefully this will drop a few volts when loaded so the regulators will have an easier task.
I got HIFI 2000 enclosures for both the power supply and the Pearl II. Unfortunately I messed up the front panel of the power supply when making the hole for the switch, so I had to re-polish it. It does not look the same anymore, but fortunately it will be spaced apart from the enclosure of the Pearl II.
Some pics:
and the inside:
I got HIFI 2000 enclosures for both the power supply and the Pearl II. Unfortunately I messed up the front panel of the power supply when making the hole for the switch, so I had to re-polish it. It does not look the same anymore, but fortunately it will be spaced apart from the enclosure of the Pearl II.
Some pics:
An externally hosted image should be here but it was not working when we last tested it.
and the inside:
An externally hosted image should be here but it was not working when we last tested it.
Wellerman
I used .15 on my build and Wayne suggested that on the similiar original Pearl build, C11? from memory
You really want to stay away from table low freguency resonances 2,3 hz and the tonearm/cartridge 8/11 hz resonance. This combination is best not amplified with the huge gain availble here, and hence, the intended rolloff
I think Wayne mentioned he used on his pesonal pre, he used the low end fiter in the ON position (XP20?)
What is important just as much or even more is hum. If you are getting any at all, don't expect bass that will plummet down to the basement frequencys like it should with any kind of serious detail
Regards
David
I used .15 on my build and Wayne suggested that on the similiar original Pearl build, C11? from memory
You really want to stay away from table low freguency resonances 2,3 hz and the tonearm/cartridge 8/11 hz resonance. This combination is best not amplified with the huge gain availble here, and hence, the intended rolloff
I think Wayne mentioned he used on his pesonal pre, he used the low end fiter in the ON position (XP20?)
What is important just as much or even more is hum. If you are getting any at all, don't expect bass that will plummet down to the basement frequencys like it should with any kind of serious detail
Regards
David
Well, here is a picture of what will be the right channel of my Pearl II:
I still have to make some connections and then will check everything again before I dare to connect it to the PSU. And then hopefully I will get some voltages as they should be.
I left out C7 and C15, R15 is a jumper and I used 0.15 for C12 to get a bit less subsonic rolloff (I hope that will only influence the frequency < 50Hz as I do not want a loudness effect or something like that)
An externally hosted image should be here but it was not working when we last tested it.
I still have to make some connections and then will check everything again before I dare to connect it to the PSU. And then hopefully I will get some voltages as they should be.
I left out C7 and C15, R15 is a jumper and I used 0.15 for C12 to get a bit less subsonic rolloff (I hope that will only influence the frequency < 50Hz as I do not want a loudness effect or something like that)