ES9018 signal drops on switching home appliances On and OFF

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Hi Guys,

I have a Valve DAC on es9018 chip that is very sensitive to our home appliances specifically washing machine and a table lamp. When those switched On or Off the sound of the DAC drops in silence for about half a second to the second and than comes back. Is there anything can be done to solve this nuisance !? May be some sort of capacitors to add or a Filter before an internal power supply etc.?

Many thanks for any advise.
 
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Add a mains filter - it doesn't have to be complicated or expensive. If the DAC (or its cabling) is poorly engineered (quite common for 'audiophile' items) then it might be picking up radiated emissions; if so, fix the problem (e.g. used proper screened cables, add RF filters).

If you have problems with other appliances too (e.g lamps dimming when the washing machine starts) then get your house wiring checked by an electrician.
 
Mains filter - one case took me two filters in series to handle the surge. Eventually just changed my DAC from a China brand to a Marantz and poof problem disappear.

If possible, put the DAC on a different circuit breaker than the rest. Although the washing machine is probably on a different breaker already.


That is very cheap for a power regenerator.

Although I have my doubts:

An externally hosted image should be here but it was not working when we last tested it.
 
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Those are for protection of sudden voltage surges/spikes. Most power strips have that. What you need is some kind of filter/conditioner that will eliminate small brownouts.

That would be something with automatic voltage regulation (AVR), or a good deal of capacitance. I use a "pure sine wave" UPS, and you will likely notice the sound quality difference. Even if not, it works for spikes, blackouts, and brownouts.

As for filters I will let others chime in on that.

(To clarify, by "Some of the UPS have smooth AVR and stair step when on battery" I meant that they have smooth AVR when plugged in and stair step only when running on battery")
 
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Is the lamp by chance a CFL or LED? A quick google shows that they can have quite high inrush currents that could cause a mini brownout.

You could try a regular incandescent bulb and see what happens. Google sez they have inrush current too, but it might be less than CFL/LED
 
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The interruption is not due to the mains 'spike', it is due to an interruption of the data stream to the 9018. I don't know what board you're using, but my Generation 1 Buffalo has this issue when on a shared circuit. The sync light simply disappears and comes back on.

When on a dedicated circuit, it exhibits no such issues. The line is separated all the way from the distribution box and was originally intended to power an airconditioner. Now it is a dedicated audio line.

The PLL lock setting on the DAC board does alleviate the problem slightly. But inductive loads like ceiling fans and refrigerators still cause the data un-lock issue. I have not seen this behaviour on other DACs on the same circuit - even the Gustard X12 and Benchmark DAC2 which use the same chip, so I will presume a bug in the board that causes it to be so.

'Circuit' above refers to mains connection, not the internal DAC layout.
 
Hi Sangram

The data stream drops caused by big electric motors in home appliances. The ES9018 interrupts in sound due to its high sensitivity to mains sudden spikes or noises generated by gas boiler switching On or Off and our washing machine etc. as they have a heavy coil motors that produce quite large spikes to the mains or a brief high-voltage impulse into the power line. You only get a clicking sound instead of just a steady buzzing.
Now to prove that I had other DACs that do NOT react on any of our home appliances and the house is new about 9 years old since build. Clicking and popping noises in our Hi-Fi are surely to do with an electric motors going On and Off.

Is anyone using or have an experience or sonic different in Audio by using FURMAN M-10x E power conditioner? or their M-10Lx E model?

Looks as users of Furman conditioners speak positively on their experiences.
 
I have 'the same' problem. I use Peachtree DAC-iT (ES9022) with Teradak U9VA PSU.
I have a UPS and a spike buster in front of AC main line of the linear PSU (teradak). This doesn't help me and the dac still stops momentarily when fan/ac/refrigerator starts or stops.
As suggested by DF96, I'll try out EMI/RFI filter at the mains end.

Sent from my Nexus 5 using Tapatalk
 
Hi, There are some ES9018 DAC models are more sensitive than other ES9018 DACs as some do not react on household appliances due to more power regulators etc within the DAC design. Last month I have tried a well regarded Weiduka AC8.8 3000W 15A Advanced Audio Power Purifier Filter which completely FAILED to cure the spikes issues and on my mid-High End system I haven`t noticed any improvements or at least wasn`t any worse than I have now with silver mains, interconnects etc. I will be TESTING another mains filter that to what I know, should solve this problems and if you like I will let you know if it really works for curing a sudden burst / noise in mains. I would know it by the end of these month.

Regards
 
Hi, There are some ES9018 DAC models are more sensitive than other ES9018 DACs as some do not react on household appliances due to more power regulators etc within the DAC design. Last month I have tried a well regarded Weiduka AC8.8 3000W 15A Advanced Audio Power Purifier Filter which completely FAILED to cure the spikes issues and on my mid-High End system I haven`t noticed any improvements or at least wasn`t any worse than I have now with silver mains, interconnects etc. I will be TESTING another mains filter that to what I know, should solve this problems and if you like I will let you know if it really works for curing a sudden burst / noise in mains. I would know it by the end of these month.

Regards
Thanks MykhailoM. I'll be waiting for your test results. Meanwhile, I'll get in touch with Peachtree guys. Will update accordingly.

Sent from my Nexus 5 using Tapatalk
 
Not really about which sabre DAC being more sensitive or not. To date, I have encountered this on a PCM2702 DAC, a CS4398 DAC, and for the record an ADSL modem. But if it happens on a $1000 DAC that would raise some eyebrows.

You want the filter to be not just on the DAC, but as well as everything connected to it.
 
Last month I have tried a well regarded Weiduka AC8.8 3000W 15A Advanced Audio Power Purifier Filter which completely FAILED to cure the spikes issues and on my mid-High End system I haven`t noticed any improvements or at least wasn`t any worse than I have now with silver mains, interconnects etc. I will be TESTING another mains filter that to what I know, should solve this problems and if you like I will let you know if it really works for curing a sudden burst / noise in mains. I would know it by the end of these month.

I still allege that a UPS with _AVR_ could cure the instability. Unless I missed something it seems so far posters have tried UPS and filters but none with true voltage regulation.

It would be worth your while to chat online with cyberpower and see which have stair step outputs always and which have them only when your home's power goes out.

You might try to find a big box store near you that has this or similar: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00429N192/ref=twister_B007UL3ZEK?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1
It is a "pure sine" box. No harm in trying and returning it. I saw a youtube video a while back that showed great looking waveforms on and off wall power.
 
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