Our house was built in 1906. At some point electricity and indoor plumbing along with central heat was added. The original wiring was tube and knob style. Much of it has been redone and there is a proper 200 amp service. The old wiring with a wandering neutral was not always connected to properly when making updates so there is some AC on the neutral and ground bus bars. This has always worried me thinking it could damage electronics.
Was thinking I could run a new hifi circuit with it's own earth ground to work around this issue. What do you all think?
Was thinking I could run a new hifi circuit with it's own earth ground to work around this issue. What do you all think?
I'd be more concerned about the dodgy wiring burning down the house when loaded by something other than Hifi.
Volts on the ground and neutral relative to what exactly?
Volts on the ground and neutral relative to what exactly?
Hire an experienced electrician and do it right.
Dedicated hifi circuit?
Not a bad idea, of course...
I don't know what this looks like, but if it is an ancient electrical home network, I would second the other members here who advised you to renew it...
Our house is from 1850, but home electrical network has been rebuilt completely in the early 1990s, in compliance with the new norms (earth everywhere, low resistance earth connection for the house itself, differential circuit breakers, etc...).
That said, I nonetheless decided to build a dedicated Hi-Fi power conditioner for my little auditorium. I called it "The KRAFTWERK Unit" (in German, Kraftwerk means Electrical Plant, plus it's the name of one of my favourite EM band).
T
Man who serve as his own lawyer have fool for a client.
Get an electrician.
Get an electrician.
Nice work there tube, way over my pay grade though. We gutted and remodeled the kitchen a few years back. Did the work ourselves. My wiring on that job was inspected by an electrician and signed off on.
Now that 'powerwalls' and other home batteries are becoming commonplace, I'm surprised people are not talking about a separate inverter to generate 230V for their HiFi.
You might try looking for a used "Monster HTPS 7000 MkII" Its a very good unit designed by a couple of our forum members for Monster. One of the best power conditioners ever made for audio, some folks have claimed. Besides, schematics were posted in the forum just in case one of the units ever needed servicing. Main problems with them are finding a used MkII version, and the shipping weight costs.
They tend to generate a lot of noise that then gets into and affects the audio system. OTOH, the original PS Audio Regenerators were linear amplifiers of a 50Hz or 60Hz sine wave. So they made a very nice, clean AC line waveform.
Inverters vary a lot, it would be interesting to see how easy it was to get a clean output from a 'pure sinewave inverter' from DC, compared to cleaning up the mains. At least your own inverter could be locked to a stable 50 or 60 Hz. Or maybe some other frequency would be better...
These days though, the proper way forwards is to have equipment which is immune to whatever rubbish it's fed as a supply.
These days though, the proper way forwards is to have equipment which is immune to whatever rubbish it's fed as a supply.
For the most part, inverters are a solution in search of a problem. But they bring their issues with them.
Inverters are not "a solution in search of a problem", they are what everyone uses when they have DC and want AC and/or a higher voltage.
Increasingly, they are everywhere as more people get solar power etc, so you will have the 'issues they bring with them' on your mains whether you like it or not.
How many HiFi amps based on last century design practices are suffering from switchmode artefacts on the mains?
Increasingly, they are everywhere as more people get solar power etc, so you will have the 'issues they bring with them' on your mains whether you like it or not.
How many HiFi amps based on last century design practices are suffering from switchmode artefacts on the mains?
I would definitely have a isolated circuit installed I am an electrician if I was close to you in Cleveland Ohio I would help you out. A lot of the knob and tube circuits are all over the house you might be sharing your outlet with the refrigerator and getting hermonics which is definitely not good for your audio equipment. And do not add a ground rod to ground your equipment. That is not how grounding works the ground rod that is bonded to your main service only serves one purpose and that is for lightning discharge preventing lightning from entering your home. equipment grounds that ground your outlets serve a different purpose nothing more than a alternate path for electrical faults. two different systems people tend to not understand. There are safety issues in doing it that way. let's say you pound a ground rod and hook your stereo equipment up. If you're ground rod at your main breaker was to fail during an electrical storm electrical current from lightning could flow through your whole electrical system and make its way to your amplifier finding its way to the alternative ground source that you have made causing lots of damage possibly burning your house down. I've been in this industry 30 years I have actually witnessed several jobs that due to improper ground theory has caused significant damage due to lightning. I stress you have someone qualified that understands come and do this right to protect your equipment
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note that "motosapian' is near Lake Superior.
and Yep. audiophiles should not be concerned with ground rods in the Earth. They have almost nothing to do with day-to-day AC power quality.
and Yep. audiophiles should not be concerned with ground rods in the Earth. They have almost nothing to do with day-to-day AC power quality.