Bradstone from the description of symptoms, if adding a power conditioner makes your symptoms go away it is likely to be just an extraneous coincidence. Try contact cleaner e.g. Deoxit D5 on all of your connections. BTW don't take the trolls in this thread seriously.
Since you need only clean power, why don't you look at constant voltage transformers AKA ferro resonant transformers?
You can get a 1:1 transformer. And it cleans the power supply to some extent. If it works, it works for ages
Regards
You can get a 1:1 transformer. And it cleans the power supply to some extent. If it works, it works for ages
Regards
Most likely causes are dirty contacts, poor earthing, too low pre amp output, bad coupling capacitors between stages, physically corroded contacts.
Try an EMI filter first, batteries need a lot of mental attention.
And if you have metal casings, just see that the equipment is properly earthed.
Here, a quick and dirty check is that a 200 W incandescent bulb should glow full bright between phase and earth, same brightness as between phase and neutral. Please keep your system off power when checking earth connection.
The rest of the discussion can veer towards impassioned oratory....and has been done many times.
Try an EMI filter first, batteries need a lot of mental attention.
And if you have metal casings, just see that the equipment is properly earthed.
Here, a quick and dirty check is that a 200 W incandescent bulb should glow full bright between phase and earth, same brightness as between phase and neutral. Please keep your system off power when checking earth connection.
The rest of the discussion can veer towards impassioned oratory....and has been done many times.
I live in an off grid house. Its a 24 volt 1000ah lead acid deep cycle system solar charged. I use a 2500 watt pure sine wave inverter.one thing to think about is the noise from the fans on the inverter it is not insignificant.
Fans should be on the sine wave side, no electrical noise then as most are squirrel cage motors.
DC fans have an inverter to make AC, then rotate the fans. That can be noisy, but not so much as to cause electrical issues in an amp, which may be physically distant.
Physical noise is a different issue.
A line filter is the best way ahead, ferro resonant and medical grade isolation transformers are the next level.
Pure battery supply is going to a very high level in my opinion, at least if grid power is available.
DC fans have an inverter to make AC, then rotate the fans. That can be noisy, but not so much as to cause electrical issues in an amp, which may be physically distant.
Physical noise is a different issue.
A line filter is the best way ahead, ferro resonant and medical grade isolation transformers are the next level.
Pure battery supply is going to a very high level in my opinion, at least if grid power is available.
In order to improve power quality, one may use the following with increasing order of severity of the problem:
1) CM / DM filters (cheap)
2) Online UPS
3) Battery power (inverter + battery)
Well, that would trip the ELCB, won't that ? Maybe the next advice that follows would be to bypass it !
1) CM / DM filters (cheap)
2) Online UPS
3) Battery power (inverter + battery)
Well, that would trip the ELCB, won't that ? Maybe the next advice that follows would be to bypass it !
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An alternative to the separate inverter / battery / charger system is a double conversion UPS unit. They convert the AC to DC, then back again, to provide isolation, noise immunity and voltage / frequency regulation.
At my job, I have installed several on voltage / noise sensitive industrial equipment and they have worked out well. Most recent was a Tripp-Lite 3KVA, 220V unit which cost about $1600 USD.
Haven't tried one with audio equipment, but I do think they are technically superior to the similarly priced "audio" power conditioners I have seen.
At my job, I have installed several on voltage / noise sensitive industrial equipment and they have worked out well. Most recent was a Tripp-Lite 3KVA, 220V unit which cost about $1600 USD.
Haven't tried one with audio equipment, but I do think they are technically superior to the similarly priced "audio" power conditioners I have seen.
You are grossly over thinking trying to find magic where there is none.
Any half decent filter and DC filter is all you can possibly need. If you have a ground loop, FIX IT, don't look for magic. If you have equipment so crappy it can't use mains power, get something decent.
Most UPS have really really ugly outputs. Far worse than mains. When they say "pure" the mean they are not square wave switchers like cheap computer UPS used to be.
Any half decent filter and DC filter is all you can possibly need. If you have a ground loop, FIX IT, don't look for magic. If you have equipment so crappy it can't use mains power, get something decent.
Most UPS have really really ugly outputs. Far worse than mains. When they say "pure" the mean they are not square wave switchers like cheap computer UPS used to be.
On youtube, this guy has a lot if information on batteries, control/management controllers, etc... it says solar, but most of the videos are about the non-solar components. He opens batteries, controllers to see what junk or good parts and practices go into them.
https://youtube.com/c/WillProwse
https://youtube.com/c/WillProwse
Being completely removed from mains power is hard to do in most houses. Weak mains AC fields get everywhere.
I have never seen a "pure sine" inverter with noise that wasn't several orders of magnitude worse than what comes out of the mains socket. Inverters are inherently noisy because they have a bunch of transistors switching; either they're square-wave-ish (switching at 100/120Hz) or they're "sine" which is basically a buck converter with sine wave output, which means there's switching noise at a few kHz, or if you're lucky, 100kHz+.
Power conditioners can work, but they are not a panacea. Almost certainly, you do not have noisy mains power problems that can be solved by a conditioner unless you can point to interference at specific times e.g. when large nearby machinery is starting up. Can you show the noise on a scope? No? Then don't bother with the conditioner. If you can observe noise on the mains, the specifics of the conditioner will need to be targeted to that kind of noise. The only thing that dropping a wad of cash on an "audiophile mains conditioner" is going to do is make some grifter richer.
Don't forget that most power supplies are inherently very conditioning anyway. They are either a transformer (very inductive, not much HF gets through) or they are a switching regulator. If you have a switching supply, the noise at its output will be almost entirely independent of what is occurring on your mains side. Putting a "pure sine" inverter in front of a switching supply is equally pointless; you're just putting two different switching regulators one after the other.
The concept of 50-60Hz magnetic fields in your house affecting your audio signal is magical thinking. At most it tells you that someone has a poor information diet.
Power conditioners can work, but they are not a panacea. Almost certainly, you do not have noisy mains power problems that can be solved by a conditioner unless you can point to interference at specific times e.g. when large nearby machinery is starting up. Can you show the noise on a scope? No? Then don't bother with the conditioner. If you can observe noise on the mains, the specifics of the conditioner will need to be targeted to that kind of noise. The only thing that dropping a wad of cash on an "audiophile mains conditioner" is going to do is make some grifter richer.
Don't forget that most power supplies are inherently very conditioning anyway. They are either a transformer (very inductive, not much HF gets through) or they are a switching regulator. If you have a switching supply, the noise at its output will be almost entirely independent of what is occurring on your mains side. Putting a "pure sine" inverter in front of a switching supply is equally pointless; you're just putting two different switching regulators one after the other.
The concept of 50-60Hz magnetic fields in your house affecting your audio signal is magical thinking. At most it tells you that someone has a poor information diet.
What an absolute audiophile needs is thee phase mains grid...thus he can change his UPS bateries faster...
A pure sine wave is hard to make.
That inverter admits to 3% THD (no conditions specified). That's considerably better than a utility inverter but hardly "pure".
I'd also wonder if it was all at 180Hz (bad enough) or scattered all the way into kHzs.
That inverter admits to 3% THD (no conditions specified). That's considerably better than a utility inverter but hardly "pure".
I'd also wonder if it was all at 180Hz (bad enough) or scattered all the way into kHzs.
For far less than the cost of an inverter, one could likely muster an isolation transformer arrangement with clclc filter after. It isn’t going to make much difference who makes it or for what purpose.
One for each of my systems, at work for the headphone setup, in the setup at home. And yes, it did make a difference with my stuff.
In the old days I’m sure that the incandescent bulbs everywhere helped greatly with damping whatever noise came in on the line, but instead we now have switchers in everything.
One for each of my systems, at work for the headphone setup, in the setup at home. And yes, it did make a difference with my stuff.
In the old days I’m sure that the incandescent bulbs everywhere helped greatly with damping whatever noise came in on the line, but instead we now have switchers in everything.
Several years ago, on behalf of a friend, I researched inverters and concluded that the Exceltech XP series of inverters was worth a look by anyone wishing to walk the inverted path. THD is 2% ...
https://exeltech.com/products/
https://exeltech.com/products/
I have been assisting on another forum with an AC motor driver that suffers from persistent hunting instability when the generated waveform and mains supply are very close in frequency. This is not an audio signal issue.
HA!! oh yeah, a common mode choke is so fancy compared to your 'solution' to the 'problem' you have read about. Don't be ridiculous. 'Flux capacitor'? there is nothing even slightly radical or unusual about a common mode choke. its a reasonably priced, simple and correct solution to an every day engineering problem. It may not be as audiophile approved as batteries, because its far too straight forward and cheap. Using batteries when you dont need to, is just adding a bunch of expense and ongoing maintenance. Depending on the battery chemistry you choose, you are adding what can become a BOMB, for no real benefit.
Fix your ground loop with proper layout if you have ground loop problems. It is perfectly possible to have no hum, even on fairly noisy mains (large building, lots of dimmers etc), without going down these silly rabbit-holes.
What you are experiencing is the usual push-back that any 'solution looking for a problem' gets here and given your reaction; it would appear that you dont internet all that often?
Just stay away from Pure Power unreliable devices. Look for Ac > DC > Ac pure sine wave converters from companies like Kehua from China. Much cheaper and better electronic design.