Advice on mains plug-in options appreciated please

I would greatly appreciate the advice from people here who have more experience than myself on what would be the best option for plugging in my kit.

Here’s the issue. I have one double socket available for the hi-fi and video systems. This socket must also have a floor-standing lamp with an LED bulb plugged into it. So already you can begin to see my problem…

I have two power blocks, a Chord S6 for CD player, amp and Melco music library, and an Atlas block for a Sony Blu Ray player and Apple TV box. The TV is plugged in elsewhere. My thinking was to keep the video components with SMPS plugged into a separate power strip to the hi-fi to minimise electrical noise.

The Chord S6 block will be plugged into one socket of the double. My options are then as follows:

  1. Plug the Atlas block directly into the other socket and plug the lamp into the Atlas block along with Sony Blu Ray player and Apple TV box.

  2. Use a cheap and nasty two-way plug in adapter on the wall socket and plug the lamp into one socket and the Atlas block into the other.

  3. Plug the Atlas block alone into the other socket and run a long 7m extension cord from the lamp to another socket around the room. This would seem the best option - BUT - it means that the extension cable will be unavoidably running parallel to the speaker cables for around 4m. They are shielded Chord Epic cables and on risers so will be around 5 inches from the mains wire.

What do people think would be the best option? Please don’t suggest adding further wall sockets as it’s just not something I can do - far too much upheaval involved because of the crazy positioning of our Consumer Unit. I have to work with what I have and I realise that there will be a compromise. Just hoping to get some different perspectives on what to do. Thanks.

You can add another double socket spurred off the existing one, nothing needs to go back to the cu.

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I’d go with option 1. See if the lamp makes a significant audible difference when switched on. It to does, you have your answer.

You don’t mention what your system is but given the block and the Melco it sounds expensive. Dedicated mains really would be of benefit; if the system is on an outside wall there may be an option to run it around the outside of the house using SWA cable.

Robert,

It won’t work as the existing socket is in a very tight space right in a corner next to a radiator. thanks for the thought though.

Hi, it might still be possible - temporarily disconnect the rad, move the electric socket to the left of the rad, adding one more as a spur, put the rad back.
I appreciate it’s a bit of a mess to do (dust, chasing in to the wall etc) but it might be feasible (without seeing the room layout).

Hi Robert,

I just couldn’t face the upheaval / mess involved I’m afraid. It would mean dismantling all the system etc. I’m looking for an easy way out!

I wonder if option 4 might be to try listening with only the hi-fi plugged in, then try it with everything else plugged in as well.

If you can’t tell the difference then what you have presently is fine.

I think it’s pretty easy to get caught up in what configuration a system ‘should’ have.

I’m listening to Tracy Chapman’s terrific album Crossroads. It sounds sublime, despite the washing drying on a mobile rack next to the left speaker.

Hi HH,

My system is a Sim Audio Moon CD player (just for my other half, who refuses point blank to use any form of streaming!), A Melco N100 music library and D100 Optical Drive/ripper, Plixir linear power supply for the Melco, Sim Audio Moon 340ix integrated amp and Klipsch Forte III speakers. Also Sony multi-region Blu Ray player, 4K Apple TV box and 48 inch 4K Sony TV. The system provides all the audio for video watching. All on a Quadraspire SV rack (bar the speakers obviously!).

Not exactly ultra high end but a lovely sounding system all the same. I just want to get the best I can from it within my financial limits / circumstances. We are retired and further upgrading is out of the question - this is now it. The speakers were really the starting point for this system and what we both really wanted. Had it not been for that I would have gone back to Naim, but a big mis-match with the Klipsch.

Thanks for your advice. I’ll do that as on balance running a long extension lead around the room is hardly an elegant solution, even if the speaker cables were not an issue. When one reaches my age you realise that life is full of compromises - this is just another one of those! All the best.

Yes that’s absolutely true and it’s possible to get quite obsessive about it. Sometimes it takes other people to make one take a step back and to see the wider view. Thanks.

The Graham’s Hydra is excellent but is only approved/designed for use with Naim electronics. Sorry I should have pointed out that I no longer have Naim.

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