It’s great that these Isoteks have worked for you, though it’s worth remembering that in most circumstances they are not required and can actually make things worse. They are doing a different job to a Naim power supply; stripping out what shouldn’t be there (mains borne noise) rather than improving the performance of the equipment itself. They should not be portrayed as a universal recommendation.
But you guys are singing the praises of other power boards doing wonders on another thread?
That’s true but the MusicWorks block being discussed is not a conditioner. That’s the crucial difference.
So, what does it do that improves SQ?
there’s no filtering ( in the music works) as in a main conditionner like the sirius. My dealer stopped the isotek products because they removed the noise but also the involvement and life of the music with naim components.
Try to focus on other aspects than noise, like dynamics, prat, urgency…and put again your past powerblock to compare.
However anyone can really predict what will be the effects. Maybe it will work for you.
So, basically people have no issue with a music-works power board that somehow improves sound quality on Naim systems for a reason that no one can provide, but an iso-tek power board that improves sound quality on Naim systems isn’t recommended because they actually disclose on the box why it improves sound quality…
My money is that they both do similar things.
They clearly do different things. The Isotek has filtering and surge protection circuitry in it. The Musicworks does not, it has a star earth arrangement and vibration isolation, but no additional circuitry.
Yes, well it’s all very interesting. One is vogue because it distributes power without adding further noise pollution, whereas the other does that and also reduces noise pollution that is already there and people have a problem with it. Things have moved on from the old days when all filters compromise dynamics. Get a good one, and it will do wonders in reducing the noise floor and improve dynamics.
To me, this is nothing to do with vogue. I see them both as expensive, ugly things that I would prefer not to have cluttering up the floor. They both do different things, either of which may or may not be useful in a given situation…hell, you can daisy chain one off the other for all I care!
The IsoTek Synchro rebalances a mains sine wave so the Y axis is at zero volts to eliminate DC offset. It is a potential upgrade to IsoTek’s power distribution units, but should also work with any PDU. It may silence buzzing transformers. It did in a demo.
Is that really what it does? I didn’t realise it was a synchronous regenerator or a dynamic attenuator.
I thought it simply applied a high pass filter to the mains (e.g. by putting a capacitor in series with the mains) so that if presented with an asymmetric mains waveform (i.e. one half cycle having more attenuation than the other) it would shift the waveform’s crossing point in the opposite direction so that there would be no resultant effective DC component present… but the distortion to the sine wave would still remain.
there is a lot of non filtered powerblocks, from 100 GBP to 20k. Like powerigel, eros, vibex, furutech, nordost…
But there’s no absolute rules as i said, some like the isotek products with naim. Try just to see if it restrains or not some life and involvement.
The Isotek people have been smoking the holy herb thats been steeped in arctic viper oil extract. … "replacing the mains sine wave on the zero volts line"
Its a DC blocking filter series capacitor with a parallel bridge diode - something you & I know all about.
The ‘Syncro’ - the alloy can in a power line - is just that, the ‘Syncro Uni’ (in the picture) I suspect might be much the same, at £500 its a lot cheaper, I suspect because it does not include the attached cables & plugs
Inside the ‘Uni’ the main components are inside a potted block & what looks like some input smoothing or surge protection.
1According to IsoTek, Syncro incorporates DC-cancelling electronics that rebalance the mains sine wave on the zero volts line. The circuit synchronises the mains supply to provide a perfectly symmetrical sine wave,
I have heard it do what it claims albeit in a necessarily contrived demo. They also showed a graph on an oscilloscope plot that seemed consistent with the above.
Just as I say in the previous post - translated from marketing speak into plain english, its a DC blocking filter.
Thanks Mike
I like the idea of Pure Sine Wave and Apple recommended I use a PSW UPS with my computer kit. I chose a UK made one from from Power Inspired.
My knowledge of how the Syncro works? None really. It’s a black box. IsoTek seem to imply it gives me a PSW for my HiFi with no DC offset.
I’m delighted to read an independent view. I only wish there was a photo of what is under the bonnet. I suspect it is the same as the very expensive mains lead with a can in the middle.
That is highly unlikely in a box that size unless it is a very expensive box!.
If you are faced with an asymmetric mains waveform (i.e. the usual cause of an apparent ‘DC offset’ in the mains, to obtain a pure sine wave (at decent power levels) from that is a complex and very expensive operation. The normal ‘DC blocker’ doesn’t do anything to improve the shape of the waveform - it still caries just the same amount of harmonic distortion above 0Hz.
Mike, you really are missing the point. Have you not realised that part of its magic is that it contains K.E.R.P.© (Kirchoff’s Equal Resistance Path), a technology developed from IsoTek’s® high-end Titan and Nova mains conditioning units to ensure optimum power sharing from one socket to the next? If you don’t have K.E.R.P. your really don’t know what your system is capable of.
Kirchoff’s Resistance Actualisation Path would have been so much better.
Hi TB, how the Syncro is quite simple, its a simple basic DC blocking filter, see attached diagram.
I’ve have my own (plus a few refinements) for a number of years, it works in that its removes any asymmetric sine wave distortion & the resultant effects on transformer noise levels - provided the transformer is not ‘naturally’ noisy .
In my case I also noted an improvement in system SQ (something I was not expecting)
What is “Kirchhoff’s Equal Resistance Path”?
I fully understand Kirchhoff’s laws, and they mention nothing about any “Equal Resistance Path”.
I also agree, “Kirchoff’s Resistance Actualisation Path would have been so much better”.