@Henryski There aren’t any tubes in there. Are there any UK audio publications that folks consider worthwhile?
Hi TM,
This one looks reassuringly complex and expensive, the Isol-8 Substation HC:
And on the inside:
It was £2,500 when I tried one at home and is £3,000 now.
Lovely aluminium case? Yes
Well built? Yes
Expensive? Yes
Uses Kirchhoff’s Equal Resistance Path at least twice? Probably
Stops Naim transformers from buzzing? Yes for us
Makes the music more involving? Errr no. Slow, dull and boring.
This worked a treat though:
A 5kVA Airlink transformers balanced power supply, installed under the house mains distribution unit in the garage. It doesn’t seem to hum but it does stop all our Naim transformers from doing so. Music sounds sweeter/less coarse, more inviting and involving, without losing that vital sense of rhythm and timing. Cost? About £550. We just wish it used Kirchhoff’s Equal Resistance Path
Happy listening, BF
It was looking good until then.
The AirLink looks a great way to do it. I’ll investigate if l can go that way. Installation in the garage is a great idea.
So no KERP and I guess no OCC (Ohno Continuous Cast) internal wiring nor VAD (Virtual Air Dielectric). Oh well, you can’t have everything.
Ah! but it does weigh 28kg - that’s even more than a 555PS!
I meant the silver cylinder things the wires are going into!
Henry
I always do wonder when i see a fancy looking bit of external kit what’s actually on the inside, and when you find out what’s on the inside you are most always dissapointed. It doesn’t look like 3000 pounds worth does it?
Henry
I actually think these nullify SQ instead of improving it!
They look like capacitors, and if so are for stabilising (smoothing) the power supply.
I see this review of the NDX2 is run on an Iso-Tek filtered power supply
I would expect any effect of a filter in the supply would vary according to the unit it feeds,
HiFi World’s review used an IsoTek EVO3 Mosaic, its not a filter, its a re-generator.
A re-generator is a completely different animal. The £8000 price tag might be a clue, the picture shows the components & to those that are familiar with these things, another clue.
The reason HiFi World tend to use these is to overcome the high distortion on the power line that they have in London, it gives a level playing field & removes outside influences that might effect the review(s)
Nice piece of kit, but too pricey for me.
Power Inspired does one for about one tenth of the price.
It doesn’t look as nice and has annoying IEC sockets
instead of proper UK mains sockets.
The AirLink balanced power supply off the consumer unit in the garage seems a nicer solution.
Entreq ES PaD in place.
New toys arrived today 6/9-19 above,for my Cableoholic-friend.
My friend shall go to Spain for ten days,.so after a business-meeting today in Luleå,I went to visit my friend this afternoon.
He had just got home two sets of these Entreq ES PaD.
So we helped each other to place them between the tripod and the speakers…See picture.
We just managed to listen quickly,.because I must go to another meeting,and he must also work.
But something has definitely happened to soundquality,.if it then is better or just different…we will evaluate this when he comes back from Spain.
Exciting times .
But according to another friend,.who had previously been a Naim and Linn trader,but now is distributor (not for Entreq)…
So are these Entreq ES PaD very good.
That said,.exciting times.
Continuation follows…
/Peder🙂
Sorry Mike my post was confusing I meant to say the poor man’s Nova from Power Inspired has gone IEC.
I think Noel Keywood who is the fairly objective reviewer for HFW said the Nova reduced mains distortion to 0.3% whereas as the Power Inspired only managed 1%.
Continuation…
I and a friend,.visited my Cableoholic-friend for a few hours yesterday.
These Entreq ES PaD as you see in the picture in my previous post…and above,we have listened a little more to now.
I/We have not had time to compare against spike’s between the tripod and speakers,.this is because these loudspeakers are designed to stand directly on the tripod’s top-plate.
Something that I’m hesitant about,.I’ve always experienced that it’s better with spike’s between speakers and tripods.
We compared yesterday,.with and without these Entreq ES PaD between tripod and speaker. And every time we switched,.these Entreq ES PaD’s were put in EXACTLY (on the millimeter),the same place on the tripod.
To describe it in one word…BETTER.!!
It gets better on all parameters with these Entreq ES PaD.
We shall later mount spike’s and compare against these Entreq ES PaD’s,.but I who is a spike-lover must admit…
These Entreq ES PaD’s are really good.
• But,.as a friend of “Attention To Detail”,I naturally wanted to go one step further.
So if you look at the picture you will see how we placed these Entreq ES PaD.
What we did now,.was that we moved out the front ES PaD towards the respective side as far as it went (1.5-2cm).
We could also move them forward to the front edge 1.5-2cm.
And the result: Yes,.it became quite a big difference to the better…Unbelievable but true.
I suspected this,.but the others,who are not as careful with their installation as me,was about to,.as we say in Sweden…"fall of the chair " by surprise.
• We did now the same thing with the lone rear Entreq ES PaD,.we moved it as far back as it went on the tripod (4cm).
And the result: Yes equal surprising there,.the Musicality,the Musical “Flow” became so much better.
There was so much difference between these changes,.so my friend fall down on his knees and bowed to me who wanted to try this .
Lovely with a little recognition from a close friend.
These are Entreq’s top-notch “feet” and costs in a set of three £590:-.
My friend who came with me to my Cableoholic-friend,.he thought earlier that these Entreq ES PaD…it’s insane.
They are far too expensive.
It will be £1180:- to two speakers,.he was suddenly interested in buying these.
This is unbelievable,because he has a lot of money…But Is Stingy .
But in any case,.it was some interesting hours…
/Peder🙂
It’s quite logical that the wider the base of the tripod the better the damping, isolation affect and SQ improvement. It’s quite amazing how much some people with expensive hi fi don’t know the basics of some things like physics and stability. That’s why it’s good to not know everything so you can always learn something new and it also keeps you humble to an extent.
@Henryski,…Excuse me for a late reply.
Well,.for you and me maybe this is obvious.
But my experience is,.that for maybe as many as for 7 of 10,this is something they don’t even think about.
I have worked a lot with music-system installation under my life,.and have many friends who are technically well-educated.
But this kind of thing they does not think of.
•Then it can also distinguish just one centimeter in placement between good or fantastically good.
So it’s try and listen,.try and listen that applies.
You just need to look in the “System Pics”-thread so you also have many,many examples of what I’m talking about.
So this is far from obvious for many in this interest.
/Peder
Some autumn candy…
Sends a picture of some autumn candy,.I have a lot more at home,my own,.and from my Cableoholic-friend.
But this was quick to pick up.
• To the right that sits on the Jorma Design Duality cable.
Oyaide’s best contacts M1/F1 (in Alu).
• The same cable,.Jorma Design Duality with…
Oyaide’s second best P/C 004 connectors.
• To the left in the middle,.Furutech’s second best contacts FI-E50.
• To the left in the carton,.a price cheap very good contact. Acrolink from Asia.
We have been busy,me,.another friend and my Cableoholic-friend.
You know in the 1980,.and 1990 's and onwards a few years.
Whether you played on Naim’s or Linn’s system,.you used their powercables.
But it is much,much more “crap” on the electricity network today.
And this with special plugs,.special sockets,.different powercables etc,etc is a whole new experience for me.
Okay,.various powercables I’ve had, tried, tested lots of from 1994 onwards.
As well as I pulled dedicated mains to my music-system the first time 1986.
But something has changed,.it’s more “crap” on the electricity network today.
For what we have tested the last few weeks is surprising.
Surprising because there is so large and clear difference between certain contacts,.wall-sockets, powercables etc.
Now I have to eat dinner,.but I have more to tell,and an interesting question about “burn-in” on powercables.
So I will return…
But think about this picture below in the meantime.
/Peder🙂
I belong to the group of 7. Make sense what you and @Henryski say “wider the base”. Most of us have spikes under both loudspeakers and the racks. In your opinion should the spikes be replaced by wider feet’s or is it just what we have under the spikes which needs to be wide. Or?
(The picture with the heater. Already snowing ?)
Te natural oles in te stands sould be used for spikes. But under speakers and equipment a wide a base is possible sould be used usin preferablt 3 points, 2 at te front and 1 rear.
I bout some taret audio spike soes wic ave elastomer inserts and tey were te biest uprade in sound i ave ever ad. Tey went under my tripos speakers and were perfect and only cost me 24 dollars for 6 of tem. Previously i ad steel only soes and te sound produced a lot of rumble and distortion but not as muc as wen te spikes didnt ave any soes for isolation. Tere was a terrible rumble trout te floor wit tis latter set up.
Te taret audio soes were about 40mm wide and provife a deree of isolation as well as decouplin.