Blast from the past but I’m busy slowly and carefully rebuilding the living room after the ceiling was replaced and this obviously means rebuilding the hi-fi very carefully indeed given my sight. Lots of dusting and polishing has taken place as you can imagine and this included the old sonic hedgehog in the corner.
As well as the tedium of relaying cables etc. this got me thinking about the order in which I plug devices into the Powerigel. I researched and found a useful thread on here which was very clear in saying that one puts power amps closest to the wall lead; followed by pre and then furthest away would be source.
Now, in my case the 200 has a Powerline and its own switchless socket. The Chord DAC goes into its own switched socket.
That leaves the HC2 DR and NAPSC which power the 202 amd the Innuos Zenith Mk. 3 for the Powerigel. That then led me to thinking that I had no idea how this thing is wired. Are the 2 leads nearest the wall lead the ones for the HC2 DR and NAPSC or should the NAPSC connect to the lead next along on the left?
Given the opportunity do I then locate the Innuos furthest back on the right or is it okay next to the other 2?
I do appreciate we’re in marginal gains territory here but given the opportunity I figure I may as well ask.
You could try contacting Focal Naim Deutschland and asking Olaf who was with Musicline. He should be able to advise on the best order in which to connect.
Inside the PowerIgel there are three copper bars, one for all live wires, one for all neutral wires, and one for all earth wires, with every set of 7 wires (6 outlets, 1 incoming) being soldered to the copper bar very close to one another.
IIRC, the wire from the wall lead is in the middle of the bar with three outlet wires to the left of that and the other three to the right … In theory it was meant to be non-hierarchical, but I found the plug order did matter to a certain degree, and was not predictable (as with a simple power strip).
I used to work for Music Line and remember back in the day discussing plug configurations with Olaf. There will have been a wiring diagram from which one could tell which outlet wires were closest to the middle (incoming) but I just tried different configurations till I got blue in the face. I’m afraid that’s your best course of action!
Good to read your posts on here Thomas. I hope all is well with you.
Olaf drew a diagram for me as to how to best connect (I.e in which order) the Powerigel, but I’ve been unable to find it, and my memory is not what it was - if it ever was!
No, I only compared against a Naim-built in-house hydra - there was not a great deal in it, I felt, at least not enough to be decisive.
The Powerigel is nicely made (I especially like the attention to detail, particularly with things like the feet) and of course has all the necessary safety approvals to make it a commercially viable and marketable device. The Powerigel Plus must be something very special indeed as it uses Naim Powerlines!
Yes, I owned a standard PowerIgel for a few months, and I also had a Grahams Hydra.
The Hydra sounded significantly better, so I sold the powerigel.
The other problem with the powerigel was that the cables, both to the wall and to the components, were about 2m long, which meant that there was a huge amount of spare cable sprouting everywhere like a small bush!
I still use the Hydra with an excellent fuse, plus a couple of Powerlines.
Thanks all. Apologies for the slight delay in responding. Carefully cleaning and levelling my Hutter as well as all the boxes; reinstalling and dressing cables etc.
Absent a diagram I will contact Olaf but in the meantime I’m waiting for someone to put our curtains back up tomorrow. Once that’s done I’ll move the speakers (and much more) back in and need to relocate the right one slightly as, when I measured to the back and side walls before removal it was slightly out.
At that point I think I need everything on to check all is well so I need to take a punt on Powerigel order regardless. I can always come back to it if it turns out there’s a better order. I’m thinking I’ll put the HC2 DR and NAPSC on the two leads closest to the mains and the Innuos on the furthest. Those inbetween I propose to loop and gently tie up for the sake of tidiness unless someone says that’s a bad idea.
Mike, pls re-read my post above and try to visualize what I said about the internals of the PI – you cannot tell by looking at it from the outside which outlet is closest to the mains. The two outlets closest to the end of the aluminium barrel with the incoming wall lead could – internally – well be farthest away from the actual point on the copper bar to which the icoming lead is soldered!
Thanks @teegeekay. What your first post told me was that, absent a diagram, no-one currentlt knows what the best configuration is and so it’s a case of trying it out and seeing what happens. That’s what I’m doing and, for me, it makes sense to start with the pre supplies closest to where the lead enters absent anything concrete to the contrary i.e. as you say, trying different configurations until blue in the face.
The only thing making me blue in the face today will be 2 large Zu speakers and 9 IKEA CD racks.
Absent anything comcrete to the contrary I’ll do as I described today and only fiddle if it doesn’t sound right once warmed up.
Actually, becauae of the location of the Powerigel it became more practical to loop the 1st 2; putting the HC2 DR and NAPSC on the next 2 ahd the Zenith on 1 of the last 2.
No great expectations given everything has been off and relocated for over 2 weeks but actually I’m over halfway into the new Waxahatchee album and it’s all rather good.
