Power Strip

Depends if they are commercial or not. If yes, the “no commercial links” rule applies

@frenchrooster

I use this Nordost 8x strip via a Valhalla 2 power cord into a dedicated circuit with a dedicated ground grid (3 x 8’ ground rods into the ground and soldered together) I actually ground the strip via its secondary wire into a second ground grid. It has six Powerlines into it for my turntable and my Naim 500 rig (5 Naim power supplie)s. This setup is a clear breech of the gospel according to Naim, but it sounds great at my house.

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Hi Leggie, what is your impression of the TP609e so far?

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The Gospel…well yes acording to who…I use RA Evolution 500 power kords to great effect…huge improvement…it is what ever works for you…!!

Having had some work done recently at work I notice the electricians recommended for Network switches to wire them directly to an unswitched socked which means the plug head is removed and the cable is wired directly into the unswitched socket. Apart from the inconvenience of having to switch off the supply at the consumer unit if you want to turn off the system would this not be a good idea? Certainly for a mains block maybe?

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Almost certainly illegal in any UK installation, where a fused plug is required to protect the lead.

This sounds dodgy. The fuse in the plug is required in the UK to protect the flex from an overcurrent situation. At the very least you would need to limit the circuit amperage to something like 10A and even then I’m not sure it would comply with current code.

It does not comply with regulations. No question.
I suspect this has not been described correctly

There may be different legislation in place for commercial installations as opposed to domestic ones. Also I can’t imagine that there would be any worthwhile sound quality gains from doing this. As said it almost certainly doesn’t meet the electrical code and common sense alone dictates that it is a clear safety compromise. Appliances in the UK are fitted with fused plugs for good reason.

I think that minimising RF interference seems to be a key part of what constitutes good mains supply. Perhaps this is one of the reasons why I have always found that plugging everything into a single mains block produces the most musically coherent results. Intuitively separate wall sockets for each component seems to make more sense but in my experience leads to a rather ‘disjointed’ presentation.

Well removing common mode noise from mains is not without it’s complications. A power strip can’t really do that though it can shield the internals of the strip from picking up additional noise.

Suppressing common mode noise really requires a balanced isolating transformer to take two half windings out of phase and cancel out the common mode noise. That is certainly not unusual. There are users who use that and they are discussed enough. But that leaves you with choosing between one of two compromises:

  • Locate a balanced isolating transformer close to the hifi. Helps cancel out common mode noise up to the point where the power leads connect. But (and this is a big one), if you have DC offset or over voltage making equipment transformers hum, you might just end up with a humming balanced isolating transformer.
  • Locate a balanced isolating transformer close to the CU in line on a dedicate hifi circuit. It’s out of site and if it hums, great, the hum has moved out of the listening room. But mains flex from there to the wall outlet is free to pick up common mode noise (albeit less than from the substation on your street to your house).

You can suppress the noise a bit by adding ferrite chokes. It raises the inductance which can cancel out weak common mode noise. That is in fact quite effective. Most common mode noise is weak. I use them judiciously on sensitive gear near the IEC plug end. And on non hifi gear that might be putting noise on the main, close to the wall socket end.

A decent power strip is not a magic pill. It is one part of a larger, carefully planned out mains power strategy. Of all the things a good power strip can do, the three most valuable (IMO) is providing loopless earth, and low resistance paths (thick wiring), and high socket contact pressure. It is amazing how many expensive strips fail to tick one or two of those fundamental boxes.

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One lesson I’ve learnt is that expensive powerlines don’t always work. I have several that are truly fantastic on my 500 stuff but I could never get them to work on my old CDX2 that I had, nor can I get my Ndac to sound better than with the standard Naim lead. Sure, the Powerline gives better bass and a more resolved top end but it lacks musical coherence. The standard Naim power lead seems to excel in this area but don’t ask me why. Although, if I had to guess I’d also say that it’s down to some strange earthing effect as the changes are somewhat similar to switching between ground and floating positions on the Ndac. You just know when it’s right!

Interesting, all works have been certified maybe there is still a fuse built into the socket. I’ll ask them.

You may have a fused plate outlet…that should comply provoding a sensible fuse is used…

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Yes I think they look like that.

That’s actually common in places where safety regulations stipulate that a loose plug socket in an inaccessible area or prone to risk of water should not be used and instead a direct unit wiring plate. Ovens, dishwashers etc,

Yes, if indeed they have used a fused spur box, that complies with regs.
And if it’s been Part P signed of, it has to be the case

Geko,

I’ve had similar experiences, though not with Powerlines. One thing that occurs to me is that cables with a higher CSA may be more susceptible to RFI and that this may explain the loss of musical coherence in certain situations. I believe the Powerline is unshielded and it certainly has much heavier gauge conductors than the standard leads - 4mmsq vs 0.75mmsq I believe. Could this explain things? Who knows, but it’s food for thought.

Pete01,

Agreed. I remember years ago when it was all he rage to use single core mains cable as speaker cable, and in certain areas it did sound a bit better but for musical coherence it was just bloomin’ awful!

Where I often find the ‘sound’ of a cable showing its worth is at very high volumes. Some mains cables (and speaker cables) can sound great a low volumes but start to sound a bit ragged and edgy as the volume goes up. If I find myself constantly wanting to turn the volume down a bit then that’s a bad sign. With good cables (read less noisy) and musical coherence you seem to get much better headroom, which for me means more volume not less!

I’ve found this the key to getting a good sound from my system over the years and it has nothing much to do with cost just careful selection!

Curiously I also use 6mm2 cable for my radial spur.

I think the PowerLine is not shielded?