Power Strip

At the dem that I had the Chord rep showed me some pictures on his 'phone of the insides of the blocks. I was very surprised to see that they both had bus bars as opposed to separate wiring to each socket. I commented on this and he said they had tried out many different things over several years and they found that using bus bars produced the best sound.

It seems to be typical of companies like Chord and Naim to ‘buck the trend’ and do their own thing. This aspect has always impressed me. Rather than just blindly follow the herd as so many manufacturers do, they go back to first principles and build from the ground up. There are so many fallacies in hi-fi that just come to be wrongly accepted as fact, eg. bus bars in power strips are inferior.

I truly had not expected the scale of musical improvement that the Chord S6 has brought to my system. Before this if someone had told me that a mains block could have such a pronounced positive effect on the music I would have been extremely sceptical. Cleaner sound, blacker backgrounds etc. etc. is the sort of thing I expected. But it’s the way the music now makes so much more sense that is astonishing to me. It’s like the first time I heard a Linn LP12 several decades ago. One of those times when you know that something special has happened in your system and there can be no going back.

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Is that the only place possible for the ifi PSU?

I use(d) them to power my router and EE8 switch before moving to a Farad Super3 LPSU for the EE8. I’ve found they are excellent little SMPSUs for the money but particularly nasty to share the same power strip as your system. I’d move it away as far as possible.

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I could potentially re-route it to another jack so it is physically further away, still it is on the same line so. I have other things creating noise in my house and grid far worse than this supply like heat pump etc. I’ve also looked into maybe getting an Sbooster for it which I use on my Lumin U1 mini which is great.

I’d definitely give it a try. You have nothing to loose imo?

I ended up installing a separate socket for ifi at the CU where it lives powering my router. Before that, it shared a double Furutech socket that also powered the Farad PSU for the EE8. While obviously still on the same CU, moving the ifi away made a ‘scary’ difference. :thinking:

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Most mains block using bus bars (cost effective and cheaper) do sound bad but not all. Some top performing models have done it for a while such as this MS HD one of their high end series. I was surprised to see Chord is using bus bars but I am sure it has worked ok.
I have always thought Chord collaborate with MS HD quite a lot as they seem to use their plugs and IEC connectors across the range up to the Music models (often coloured in white). MS HD use 5mm2 silver or gold plated bus bars

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I inserted my old Isol-8 powerlist and moved away the Ifi a bit for now even if it’s still on the same line I guess it’s the plug itself from my experience that can buzz and cause interference and not what goes inside the cable (at least the majority of it) :slightly_smiling_face:

Not super impressed by the S6 for now. Feels like it sucked the life out of my system compared to Isol-8 or Entreq Powerus but will let it play for a week and then make my judgement.

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What are the recommended Chord main cables, if any, for the Chord S6 and M6 power strips?

I don’t think there are any specific recommendations although the better the cable, the better the performance.

I’ve just taken delivery of a Sarum T fitted with a 15amp plug (my preferred choice) and the 16amp IEC so I’ll compare that on the M6 to the Epic that came with the demo unit and my original Sarum T into a dedicated spur.

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Chord will say their own cables of course. But as always, best synergy might not always mean same brand on everything is my experience. A lot comes down to taste too so.

No specific recommendations as far as I know. At the dem the starting point was with the free give-away cable on the block (which is not intended for use - I never even got mine given to me!), through Shawline, Signature and up to Sarum T. Clear improvement with each step up. I chose the Epic for mine because of (a) price - I couldn’t go higher, and (b) it uses their Array configuration the same as the block - it’s the lowest price one in the range to do so.

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What is “array” technically in terms of their cables? I believe that is totally different from ground and power array in converting RFI to heat.

To be honest I don’t really know. I think it’s to do with the configuration of the stranding within the conductors and the configuration of the conductors themselves within the cable. I could be totally wrong though. In any case they seem to think it’s of key importance.

I have my suspicions on that Chord have some filtering going in at least S6. With S6 my 555PSDR transformer hum is lowered to levels I earlier only got with a DC blocker in line.

Anyone else noticed the same with Powerhaus + transformer hum?

Still I find Entreq Powerus sound more dynamic, more alive where Powerhaus kill some mojo.

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I have my usual 500 amps hum and no cut in mojo

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The S6 takes a long time to run in and loosen up. We are talking weeks here in my experience. At first I had a nagging suspicion that it was softening transients sometimes. No more though - in fact quite the opposite.

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Power strip wars……how exciting!

Are posh power strips the new ethernet cables?

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No Nigel, not really the same. I didn’t read that someone said snake oil, power is power ( like bits are bits), or the powerblock doesn’t publish measurements. :smile:

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I have the impression that since Chord has developed two power strips, this kind of ‘justifies’ or at least reinforces the notion of a power strip as a component in the audio chain that can have a significant influence on SQ to a wider audience in the Naim community.

Here goes… same as always.

Unknown

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It could be, of course, that the sound was totally unchanged over that period and that you simply became used to it. I’m not sure anyone can really identify subtle changes to sound over a period of weeks. That’s not to say that mains blocks don’t make a difference, or that they don’t run in over time.

There is also a huge degree of confirmation bias at play, and well as an understandable need to justify one’s purchase.

There are quite a few products that appear and which become the new must have products: the Chord Hugo, the EE switch, Kudos speakers…… maybe the PowerHAUS will be crowned Forum Darling 2022. It’s all good fun.

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