Power Strip

Our power amp uses that very 16A input socket instead of a 13A IEC one, so the power cable comes as standard with that type of plug at one end and a “normal” UK 3 pin, 13A plug at the other.

Best regards, BF

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Have you considered upgrading the cable on your ultima?

I have thought about it but everything sounds so good now that I don’t feel the need. What does seem to further improve matters is the quality of balanced interconnect between the pre & power amps, plus between the phono stage & the pre.

So far, Transparent Audio seems to work really well. Atlas Asimi too but at a price that I cannot get my head around. Atlas Mavros was good but a bit grainy/rough/coarse in sound. Basic Mogami 2549 interconnects with decent Neutrik Gold connectors at about £25/cable have proven to set a high bar for posh cables to beat. Witch Hat’s Morgana balanced interconnect didn’t sound as natural in our system as the Designacable Mogami 2549, so we sold it. Siltech sounded lush but ponderously slow. Townshend F1 Fractal seems to work well between DAVE and the pre-amp but sounds too lean/thin between pre & power.

At the moment, we have Transparent Audio Super between pre & power, Mogami between phono & pre, with F1 Fractal between DAVE & pre. At some point, it will be all become Transparent Audio Super but there’s no rush. Mains cables are just not a priority.

How have you got on with different cables?

Best regards, BF

Not quite sure what you are asking here. The fact that the inlet on the block is rated 16A and requires a matching 16A IEC has no bearing on anything other than it has a higher current capacity than the more usual 10A IEC. It does not enable the block to draw an unsafe current as the connection to the wall is via a 13A fused plug.

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I’m using tellurium q ultra black. Previously had tellurium q black and the uplift was significant moving to the ultra black.

That’s good to hear. Where are you using the TQ Ultra Black?

I guess what I was asking is that some power blocks/strips (like in the image bellow) have a 20A or 16A inlet and If we were in Europe or the US we would be able to draw on the full 20A or 16A but in the UK we are restricted to 13A at the wall.

Is there anyway in the UK that you could use a block with a high current inlet (like the one in the image bellow) and utilise or benefit from the full high current 20A or 16A?

I know some cookers and electric fireplaces use a wired wall socket for high current applications.

I’m not suggesting anybody does anything that would be against UK regs but just wondering what is allowed and what is not allowed.

You are over thinking this.
The various component ratings although reflecting amperage, are an ISO & BS rating that’s derived from a temperature rise in the component as an effect of amperage.
e.g. a 13 amp fuse is rated at that number as it’s temperature increases by 1’C over ambient when passing 13 amps, this is not the rupture amperage.

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But the Siltech Octopus power strip above was designed to take a high current 20A or 16A inlet as this is part of the benefit of using this power strip so would using a 13A UK plug at the wall degrade/choke/restrict the flow/current?

I’m not an electrician (as you can tell) so I’m not entirely sure how this all works hence why I’m asking advice and enquiring.

The analogy I’m thinking of is it’s like using a drain pipe (the mains wire in the wall) to a hose pipe (the UK 13A plug) then back to a drain pipe (the 20A inlet on the power strip).

Or am I just completely wrong in the way I’m thinking about this?

Between my TT 2 and the Ultima.

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A 13A plug/socket will not downgrade or ‘restrict’.
How many amps do your boxes draw ? total them up, Naim rating is shown as VA (Volt/Amps) add them up, streamers, tuners, CDP are more or less the same when both idle & working, with power amps it’s an unknown, but x3 over is a ball park.
How many is the total VA

13 amps at 230 volts is 2990 VA

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I think I understand what you are saying. The block and it’s internal wiring is rated to carry 16A. So therefore plugging it into a 13A outlet is in effect acting as a bottle-neck and restricting the overall performance. Well, yes, I suppose that’s a valid comment. But that’s the way it has to be to comply with UK safety regs. In much the same way you could say that a Naim Powerline with it’s 4mmsq cable conductor cross-sectional area is not performing as well as it potentially could since it’s fitted with a 13A fused plug.

At the end of the day even though one is clearly not exploiting the higher current capacity to the full it is still better (presumably, otherwise why would designers/manufacturer’s bother?) than using 10 or 13A rated components. At least in those particular designs even if not universally.

Also bear in mind that no hi-fi will be drawing anywhere near 16A continuous current.

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Put another way, no doubt these blocks and Naim Powerlines would perform better if the wall plugs were rated at 16A, ie. higher current carrying components used throughout. But that’s not possible in the UK. Not if one wishes to comply with the safety regs. And you would be insane, and possibly acting illegally, if you did not.

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The 13 Amp fuse is only acting as a POWER bottleneck if the system wants to draw more than this.
However, this is incredibly unlikely in a domestic hifi system, even one with the S1 Statement amplifier.

At worst, all it may do it to increase the supply IMPEDANCE by a tiny fraction of an Ohm over a 16 Amp rated connector.

Hope this helps, if only a little.

Best regards, BF

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I just noticed that Oyaide has updated it’s power strips to MKII. The MTB’s now come in Black but sadly they still don’t use their best outlet (R1).

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Might want to try Audience AU24SX

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@Mike-B are there still circumstances where an unfused 15A round pin can be used in the UK. I seem to remember something along the lines of a single ended radial protected by an RCD.

I’m in the land of 16A unfused plugs now but I haven’t converted my powerlines, just changed the plug on my block. I’m betting the decoupling is worth more than a nominal extra three amps headroom.

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Yes it’s still possible to use a 15 amp round pin, it will need to be on an individually fused radial as your 16 amp
But why? There is a lot of beliefs around the hifi world about all this. The only debatable advantage a 15 amp round pin plug may have over a UK stnd 13A is it has no internal fuse, but that subject alone might have more fairytales than fact.

Final point of order, a 13A plug (with the upper case ‘A’) donates the UK stnd, it’s rated at up to 13 amps according to BS & ISO testing. And like the IEC stnd 10 amp & 16 amp socket plugs the testing is based on a 1’C temperature rise when carrying that current.
But who has hifi that pulls more than 13 amps

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Many moons ago when I was in my twenties and a lot more adventurous (ie. stupid) I replaced the 13A fuses in the plugs on my SNAPS power supply and 110 power amp with thick solid-core copper wire soldered across the fuse holders. Totally insane, irresponsible etc. etc. I know. My only defence is that this was the days of Peter Belt and related experimentation by dear old Jimmy Hughes and I fell for it all hook, line and sinker. Anyway the result was a very clear improvement, so since then I’ve personally been in no doubt that fuses degrade the sound. There are of course many other mains factors at play so by how much is possibly variable according to circumstances.

Yes I have to admit that I replaced the fuse with solid 0.25 inch copper rod, plus soldering over the fuse clamp compression ‘rivets’.
However outside of syco expectation kidology, the sonic gains were not that convincing, confirmed when I went back to pukka fuses.
N.B. in those days I had Audiolab amps & Marantz CD

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