Powerblock/bar

This is really basic stuff for a qualified electrician. Having tried various different configurations, I would not do dedicated mains without a separate consumer unit.

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Thanks. If an outside dedicated hi-fi CU is not possible then I guess it won’t be worth bothering with. Due to positiong of the meter there’s no way a separate CU will fit inside. As it is accessing the meter for connections will require temporary removal of a large kitchen unit and portion of work surface.

The more I think about that the less appealing the whole thing becomes. I just don’t think I can face it.

The other thing is that my experience with a dedicated supply at our previous property was not a good one. This had 10mm2 T&E and a dedicated CU with tails back to the meter. Terminated in an unswitched Crabtree double socket. So should have worked well.

The sound had more impact and dynamics, with a much bigger deeper bass, alomost like a bigger and better amp had been installed. Also blacker backgrounds. A clear improvement in those respects. However after several months I kept feeling something just wasn’t right. So I switched back to the standard ring just out of curiosity. It now became clearly apparent that despite sounding less hi-fi - 'ishly impressive it was more musically coherent by far. I was enjoying music again.

That experience put me off dedicated mains and I vowed never to do it again. But I accept it’s not the usual outcome and most people seem to find their dedicated supply a huge improvement in every way. I would be wary of 10mm2 T&E though, and maybe that was the issue for me. I’ve heard it suggested more than once that 6mm2 is more musical and also that a ring configuration is more musical than a radial. Not the sort of thing that lends itself to trial and error though.

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I kind of understand your experience. I’m fortunate that I’ve been able to easily run a dedicated supply and did a couple of runs of 6m2 cable, one in armoured cable and one just standard 6m2 T&E. The armoured cable actually sounded musically better. The T&E sounded a bit like you described better than the standard ring-main but lacking something. I also had the standard ring-main close by, so I could compare that as well. The comparison between this and the 6m2 armoured cable was interesting and a bit like listening to Lavender cable vs Superlumina. The standard ring has lots of ‘swing’ but sounded a bit thin, splashy and corse. The 6m2 armoured cable was much more dynamic, refined and full bodied with a really sweet treble, while the 6m2 T&E pretty much sat in between the sound of the other two. Perhaps running the 6m2 T&E in a ring configuration would have fixed it? I never tried as I was more than happy with the 6m2 armoured cables sound.

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Did you have those different runs of cable temporarily or permanently?

The 6m2 armoured stayed, as did the standard 2.5m2 ring but I disconnected 6m2 T&E from the fuse box. The cable and twin socket run is still there, so I could connect it if I wanted to but have never felt the need.

Do you remember how long the trial went on between the cables?

I wonder whether the run in time was different on the different cables?

Good point. It wasn’t that long, maybe a couple of days.

Thats a shame PJL. I think it was the best upgrade I ever did. I was able to get an electrician to split the incoming power at the opposite end of the house and run three circuits from there under the upstairs floorboards direct to the hifi leaving everything else in situ. Took him 2.5 days to install but it was a great improvement all round. Definitely worth trying to work out how to shoehorn it in somehow :grinning:

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I’ll give it some thought. Everythng’s still on the table. Need to let the hi-fi take a back seat for a while after heavy spending on upgrading the Melco, mains blocks and cables, and various Chord noise reduction devices. We’re talking in the region of £10K plus here. Ouch! That was meant to be finally the end - and no more. But as we all know, there will always be just that one last thing waiting to be addressed before we call it a day. And so it goes on.

Let’s get a few boring but necessary domestic things sorted over the next year or so and then we’ll see where we are. I’ve genuinely no complaints about the current performance at all, so anything more will just be a nice bonus.

Anyone have a Chord PowerHAUS M6 and / or SignatureX power cable and can say how long it took them to settle in ?

Mine are exactly one week in, but were only powering my TV during the burn in period. So not exactly a huge power draw during that time.

I connected all my sources and Preamp. up today, it replaced a Isotek Sirius EVO3 and a basic Isoteck mains power cable.

I’m reasonbly happy with it, however some tracks are phenomenal, some others no so much, it appears to give you all the music straight up with no sugar coating any shortfalls. Well with my system it does anyway, I’m hoping the slight “edge” it gives lesser well recorded music will subside in time.

I’m just wondering if there is more to come with more hours and some easing of that slight, and it is slight edge/bite, with the poorly recorded music that I have.

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I have A Chord M6 with Epic cable. It took many weeks to fully burn in. One week is nowhere near enough, so you can expect things to improve considerably over time.

My dealer told me that the Signature X can be slightly bright and edgy. He has one in his system. How much this matters will of course depend on the particular system and personal taste. It put me off the Signature X and were I to upgrade then I would go straight to Sarum T which apparently smooths out the top end.

As far as sugar coating goes I’m afraid you won’t get that with any Chord cables - at least that’s my experience. That’s not what they are about. They aim to maximise musical coherence and expressiveness, not to act as sanitising devices. If you are looking for something that will smooth out the rough edges then there are better choices.

I wouldn’t form any conclusions until several weeks down the line. That said, I have to say that my exoerience with cables and the like has always been that if you don’t particularly like them from the off then it’s unlikely that will change, eeven given the improvement with burn in.

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I have that exact same combination. From memory it sounded like an upgrade from the off but it was replacing a £50 power strip son much to compete with. It certainly took a good month or so of a constantly powered-up system with a few hours a day of play to smooth out and settle down. Everything felt a little more organic and natural sounding from there on. I added a Furutech rhodium socket after that which complemented it all very well but distinguishing the improvement from that vs the ongoing improvement for the M6 is impossible. Interesting point from the last post about the signature cable being bright, I would describe that tendency in my system but thought it more a characteristic of the beryllium tweeters in my focal speakers. If I ever convince myself that it’s a good idea to drop £2k on a Sarum-T alternative, it seems I might have an option to re-tune things.

Perhaps leave yours alone for a few more weeks and then experiment with plugging order and see if that resolves anything. I’m not convinced I can hear any change when I’ve mixed thing up though.

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I’ve emailed my dealer to see if they can take back the Sig. X and if I can swap it for a Sarum T.

It’s definitely the Sig. X that bumps the balance slightly away from what I’m after. I swapped it out for the Isotek mains cable to the M6 that I have spare and on hand to do a sanity check.

I just need that touch of extra warmth to take that bite that the SigX has (for me and my taste anyway, otherwise it’s a very good cable).

The DAVE and ATC speakers that I have take no prisoners with any upgrade that I’ve done so far and WILL reveal any weakness in an upgrade.

So it’ a fine balancing act to get it where I want system synergy wise.

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In the past I have used the Musicline 'hedgehog ’ , that was good and old MusicWorks straight six way both were good .
I now use MusicWork G4 and a G3 , with a MusicWorks Reflex Lite in my second system . The Musicworks are great every one an improvement on the previous model
Lucky enough to attend a Naim factory day last year , someone asked Jason about mains blocks . Jason recommended the MusicWorks .

Yet they use MK unswitched home brew like me for shows. :wink:

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I’ve done homebrew mains blocks ,
And yet Jason recommended the MusicWorks , I like the MusicWorks

This sort of thing happens quite a bit. Individual employees recommend and use all sorts of things that don’t necessarily align with what the company recommends or uses. Ask someone else at Naim and they may well recommend Chord or home made or this or that.

Moral - don’t take any of it too seriously. Make up your own mind.

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@anon9602469
Nice reply thanks it’s all subjective. :+1:t2:

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Jason Gould , Sales Manager and Naim Ambassador

Is he? But as I said, make up your own mind. If you like the MusicWorks I expect that’s why you bought them. I suspect you would still like them even if Jason didn’t.

I use a Moon amp and they recommend Nordost mains blocks and use them with their equipment at shows. I tried one and thought it was £1.5K+ worth of garbage - no better to my ears than an Olson block and not as good as home made. So I use Chord blocks, which I do like a lot.