Radial supplies and non Naim equipment

In an earlier thread the value of a dedicated radial circuit was discussed.

This week a friend is coming over who is a music buff - I have not persuaded him of the merits of Naim, but he may wonder if installing a dedicated radial circuit and consumer unit would benefit his system. If I recall he has a Bose system.

Would it be worth his while installing a dedicated radial supply?

(Apologies @Richard.Dane if this is deemed unsuitable for this forum - please delete if necessary )

I’m not sure what Bose system you are talking about as they mainly make lifestyle products these days. I suspect sorting out the mains supply is not a priority here or worthwhile.

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@james_n
I’ll check with Colin when he gets here.
BTW this is the same chap who has been buying music at a rate of 3-5 albums / CDs a week for 30 years, but can’t decide what to rip!

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Looks like you need to educate him in the Naim way then Huw :grin:

I recall you mentioning Huw how. A CD count of 20,000 + if I remember correctly

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About that - he and his wife are coming over the jazz festival.
I did suggest he put a box of CDs in his boot so that I could rip them for him … but he is unconvinced with the benefits. Despite freeing up storage space…

I’ve got a dedicated 20 Amp radial circuit which is feeding 2x double un-switched MK sockets. This is fed from the (single) consumer unit on its own dedicated MCB, this is cabled to take the shortest path possible and avoid things like radiator pipes or other ring circuits, I think I used 6MM T&E but it may have been 4MM, depends in part on number of sockets and anticipated load, I wired it to be expanded later if needed anyway!
I looked at the various options of how to wire this up and this was the most sensible, you may find folks that split off at the main breaker and feed a separate consumer unit, or run a dedicated earthing, I’m not convinced you’d see a gain doing any of those things as you only have one supply from the sub station. I had the mains supply moved when the driveway was made wider which involved digging up the front garden and tapping in to the main supply under the pavement. They then fitted a new primary fuse and tails and in doing so put a 100 Amp main fuse in. I got them to check the resistance to ground at the time as that is the main thing that will cause hum on appliances, mine is pretty decent thankfully but if you measure high resistance to ground you could install a grounding rod rather than grounding from the main supply, that has to go down a fair way to wet ground to make any difference, it’ll depend in part on the age of your property as well and the quality of the distribution network from your supply substation to your consumer unit. I live in an old house from 1850’s with a supply with very good grounding. If you live in a new build or an estate the mains supply can be terrible, especially if they’ve used high voltage supply cabling with aluminium isolators.
I’d certainly not go silly on the cabling or exotic sockets with platinum screws or whatever, everything I used is standard, the switchless sockets cost a little more but they are just the lab/medical type. Your electrician will know what is required to be in specification and sign off the work. Adding a radial circuit on a new MCB with a few sockets shouldn’t be too scary for them.

Before renovating my cottage I had a grounding rod, but the soil is thin here before hitting fractured limestone that the mains earth was a vast improvement. When the sparks split the consumer unit earlier this year he installed another earth, running around the outside of the house back to the mains. Thus I have two sets of earths, one on the radials and then this new one. I’m not sure what made the difference: splitting the consumer unit or the extra earth.

I beg to differ on this - I changed my dedicated supply from the main consumer unit to a small separate one, and the improvement was considerable. This was based on recommendations from Steve Hopkins at Naim, and well worth the effort, I’d say.

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Happy to hear that worked out well in your case. My setup was based more on total cost and simplicity than absolute performance benefits. We did replace basically everything internally and then externally all the way back to the main road, I dug the trench in the front garden myself, we did the gas main at the same time!
The best example I’ve heard from a dealer was a customer that lived in a water mill that used the wheel to generate electricity which is then stored in batteries. So maybe the best answer here is to buy a watermill and get off grid power :slight_smile: He has a Statement system and Linn multiroom apparently, works in F1, hence the deep pockets!

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