RFi noise from home plugs on Phono input only NAC102

I recently moved to a small house and reset up my system with the TV, Sonos playbar blue ray etc on the same stand as my LP12/ NAC102 / Hicap / NAP 180 and a CD5. I also have a Innous Zen Mini mk 2 playing directly into my Rega Mk 1 DAC. So all a bit crowded and the back looks like a bowl of spaghetti. Because of the streamer and playbar I have to use Devolo homeplugs to run eathernet to them plus my computer in another room. So, there is RFi interference from the home plus which is only occurring on the Aux input via the phono plugs, (I use 523/1 MC boards in the 102), plus there is also a low level hum. Playing records drowns out the sound but you can hear it’s there and it is annoying me greatly, didn’t have this problem in last house. Darren at Class A said it was the home plugs and he was correct, when I plug the one in behind the hifi it spits and crackles at first then settles down to a scratchy sound. Obviously when I turn up the volume to max with no music playing you can hear all this loudly, but switching to any of the other inputs for CD and tuner where I have the DAC plugged in there is silence. So have disconnected the arm lead from back of amp, switched off the Lingo but the noise is still there, I have checked the boards and they look fine, no obvious damage and all the wiring for earth continuity between the deck / arm lead and boards are ok. I am using a musicworks power block and 3 head hydra to power things and got a Tacima 6 way mains conditioner block to see if this would fix things, I have 4 double sockets in the wall as well. So trying all combinations of unplugging everything bit by bit to only leave the amps connected, the noise is still there as long as the homeplugs are connected. I have no other location for it and the Innous doesn’t do wifi. The mains conditioner doesn’t fix it and killed the dynamics from the naim, I’ve read this but was suprised how much it did effect it. So naim plugged back into the wall. Have any of you had this problem? Have you overcome it? Has anyone tried Isotek Evo 3 Gemini or Polaris power blocks or the Evo 3 Isoplug ? There are the Russ Andrews mains products as well.

Sorry for such a long winded post, is there anything you have tried that works without killing the sound or do I live with it as a compromise. Turning off the devolo when playing records is one cheap option but that means doing it to all them which is a pain.

regards

Stewart

You’ve got your answer already. Get rid of the homeplugs as any other ‘fix’ is only putting a sticking plaster over the problem. You’ll probably find SQ improves too. There are other solutions to get network connectivity without using these awful devices.

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It’s not surprising that your vinyl source is the one that is susceptible to this issue, especially with a MC cartridge. If you listen carefully, I wouldn’t be surprised if you heard a detrimental effect on other sources too, although they may be less drastic.
Homeplugs work by putting a very high level of RFI onto your entire mains electrical circuits, so their effects can be felt anywhere, even in your neighbours house in some situations. My advice would be to get rid of them. For not much more than the price of those fancy mains blocks (which probably won’t help anyway) you could pay a professional to run proper Ethernet cables around your house, or do it yourself, in which case the cost it next to nothing. If you really can’t do that, consider setting up a decent Mesh wifi network and use that. Basically, just do whatever it takes to get rid of the homeplugs!

Issue is that I have no way of running Ethernet cables to the sonos and server without smashing the wall and ceiling apart in the lounge as I have no access to where they would need to run. I would rather live with it than destroy the walls and have all the nightmare of repairing it after i have already redocorated it after moving in. Hey Ho

Can you run cables to where they need to go via an external wall. There’s usually a way…

Chris, the thing is if I disconnect the LP12 and physically move it out of the room so nothing is connected to the 102 it still makes the noise plus the hum. It doesn’t occur on any other input, at max volume there is definitely nothing against a very loud sound on analogue input. I assume it is the phono boards that are reacting to the RFi. with my speakers music is very loud at 9-10 o’clock on the dial, so I would hear it on the other inputs if it was there. Pressing the tape monitor button also stops it.
The server doesn’t do wifi nor does the DAC and one unit from the sonos has to be linked into the the router to alow their mesh network for the sub and surrounds to use wifi. I will have to look again at the possibilities of running cables direct, but they will need t least 10 metre runs. Hmmm looks like the initial solution is turn them off when playing vinyl.

Those ethernet over mains devices are the work of the devil and will cause havoc with your lovely Naim system, especially with the very high gain used for MC phono.

If hard-wiring is really out of the question then you could use an old Airport Express (cost around a tenner in the usual places) as a wireless access point. I do this where ethernet just cannot be run practically and it works very well and no nasties on the system, even MC phono!

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10m runs of Ethernet cable are fine - regular Cat5e cable is good for anything up to 100m. Definitely worthwhile if you can manage it. Then if you need more ports, add a switch at the end of the cable to wire in all your devices, and you’re done. You’ll still need WiFi for handheld devices, of course. If the wireless signal from your router doesn’t reach all around the house, connect a wireless device of some sort to a switch too, and you should be able to get good coverage around your house. The Airport Express that Richard mentions is a good cheap option here, although it you want something that gives higher performance, I would look at a more modern Mesh solution.

just consider that RF is pervading throughout your house 24/7 - do you want to live with that yes very low level but constant wideband exposure 24/7 - or certainly whilst you are sleeping?
Honestly bin them - if it were not for the EU many of these devices possibly would not be legal in the UK - but that ship has sailed now (i was personally involved with this).
As said above consider multi access point/mesh wifi system - best use the proper tools for the job even if the RFI issues don’t concern you

OK, got myself a cheap S/H Airport express 2 off facebook marketplace, that should help me initially and I will try and see what I can do with the rest of it. Thanks for all your advice guys, I do see your point in getting rid of the home plugs.
Simon, I have looked at the mesh wifi solutions and yes they are worth investigating, I have recently joined Sky and have a new router and Sky Q box which is really good, much better that the one I used 6 years ago. Anyway, I need to see if Sky tie me in with using their hub or not as they use it all to run updates on the system etc. Most of the mesh systems require you to replace the hub with their own. I will investigate it further, can live with it at the moment and take my time to come up with the best long term situation. I don’t want to be throwing good money after bad rushing into it.
Thanks Richard for the recommendation on the Apple Express, I had forgotten about this.

Stew

You can use most Mesh devices with more or less any router, so that shouldn’t be a problem. Same with the Airport Express. What you need to do (and this will seem counterintuitive) is set it to ‘create a new network’, NOT extend an existing network. Then give it exactly the same network name and password as your Sky router.

Thanks Chris, will look into that then, so you are saying I have two hubs in the house running at the same time with the same network name. Do I shut the WiFi off on the sky hub then? Do I connect the hubs together with a cable? Sorry, networks are not my forte I know just enough to get myself in trouble :blush::blush:

If your Sky hub is one of the better ones that runs 802.11ac WiFi it will have better performance that the old AirPort Express, so you don’t want to turn it off. The AE should really be connected to the Sky hub with an Ethernet cable, and located in a place where you need stronger WiFi than the Sky hub can provide.
If you have other devices that can use a wired connection rather than WiFi, you may want to get a switch. Run the Ethernet cable from the Sky hub to the switch, and connect the AE and any other devices to the switch. Generally, the more devices you can use on a wired connection, the better. That will free up the wireless network for the devices that really need it.

It depends to what extent you want to have a performant wifi. If you want a top performance one that band steers and load balances then yes two or cooperating access points that overlap and disable together sky wifi.
If you are just after a basic coverage wifi, then leave them all on, and simply use the same SSID and authentication method.
Either way best connect the access points together with Ethernet where you can.

Indeed, but Stew has just bought an AirPort Express for a tenner, so I don’t think this is on his radar yet!

Sure… but he might be still looking at options.

When I first need to access the network in the living room from the modem in the room above I didn’t want to start drilling holes so I ran some cat5e under the carpet across the landing, down the side of the stair treads and across the hall into the living room. quite a long run but it worked OK. Of course if you’ve fallen for the laminate floor craze this won’t be so easy to hide but it could be done relatively unobtrucively following skirting boards and running over doorways. When I redecorated I shortened the route and moved it all under floor boards and behind the plaster, I do wish I’d run two cables and put it through conduit so I could change the cable but it wasn’t intended for a streamer when I did the work.

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