Major Electricity Upgrade From the Roof Down Produced Sonically Amazing Results!
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- čas přidán 14. 10. 2021
- Power conditioners are band-aids. In many situations as with band-aids, they can be useful. The real way to upgrade your electricity is if possible to start from the street and work your way down. This video shows how it can be done while here also bypassing a sound-destructive transfer switch used with an auxiliary emergency generator. Aluminum is out, and copper is in from the roof to the listening room A.C. jacks. The full story in detail is in the November issue of Stereophile magazine. It will also shortly appear online on Stereophile's website. Don't miss it!
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Best episode of This Old House I have ever seen.
Great video and upgrade. I'm an audio design engineer who works for one of the country's largest engineering firms in NYC. In most of the designs that I undertake, I always design the electrical infrastructure using a balanced power panel. The concept behind balanced power is the same as balanced audio where it utilizes common mode rejection via the power like. In a nutshell, it takes 120V and converts it to two lines of 60V. The input accepts single phase 220V and it ties that to a large isolation transformer that makes the conversion to two lines of 60 volts. The results are astonishing. In your case, even with all of the ground rods and all of the power routing, you are still directly coupled to the outside transformer. With balanced power, you are basically disconnecting your entire audio system from outside power and utilizing the isolated balanced power from the panel. In most of the acoustic demonstration rooms that I have designed, I have achieved at least 8dB of noise reduction alone when a signal to noise level test is obtained. As far as I'm concerned, it's the only way to go with an audiophile system. I've put balanced power in some broadcast studios as well. I suggest you check out balanced panels. Once you go balanced, there is no turning back.
Wow never heard of that!
My system is all installed and done.. is this possible in the UK with 240v mains?
@@johnshore3095 Yes. We use a 120v system here and the units that we use require two phases of 120v each on the input side. That said and being that the power in the UK is 240v on a single phase, the manufacturer will build a unit for you that could possibly accept two phases of 240v with two 120v phases on the output side. The reason for the doubling of voltage on the input side is to make the unit deliver more current. You can power an entire recording studio with just one unit.
This is the best demonstration of audio snake oil I’ve ever seen. After you spent all this money you’ve convinced yourself it Hass to sound better
I just finished redoing my music room, had the electrician run two separate lines from the panel to my stereo plugs. These lines don’t feed anything but my Amplifier and Turntable, at the same time we had upgraded to a 300 amp entry, so all new copper wire from the street.
The difference in sound quality was apparent immediately.
I found it was the low end or bass that seem to tighten up the most.
Also noticed quiet sections of the music seems quieter if that makes sense. Describing
what we here is so difficult for some of us.
Not sure I would recommend someone going through the expense and trouble of doing this unless you were having hum and noise issues and I wasn’t but we were doing major electrical work anyway so figured what the hell. Anyway that’s may take. Thanks for video. 😎
The use of Marijuana with a single malt will make for a totally amazing listening experience
I agree 100% and have thought that for at least 50 years.
... in the absence of single malt, a few IPAs works as well
For those know it alls that say wire, cables & good clean power doesn't make a difference are the same guys that believe the moon landing happened on a movie set. And Garth Powell is brilliant, this upgrade is well worth every penny!
Excellent video, Mikey! I did similar upgrade for home system a couple of years ago (although my outside wasn't as bad as your was). I too now have a dedicated (100 Amp) sub panel for my audio, which I eventually intended to replace with one of those wall mounted beauties from Torus Power (100 Bal).
Thanks for the video. I am in the beginning stages of building a house and this is a great starting point. I am a little mixed up by the multiple ground rods, but I am not an electrician. My thought it that may cause a ground loop hum, but I will let the pros sort that part out. The idea of the separate primary panel for the audio was worth the watch.
I just saw five measurement guy's heads blow up after watching this vid, lol. Good Stuff Mike!
The ground noise improvement is easily measured and heard!
Thank you for this video, Mikey. It’s both interesting and inspirational.
A fascinating video - thanks for posting. Your companion article in Stereophile was well done also.
Cool to see this so thanks for posting. It all makes sense even though I'm no electrician. I do however appreciate quality.
This was amazing to watch.
Very interesting! As a Dutch person, it's very nice to gain some more insight into the USA power systems.
USA power is kind of laughable in comparison to the over-engineered UK system. There are still tweaks you can do here, but we have far fewer problems with ground loops and hums and we get 1 phase of ~240V AC with outlets that support 13 Amps as standard.
We did a couple things at our house that helped.
1. The utility company was kind enough to change out our pole transformer for a higher capacity new one.
2. Occasionally I hear a hum from our Koehler transfer switch. I think it is an electric magnet buzzing away in the switch. When it happens I shut off the main utility line power feed and let the generator transfer switch cycle to generator power. After the generator runs ten minutes or so I switch back to utility power and the transfer switch resets with almost always with no buzz.
3. The Koehler whole house generator creates good clean power at least as far as I can tell.
4. Our transfer switch is located in the house where it is easy to access in bad weather.
Best wishes to anyone with these sorts of problems.
Thanks for the detailed electrical upgrade video showing the possibilities when cleaner power improves audio signals and elimination of humming. My 73 year old apartment building requires the band-aid approach especially with several apartments sharing the same vertical 15 amp circuits. I improved my "modest" 2 HiFi systems with PS Audio's P12 and P15 -- closer to Audiophile heaven. You were lucky that your P15 and P20 were loaners from Paul McGowan.
I was. They are very nice to me.
Great to hear that it works well.
I know of at least one audiophile who also had a new pole mounted transformer installed to feed only his home.
Me too. My power company won't do that...
I have a dedicated consumer box with an additional bussbar (double the current :) ) in my hifi room which comes directly after the meter wire with an additional earth spike for my hifi.
The limit in my mains is the main house fuse as the tail from the road is old wiring.. that wire is all underground in the UK.
Glad to see you're having a large dedicated earth spike nearer your hifi.
Glückwunsch zu diesem Upgrade!
Ich habe seit einigen Wochen zwei separate Stromleitungen für mein Stereo System. Die Verbesserung sind deutlich hörbar.
Not sure why, but this was really interesting stuff. Thanks Michael.
Great video. Love stuff like this.
This is awesome.
Great video Mike
Happy New Year Michael. Thanks for this video. As an electrician and EET I try to explain many of these principles to others. Nothing like a video. Those dam inspectors catch everything. Lmao Cheers
Only in America! Wooden houses with all the main electrical stuff on the outside, exposed to rain and cold. Imagine having hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of equipment and records in there……
Power is very important so I am not surprised by these results. We put in a 200 service a few years ago now with a new interior panel. Years later, after Sandy we put in a 27kw Generac generator which runs the entire house. We have the transfer switch too and there was no degradation of the sound.
This upgrade you have done Michael is something I always say should be they very last upgrade to the system. I'm glad this makes your listing experience better. Keep spinning your records it's really a joy to listen to you and your wit and knowledge. Thank you.
Recently, I have made a similar power line with subpanel and new ground rod for my audio room. The difference are day and night, small investment big rewards.
Listening to The Beatles at 220 volts is like lifting a veil up from off of the music. Ringo's highhat really cuts through.
Well done Michael people don’t realise how important power is to sound quality, have you ever thought of cleaning up your listening room aswell 😆
I do clean it but then stuff arrives and it gets messy again.
@@AnalogPlanet
Looked like my room
Best advice I’ve seen in a long time regarding wiring, cables, etc… people really get mind controlled by the “so-called” audiophiles who believe wire is wire and everything advertised to improve said wiring is snake oil. I upgraded my service to a 400amp meter from the transformer all the way to my outlets including the transformer.
I could actually understand the majority of what was done and why. Well beyond our budget but thanks for sharing Micheal.
Fremer is in a part of Jersey that is becoming notorious for power outages and monsoon type rain events. He probably is also near End of Service, so they get to his neighborhood last when power goes out. That is also a problem in the Hudson River Valley. It is beautiful around there but also very gnarly for power companies when they have to restore service. Many large trees up against miles of power lines and the ground gets saturated.
I'm running Yamaha 200 watt applications with Klipsch speakers 🔊 so I understand how important it truly is... no muming or hissing is good thing!
Totally awesome. Cool dudes. Nice shirt. GHA British Supermarine Spitfire.
Very interesting stuff. Most North American audiophiles have a house powered through a 2S meter. It is made to be cheap and for easy power disconnect. The two phases run through two cheap metal bars with cheap tabs that stick into the a cheap socket. In many cases the connection is weak and corroded. A lot of houses burn down every year because of a hot meter box. Little micro arcs where the tabs plug into the socket get hot and the box gets hot. Mike had those nice cedar shingles (kindling) that easily catch fire. Needless to say this crappy connector is a great noise source.
I am lucky to have a 400amp service with a 3S meter, meaning big thick copper cables go directly to the disconnect panel and not through a meter. The metering is done with current transformers that sense the power going through the big thick wire.
But I am going to be careful when I get a Generac system with a new panel. I'll now know to measure the noise on each phase and ensure the circuit to my audio room is isolated from the rest and using the best power available. And I'll get the ground reading.
Thank you Michael for the information I just found this video is in October 15th 2021 it's 2022 now but I just found it but thanks for the information that would really help a lot thanks once again keeps spinning records👍👍 and God bless🙏🎸🎼
Michael, thx for the excellent info on home wiring.
But the question I have, purchased to different sealed copies of Zeppelin 45rpm Stairway to Heaven test pressings months ago.
One from Clarity vinyl and the other from RTI. Have you compared the two or will you review the two to see if there is any substantial difference.
Eventually I will send them off to Perfect vinyl forever to be professionally cleaned.
hope to hear back from you.
thank you
Hi Michael would it not have been better to have a balanced mains for your hi fi like some recording studios do? .
this is totally insane.. Just the way I like it ;-)
wow, from a european perspective US power infrastructure is pretty primitive
Hi again Michael, I have a Gigawatt power conditioner and it shows what the power voltage is in real time when it is at 240 volts you can hear the difference from when it’s under 240 volts, for all the power sceptics out there, also Michael can you do a video at the Stouten record sleeve company, would love to see their operation.
There is one. Look for Stoughton Press
What kind of cable & gauge did you run from your utility room panel to your outlets?? Curious if you used some type of audiophile cable or just regular Romex.
It's in a raceway so it's not romex.
Likely THHN or equivalent.
Mad Scientist Audio Graphene Contact Enhancer used on every connection in all three Audio and Home Theater Systems... Both inside the house and outside the house. Including the DSL line and ground. :)
It's true , EVERYTHING makes a difference with achieving gorgeous analogue sonics!
No.
@@leon9021 sorry Leon, but everything does make a difference as long as you're not talking about carpet colors and the like
@@AnalogPlanet Well there you go, something that doesnt make a difference. The real importancr is if it makes and audible difference however, and that is far from everything.
@@AnalogPlanet Untrue. I have found that blue carpet widens the soundstage and lowers the noise floor. Prove me wrong.
The delusion is strong with this one
Hi Michael As a retired electrical contractor in the Uk I could see the potential, excuse the pun for a problem with ground hum and other feed back issues. I must admit I thought your original installation was very poor in the first place , so thankfully the gentleman you got involved has transformed it into a safer and of course less noisy system . The use of aluminium as electrical conductors was a thing back in the 70s when copper was in short supply , so maybe your property was of that time . Just another thing that might improve things even more , is can you try and separate wires as much as possible and eliminate cables crossing over each other . Magnetic fields can be induced and create noise in their own right . I know you have the ability to hear these small differences , so anything that can help achieve your exacting standards will be I’m sure worth it . Best wishes and kind regards as always 😀👍
Any follow-up with av video?
I had an interesting scenario happen last year. So I live in Pensacola Florida and last September we had quite a big storm come through, hurricane sally and the power went out and was continually out for about a week. During that time my neighbor who has a similar generator to the one you show here kindly let me run a couple extension cords to my house to power things like the refrigerator and a few lights and things. Anyway during that week I decided one night to unplug the lights from one of the extension cords and plug in my system And I’m not sure why but I kid you not when I say that it was the best I have ever heard my system sound. I mean I don’t have a fancy system either, basically a vintage system, consisting of a Yamaha cr1020 receiver and khorns.
That's odd because generator power is notorious for producing bad sound...
@@AnalogPlanet Yeah kind of strange for sure, but as you talk about I didn’t do it expecting a change. I simply hooked up my system one night so I could listen to some music and lo and behold it was fantastic. Now whether or not he had the exact model of generator as you show here I can’t say and of course the 50 feet of extension cord certainly didn’t do any favors.
I may be crazy... But I think I know Craig Bradley. Please ask him if he worked at Angel Sound in NYC in the 70s and 80s. If so I worked with him for 5 years...
Would Solar & battery be cleaner?
As a licensed electrician and audio lover, I agree with most of what was done. The idea of running a single circuit into the basement panel was not a good idea at all. Good to see the inspector picked that up. I wasn’t really impressed with those guys you brought over from the west coast, as any decent electrician knows all of this mentioned in the video. I know of a few things that still could have been improved but glad to see you are now in a much better place with your power. All steps in the right direction.
What was wrong with single phase? It’s all I’m using.
@@AnalogPlanet
Code isn't my forte, but your inspector being the "local authority having jurisdiction", what they say goes, ... especially in Jersey, no?
So, I'd need more info, however it appears your guys brought 3 wires to the sub panel.
Two blacks, and a ground.
One black identified as neutral w/white phase tape.
I'm guessing the inspector wanted your indoor sub panel to have legit single phase 240v (two hot blacks), one neutral, and safety ground.
Sound about right?
@@AnalogPlanet technically he didn't say you couldn't use one phase but rather to run both wires to the panel. this might be warranted just to avoid surprising some future owner and/or be required by code , the latter I do not know.
running your whole system on one phase is probably the best sounding way to do it. that's how most people run, one plug to the wall and an power strip (fancy or not) to the components. yours a little more involved given the giant amps. there will be differing noises on L1 and L2. Having everything on just one of them, they will all see the same (common) noise, which might let them reject it as a system -- or not, but intuitively using one phase makes sense to me for that reason. (At least if all your wires are big enough and such and not losing any dynamics.)
Next upgrade, the cable to the power station?
I am desperate to know your verdict on the electricity upgrade. I have just done same at home.
Was huge!
Fremer if you want to tweak your power just try sticking a car key into your electrical outlet. Works like a charm!
my car key is plastic
Michael - Basement sump pumps in case of a broken water pipe or flooding.
I've been here 22 years through Hurricanes Floyd and Sandy and this lower level (not a basement) has been dry. I think it's pretty safe!
how often is there a power loss you need a generator for ?
We lost power for more than a week during Hurricane Sandy, we last power for a week after Hurricane Isaia (or however it's spelled) last summer and that was enough. It's only going to get worse unless you are a climate change denier.....so I'd rather be ready...
Would you be willing to share how much all of this cost?
Love it. When we moved into a smaller older more expensive home (ridiculous i know) I had a dedicated line and some audiophile surge protector installed. Stereo sounded great! But wasn’t able to make a comparison from before 😜 my only issue with this - Michael I think you should have removed the weird wood shingle siding and replaced with something else before doing all this work. 😝
My head is swimming right now.
I'm looking at all this stuff tacked on to the exterior of the house, thinking "What a cludge ...."
It's open to the weather, vulnerable to damage, could get frozen in winter and overheated in summer.
I'm in the UK, and my electric feed enters in an interior corner of my garage, having reached there via underground ducting. All of the electric feed units (main switch, meter, fuse box / breakers / consumer unit) are inside the garage, and all the cable runs are inside.
It would have been cool to hear the price it cost. Quite an operation.
Since you're bypassing the transfer switch does this mean your stereo won't have electricity from the generator in case of an outage?
that is correct, the transfer switch is after that exterior main panel.
Yes. I can live with that.
@@AnalogPlanet orly? ima make a prediction....
Yes, that’s right. Oddly that isn’t pointed out in the video even though it’s one of the primary changes - the other being the addition of a couple of external earth spikes. All the rest is largely fluff.
An aside how do you find anything in your listening and associated room!
Yes, I'd like to say that the tidy up happened after the room tour but I'm not optimistic.
It's a great mental exercise. Understand that gear and records are arriving all the time. I do know where everything is..
One more thing I would do if I was Fremer is I would have 6" culverting pipes from the downspouts to direct water off my roof and away from the foundation when there are weather events. These could be laid by the side of the house and shoved on the downspouts when bad weather is forecast. Get that water shooting away like 6 or 12 feet away from house. Cost = $50-75 from Home Depot.
Been here 20 plus years and perfectly dry lower level.
@@AnalogPlanet Good to hear. I just worry with all this new climate change monsoon weather we get down our way.
Great video, however I would have done it completely differently,I say that as a licensed and bonded electrical contractor/administrator over here in Washington state,I have also been generac factory certified in the repair maintenance and installation of generac generators since 2007, the biggest problem with your electrical service was the fact that you didn't even have a mast to begin with,you had S.E.R. ( service entrance rated) cables going to your meter base, exposed, unfused/not protected from physical damage or the elements conductors going to your meter base. I'm also an audiophile,just came across your channel and I really enjoy your content.As far as your electrical system is concerned minimum code means just that,so long as it meets minimum code requirements and so long as the end result and your goal was achieved it doesn't matter how it was done, over thought or not. 1 other thing if you enjoy listening to a.m. radio make sure you don't have any photocells on your property because they inturupt the a.m. signal
After 50 year in IBEW... you need service up grade and a good experienced electrician first, happy to see harmonic metter on site... start grounding and isolating parts of your system to find your problems.
Thanks for posting!
Notice how these East Coast Jewish people want you to believe diversity is our strength and yet when they need help, who do they call upon, but white people.
I’m surprised you didn’t put in a pair of 240v outlets just in case you want to move to more high powered amps in the future like a pair of Boulder 3050s.
It'd be very simple to implement, he could likely do it without pulling any additional wires.
He's got 240v in the utility room panel, simply land the receptacle neutral, and the receptacle hot... onto a new two pole breaker.
How much did you get for your scrap aluminum wire 25/60/4 Cents US per pound? Fremmer look at what you have started. Now well healed audiophile home owners living in old homes will find a need to upgrade the home electrical system. Future selling point for you home upgraded electrical system. Wow you test some turntables outside of your listening room. So tell us the total price for upgrade ($15K I JUST READ not bad considering the price of some of your components). And do not forget to tell us all the brand of wiring used within this upgrade. Also in future reviews do not forget to mention the upgraded electrical system and its effect on your stereo. Thanks for sharing!!
Mike the is just what happen I have a pony box off main bow . 40 amp in pony . All I need to run my small tube ,horn sytem . And my AV setup
Do you get animals in your backyard?
rabbits, groundhogs, raccoons, foxes and an occasional Coyote
Did anybody compare the power before and after with an oscilloscope or something to measure any actual difference?
Hey! Dont you trust your ears!!11 Why would you measure after spending A Fortune, when you can just listen and believe that you can hear some difference :-D
@@mikepawntee2425 Actually it was measurably better and digital has its own MEASURABLE and certainly audible issues...similar to your head problems.
@@nukester. It was measurably better.
You have the messiest listening room I’ve ever seen. Looks like a hoarders house.
Mike, I live in NJ, and would love to hear your stereo. The boys at Audio Connection (Verona, NJ) will vouch for me being normal. They have installed my Vandersteen / Aesthetix / Clearaudio gear and room treatments in my home.
I know that you invite guests over, when they are disbelievers. Although I am not a disbeliever... if I said that vinyl is no good, would you insist that you change my mind with a listening session?
If you are amenable to treating me to a listening session, I will contact John, Nick, or Greg and let him know to expect your call, and to share with you my contact info.
And I have a few gem pressings that I would love to hear, too (and you, too, might enjoy), including some of the widest soundstaging I ever heard.
Great video. These guys really helped you out. One thing that is a red flag for me is your house has aluminum wiring. Aluminum wiring is a fire hazard and should be replaced everywhere you have it in the house to copper. I am no expert, but I know aluminum wiring does not meet code n Ontario where I live for that reason.
My neighbor in Toronto had his house burned when the Aluminum wiring caused a fire. Lucky for me, my house built at the same time used copper.
Some of these back up systems use a floating neutral. I don't believe that is a good idea. Your normal service does not have a floating neutral. Also your sub panel needs the extra phase added. Then balance the panel so both phases are used.
thanx for making this video mikey! I am an electrician and this is something i have done for customers and myself. i am not offering critique but im thinking i might have to adjust my billing for a job like this. one thing i will say is im a big fan of metalic raceways inside for noise reasons and improved grounding.
Back in your coffin Fremer. Dawn approaches.
says the werewolf? I'm not a vampire
Glorious mess in that listening room
Im in a highrise apartment.What can I do?Power regenerator?Im currently using a shunyata hydra 6 conditioner.
Try a Regenerator and compare…
Oooh, a guy can dream.
Funny to see the deeply concerned faces of the two guys. Distortion on the power line influences the sound of your audio gear!? Snake oil. De-subbed. Ciao!
Micheal I hope you are not in a flood zone. It appears that you have your set up in the basement. Also, do you believe that lower ceiling height effects the overall sound?
Not in flood zone. Set up is lower level but not full basement. We have 8 foot ceilings, which are pretty normal and I get really good sound here. We've lived in this house for 22 years and even though we are at the bottom of a terraced hill, the lower level remains dry. We were here for hurricane Floyd and hurricane Sandy and 100% dry so I'm confident it will remain dry!
@@lox_5017 trees are good
I have always wondered why people haven't spent more money and attention on the electrical system of the house if they want to achieve true audiophile sound. The electricity feeding the system is pretty important.
That old house, because of its location, is probably worth about $3M
I wish! But no....
Amazing !!! Thanks for sharing…. Curious what the range in cost would be to do this properly…
Total should be around $15K or less depending upon how deep you dive. But once you do this your need for costly power conditioners greatly diminishes
@@AnalogPlanet Thanks. Makes total sense !!!
The electricity comes from a cable which hangs over the street from an electricity pole. I thought the US of A was a modern country.
Here in Europe all the electricity goes safely underground.
Not all in the UK. Many cables are above ground to homes.
Left Guy: Shirt too small
Right Guy: Shirt too big
Solution: Buy monster cables
Did those 2 "Con Men" from the West coast sell you a Unicorn aswell ?!
Please sit on a shimano crank and have a party.
Vast sums of money for marginal (confirmation bias?) gains. Answer me this, in the endless quest for 'sonic perfection' (some call it hearing the authentic reproduction of the original recording) which is the 'real' sound, the one you hear anyway or the one you hear when you cup your hands behind your ears? Spend thousands on 'room treatments' to achieve a similar result. Upgrade, change, replace, reposition - whatever you do there will always be 'flat ears' vs 'cupped ears', and the difference is huge. Which is the 'true' sound????
the real reason for all this is fun, records and stereos are fun, a download is no fun.
I wonder how you could have been objective in judging high-level equipment if the dcs was also generating noise ... I can't understand!
The dCS was not putting any hash on the line because I've always had power conditioning isolation.
Now all ya need is an organizer for your room that place is an OHS issue just waiting for a fire .
And i hope your still not playing with matches .
While this work was being done a lot of gear had to be moved off of the racks and onto the floor. It's normally crowded but not this disorganized.
What I don’t understand is how any of this is new to you? All these mains and grounding issues have been major points of discussion within the UK audio scene for the last twenty years or so!
I’m also extremely surprised you need a backup generator at all! I can’t remember the last time I had a power outage and it wasn’t for very long. It’s not as if you live in the middle of nowhere.
Life is full of surprises. I've not seen this discussed in the U.K. "audio scene". For one thing, I do not live in the U.K. Responses to my videos from the UK are often from a bunch of crabby wankers. That said, we lost power for a week after Hurricane Sandy. No fun. We lost power for a week after Hurricane Isaiah no fun. I'm tired of firing up a gasoline powered generator and running power cords throughout my house to get power not including heat and hot water. Climate Change is going to make these generators more important over time which is my more and more of my neighbors have installed these natural gas powered generators. They add value to home when you resell. Besides the cost plus installation is about the same as a 1 M pair of "audiophile" interconnects...
Look into the stock price appreciation of Generac over the past 12 months--you will quickly get an idea how often power goes out around the world. Stock is up like 150% in last year as more and more people have dealt with extended periods of power outages.
You don’t have to live in the U.K. to have an idea of what audiophiles are discussing - particularly if it has been taking place for many years and you have access to the Internet. Additionally, as you so sadly demonstrate, you don’t have to be from the U.K. to be a ‘crabby wanker’ either. You put yourself forward as an ‘expert’ so I think it’s only reasonable that you should have some idea what’s going on in the world with regard to audio matters. I wasn’t criticising the cost of your installation (indeed, the cost didn’t occur to me) or your use of a generator, I am just surprised you need one. However, putting your rather rude response aside, it really is true that separate mains arrangements, wiring, fuse upgrades (I mean the one that exists immediately before the consumer unit) and separate grounds (precisely as you install in your video) really have been widely discussed for many years. I have no problem with you doing these improvements and even have very similar in my own house. I don’t have the external earthing scheme you have implemented but many here do (particularly if they have Naim systems it seems).
@@AudioFlat only a wanker claims to know everything that's "going on". No one does. Getting on my case for not knowing what's "going on" on the Internet is not something I have time for.
@@AnalogPlanet, but apparently you do have time to be rude and obnoxious; don’t forget the ‘wanker’ comment was a slight made by yourself! I couldn’t care less what ‘you have time for’ but you really should have noticed this as it has been widely discussed for nigh on twenty years and across many countries. As you are so prickly on the subject you no doubt realise your error, but your unpleasant response does you no credit. Read back through these comments and you will see I have been polite whilst you have been abrasive, dismissive and outright rude.
I’m not a big “cable-making-big-difference” guy, but the few times that I did upgrade my power cables, they made a rather noticeable difference that none of my other cable upgrades ever made.
its simple psychology usually if your cables were not faulty/broken to begin with.
Dont you ever wonder why no one does true ABX -double blind tests for power cables?
"trust your ears!" is bit bad idea if you understand from psychology something that 6-year old could understand. You want to hear some difference, you will for sure be easily able to believe you hear Something.
Truth is that I get some comfort too from having better looking cables than most cheap standard stuff that simply just works for what they are meant for :-P But not ready to pay a lot for that.
Cable Believers should be taken to visit recording studios. Although it might be so that they would absolutely not believe that Their records would ever be made in Those studios where there were all standard cables, be it signal or power cords. No extra-expensive fancy stuff there, except for the equipments itself which may cost quite a bunch.
Power cables make among the greatest sonic differences. Only if you've never tried it could you remain a doubter
Not to take anything away from your electrician, but w(hy) tf did he put a ground rod in the middle of your yard?
Never in 40+ years of doing electrical work have I seen that or any sort of cadwelding of the main grounding electrode for a single family dwelling.
If you're going to bury the grounding electrode connection in earth, you have to cadweld it. This is weird..
NEC code requires that you have two rods and that they have to be a minimum of 6' apart.
So why not put them 6' feet apart next the house. That's normal in residential work.
A clean way to run the grounding electrode, drive one rod next to the panel and one 6' away. Run the grounding electrode (#8 BAG for a 100 amp panel, #4 for 200 amps) continuous from the rod farthest from the panel to the water line, from the water line to the rod by the panel and then from that rod to a ground bushing at the grounding connection on the panel (I use a Meyers hub to keep it simple) to the ground lug or neutral buss on the panel.
In California, we have to clamp the main grounding electrode within 3 feet of the main water shut off valve.
So that's where I put my first ground rod (unless the main service is installed right next to it).
I'm also curious as to why your electrician used a separate meter socket feeding a sub panel, instead of an "all in one" panel that has both the meter socket and the distribution (the circuit breakers for your home).
It's a lot less expensive both in materials cost and labor.
The fact that he only pulled in one phase to supply your sub panel for your stereo shows a lack of knowledge of the NEC, even if he pulled dedicated neutrals for each circuit (which he would have to).
That's why the inspector called him on it.
Anyway, it doesn't matter, it's done now.
You would still do well to have a power conditioner, since everything in your house is using the same ground (which it has to according the NEC), which is bonded to the neutral at the panel.
So any sort of noise emanating from dimmer hum could feed back into your system.
For everyone else: Get a PS Audio P20!
If you read his review of this carefully, it was much better than his AQ Niagara 7000, which is just a conditioner.
I did not say that at all.
These American above the ground utility lines are medieval. What a mess.
Same in many parts of the UK.
Sounds like a great way to solve an imaginary problem.
you are a fool. Do you think recording studios do this, which they do, because it's an "imaginary problem"? Do you think ground noise is imaginary? Get real.
@@AnalogPlanet There is a big difference between a recording studio and someone's home setup. Audiofools like to imagine all sorts of things that don't exist.
@@seanfyodorovich5230 There is very little difference. Dirty noisy electricity affects both recording and playback. What existed in my room was noise and hum. Harly imagined. You are an idiot
@@AnalogPlanet agreed. I’ve found even leaving an electric tooth brush charger plugged in has a very detrimental impact on sq.
Better late than never, but what, no 0/00/000 AWG Van Den Hul wiring? Don't tell us you kept the Dumb Meter? And where are all the EMF field meter dudes? Doesn't this mean you have to go back and redo most of your previous, contaminated audio reviews? 🤡 👺 🎃
No it does not. For obvious reasons. Please check your own dumb meter
@@AnalogPlanet Your previous, valuable reviews have always been required reading for audiophiles and others. This is a historic upgrade but there's alot to be said for field meter checks and measurements that might reveal unwanted emf pollution, dirty electricity, elevated fields and downstream wiring mishaps - all of which can affect your health if not the sonics. Some utilities or states won't allow for polluting dumb meter opt-outs but fortunately mine does. Saludos ⚡💤💥