What I badly need: A personal electrical utility pole

[joelha]

You have to love the Japanese or at least the Japanese who install their own electrical utility poles.

 

Just when you thought the folks who were putting their speaker cables on risers had gone too far . . .

 

A Gift for Music Lovers Who Have It All: A Personal Utility Pole - WSJ

 

If you can't read this article on the wsj site, you can get a synopsis here: https://www.engadget.com/2016/08/15/japan-audiophiles-install-own-electricity-poles/

 

Enjoy and rest assured in the knowledge that the state of the art in audio production is being advanced or, in this case, elevated.

 

Joel

[sdolezalek]

Not that I would recommend it, ... but... while I was building my current home, I lived in a house three doors down. We are out in the country so lines are still strung on old poles with aging transformers and there was both a lot of noise on the line and significant voltage fluctuations. So, when building the new house, I decided to run two dedicated lines direct from a newer transformer in an underground conduit to my meter and then circuit panel. The trenching was more expensive than the cable or conduit, but the result is that two houses away from where there was audible noise in my system, I now have no noise on the line, silence in my system and no voltage variation.

 

So I at least get where the Japanese notion comes from.

[One and a half]

If the Japanese gentlemen heard their music better at night, electrically, they are correct in that there are less switch-mode PSU appliances on the network at late at night creating low order (audible) harmonics. Depending on your amplifier, the low order harmonics can superimpose on the DC rails within a power amp and create frequencies that aren't part of the music. I tested a 50Hz signal and measured the output with a scope, and only found the 50Hz component, no other nasties on an Accuphase P-4200 power amp (and the rest of the system).

 

However, some amplifiers let the harmonics through, and these are visible on a scope that has FFT analysis. Given in Japan there are many people per square mile, and countless thousands of switch-modes to go along with them, the level of harmonics can be quite a problem.

 

Most likely the majority of cost of the pole is labour, plus the transformer. There's less harmonics though on the high voltage power lines, since the level of harmonics is attenuated by the ratio of the secondary (100V) to say 4000V (primary), plus the impedance of the transformer, if the high voltage runs in the street.

 

They could have saved themselves a bit of cash by using a combo of isolation, balanced transformers and maybe a regenerator with heavy filtering on the front end... then again maybe they tried this already!

[bluesman]

They could have saved themselves a bit of cash by using a combo of isolation, balanced transformers and maybe a regenerator with heavy filtering on the front end...

...or they could have spent the money on a lifetime supply of Hibiki 17 and lived happily ever after with what I'm sure are very fine systems.

[AudioDoctor]

I didnt even see this thread when I posted mine. Looks like they both have the same amount of interest though.

[AudioDoctor]

...or they could have spent the money on a lifetime supply of Hibiki 17 and lived happily ever after with what I'm sure are very fine systems.

 

Whiskey, or an audiophile power pole transformer... Hmmmm, I would probably choose whiskey.

[christopher3393]

May as well consider a utility pole upgrade as well.