The true experimental tweak thread

[One and a half]

3 hours ago, mozes said:

A new tweak by Furutech, the NCF Booster

http://www.furutech.com/

 

What a neat idea, and will stop strain on both the socket and plug.  Wonder how much the height can be adjusted.

As for the properties, a shielded cable won't make any difference, it's ferrite type properties could make an impact on unshielded AC cables. 

 

Back of rack might need an additional plate under a foot to support.

[One and a half]

4 hours ago, Forehaven said:

Cornan,  i’ve taken my transformer apart this morning to disconnect the secondary ground. However, the neutral became unplugged. The black wire. I’m not sure if it goes in the 10X or 11X next spot. Can you tell me which option the black wire goes back into the block? 

 

And, there's room to add another outlet, can I simply add the outlet, and use the same power wires to both outlets?

Which country you in with the transformer?

[One and a half]

15 minutes ago, Forehaven said:

US

I need a whole photo of the connections including the primary, and which model transformer do you have?

Looks like a very old one with the spiderwebs still part of the assembly process  That's OK though.

[One and a half]

1 hour ago, Forehaven said:

Agreed, I thought there might be a heat issue as well.

 

I'll get you the photos.  Here's what I have:

 

High Isolation Transformer                                              

• Used
• Elgar
• Model No. HIT 1.0.001R
• Pri. Volts 120
• Rating 1.0 KVA
• Freq. 50/60Hz
• EFF.CAP≤.001R pfd

Don't worry about the photos,  I found the cut sheet of the Elgar transformer on the Ametek website.

[One and a half]

2 hours ago, Forehaven said:

Agreed, I thought there might be a heat issue as well.

 

I'll get you the photos.  Here's what I have:

 

High Isolation Transformer                                              

• Used
• Elgar
• Model No. HIT 1.0.001R
• Pri. Volts 120
• Rating 1.0 KVA
• Freq. 50/60Hz
• EFF.CAP≤.001R pfd

 

Two choices A - Standard Mode 120V, B - Balanced Mode 60-0-60. GND connections should be all green/yellow cable.

If heat is a problem, balanced mode yields cooler temperatures. It's important to use 90C or higher wiring inside the transformer.

Don't disconnect the cables that come from the internals of the transformer. In the end you won't know which is which, and I'm not going to help sort out that mess.

 

A- Standard Mode connections (most likely as delivered)

 

Primary

H1 - Black (HOT)

Join H1 + H2 (No other connection!)

Join H3 + H4 (No other connection!)

H4 - White (Neutral)

Join H5 + GND

 

Secondary -

X7 - Black (HOT)

Join X7 + X8 (No other connection!)

Join X9 + X10

X10 - White (Neutral) + Join to X11 + Join to GND

 

Install an off the shelf GFCI, the portable type, on the output of the Elgar's outlet and the output of the GFCI to the equipment.

 

B- Balanced Mode

 

Primary

 

H1 - Black (HOT)

Join H2 + H3 (No other connection!)

H4 - White (Neutral)

Join H5 + GND

 

Secondary

 

X7 - Black (Hot 1)

Join X8 + X9 + GND + X11

X10 - Red (Hot 2)

 

Install a 2 pole GFCI the portable type on the output of the Elgar's outlet and the output of the GFCI to the equipment.

 

 

When measuring the Balanced connection, there should be, when this picture is used as an example, HOT to Neutral 120V, hot to Ground 60V, Neutral to Ground 60V.

 

Attached is the HIT manual.

HIT Series - High Isolation Transformers.pdf

[One and a half]

47 minutes ago, sandyk said:

Garry

 Are you able to give these guys some indepth information about where Earth Leakage devices should be used when playing around in an area like this with mains earth connections removed ?

 They might get away with some of this uninformed fiddling on 110V, but 240VAC is far less forgiving.

Alex

 

Earth connections should never be removed, only for the very rare occurrence with vintage oscilloscopes, these days isolated inputs are fairly common avoiding the need for an iso transformer. A vintage oscilloscope is not required for listening to audio!

 

Earth or ground must remain intact to the equipment. If noise is coupled to earth, then find another way to shunt or bypass noise. There are many products now which isolate the signals which are susceptible to interference caused by crud using AC transmissions and interconnections.  

 

AC powered equipment is not infallible, it does break down insulation and can and does render equipment's chassis live. F$ck. Even though you might be on carpet, sure as eggs, and everything floats, there's going to be one component you don't think of, that will be grounded properly and there's a huge spark with you in the middle, dead, and fried equipment beyond repair. 

 

Lifting earths/grounds is not acceptable and illegal in many countries. Insurance companies will void any claims if equipment is found modified creating a dangerous situation. Should an incident arise, the authorities, that is, if you are still living, can impose fines for creating a hazardous situation. Not. Worth. It.

 

When using an isolation transformer, upstream protection RCD/ELCB/GFCI don't see what's on the other side of the transformer. It is a simple exercise to use a portable RCD/ELCB/GFCI on the output of an isolation transformer.

 

Any portable RCD/ELCB/GFCI can be used obtained from the local hardware or electrical shop for earthed secondary connections on the isolation transformer something like this device. Sensitivity can be anything from 3mA to 30mA depending on your country.

 

For balanced supplies, a 2 pole RCD/ELCB/GFCI is necessary. These are harder to find, but they do exist. The installation needs some qualification to comply with rules set aside in various countries for balanced supplies. 

 

[One and a half]

@Cornan, here's the illustration of two topics at CA, grounding, star grounding at that and isolation transformer.

 

As stated before, the LT3045 need a little more volts to drive the loads, but are programmable, so whatever the loads are, 7V, 9V 12V etc, each has its own regulator. The main power supply needs to drive the sum of all loads in A, + 50% for future use. Positive is shown in red, 0V in black.

 

R1. No fixed rule here, please try 15 Ohms or less or perhaps a variable linear resistor to find the optimum . 1/2 watt resistor should be plenty and also makes it easier to connect. Can also do without R1, no fixed rules. This method is a classic star. Then if you measure from the IT ground point to any 0V on the outputs of the LT3045, the number is the same instead of all over the place and leakage currents are just about dead.

 

 

LV Power supply star grounding.pdf

[One and a half]

1 hour ago, WuNgUn said:

I dont think this "noise" travels around your power line thruout your house...electricity will ALWAYS  find the lowest impedence to ground. But of course, a poorly setup hi fi rig just may be this low impedance path!

I thought the noise travels back the source.

[One and a half]

18 minutes ago, Balázs said:

P.S. Actually I'm planning to mod my HDPLEX 200W to drive a Brooklyn DAC+ and 2x Mutec MC3+ USB reclockers with the help of Michael's boards  I think I definitely need something  like a pre-regulator as @sandyk suggested above at least for the Mutec's 6.3 Vdc input. 

 

Please have a rethink on the Mutec, the AC power consumption is 10W, at 6.3V, albeit with some efficiency drops 1.5A is tight. This doesn't allow for any overload at the start with all those LEDs to power on during the self test.

[One and a half]

1 hour ago, sandyk said:

 

 Due to the low 1V difference between  the input and output voltages of the LT3045 PCB, you are only dissipating a maximum of 1W of heat with a current of 1A..

 If your current requirements were only 100mA or less, for example ,(like powering a Xtal Oscillator etc. )   you could safely use the LT3045 with even +12V In, and +5v or +3.3V Out .

Ah, that’s how they get around the low noise, by not dissipating so much heat when higher voltages on the LM series.

[One and a half]

5 minutes ago, RickyV said:

something like this mains filter

Shunt filters only work in part of the spectrum unfortunately and are of limited value. Series filters work better but can get hot. The heat is dissipating rubbish power, but some of that power you pay for. In essence you pay to receive frequencies you don't want.

 

Iron is what's needed, heavy iron!

 

[One and a half]

51 minutes ago, Cornan said:

One thing that I have been wondering about with these capacitors at in- and output of the LT3045 is that capacitors generally sag the voltage a little bit. IME with LT3045 they sound a bit better with a low voltage drop in my setup. I wonder if a part of their contribution to SQ is the actual voltage drop as well? 

That voltage sag will probably make it a bit more difficult to add them to the USB path, but I will still try it sooner or later. I will also see how it will affect the Spdif output on my BluWave board.

What you measure in sag is probably a reduction in ripple voltage. Caps maintain the voltage, after they are charged, but, but when charging they can draw lots of current, which sags the voltage momentarily.

Caps are also filters at a given frequency, think of that frequency as being a short circuit point.

At really high rf the leads on the caps form part of a filter circuit as well!

[One and a half]

35 minutes ago, sandyk said:

 

Foobar 2000 is not renowned for it's SQ. 

Different "Bit Perfect" player software can sound different.

There is a lot more to it than just the correct 1s and 0s  as quite a few of the participants in this thread can attest.

Famously or infamously Foobar creators claim their playback is neutral, same with JRiver, so how come at regular intervals the sound changes, sometimes worse than a previous build. 

 

There’s unsaid manipulation of the playback system with every player. Try Clementine and Audirvana, talk about night and day!

[One and a half]

4 minutes ago, sandyk said:

 

Perhaps different Software causes different Processor usage patterns, and thus different electrical noise levels ? Foobar 2000 is probably Bloatware too.

 All of this stuff usually comes down to PSU interaction between components.

I think it’s eq, Amarra is classic for manipulation of their sonic signature.