What Is The Darndest Thing That Made An Improvement Tweak Wise?

[fas42]

44 minutes ago, sandyk said:

 The running Fridge is most likely causing an increase in the ambient sound level with some even emitting a low level "whine" Sometimes, better positioning in the room may help to reduce this.

Even Air Conditioning running in Quiet Mode can do the same .

 

Might be for some people, Alex, but certainly in my current setup our fridge is adding to electrical noise - easily noted by pulling the cord to the unit. Solution is to improve the electrical isolation of the setup - I will keep adding until there's zero impact from muck in the environment.

 

Overall the audio industry has never understood how sensitive human hearing is to anomalies in what they hear - which means nearly all systems never work as well as they could, if the extra care was taken to attenuate interfering factors.

[fas42]

3 minutes ago, sandyk said:

 Frank

 Also given your recent post about mains cables, this shows just how badly designed the PSU area of some of your equipment is.

Some gear may be sensitive to the spike as a fridge cuts in and out, but that can usually be eradicated by fitting a 275V VDR  (230VAC Mains countries) in a double adaptor where the fridge is plugged in.

 

Alex

 

Alex, that's exactly the sort of trick I've been using for years to check sensitivity to noise - I juggle the type of devices that are plugged in, and monitor the impact. I have yet to come across a rig that doesn't react - the greater the potential SQ, the more one has to worry about it.

 

It's enlightening to read what the people behind the Living Voice speaker demos do - they go to fanatical lengths to condition the power; because they lose too much if they don't ...

[fas42]

36 minutes ago, sandyk said:

 Surely the Fridge is on a different electrical circuit to your audio gear ?

 There should be very little interaction other than the occasional switch on spike from the Fridge cutting in and out in that case .

 Another solution is to use a couple of mains filters. A DIY person can make a very effective filter using inexpensive ebay modules.

 e.g.  https://www.ebay.com/itm/3900W-EMI-18A-High-Frequency-Power-Filter-Power-supply-Assembled-Board-/283269375554

 

I  use a slightly different version in a Jiffy box with a top mounted double power point for my PC audio.

Abnormal electrical interference can also be caused by a poor or corroded Mains Earth in older houses.

I had this problem years ago at a previous address.

 

 

I started with it being on the same circuit. And worked forward to dedicated a circuit to the audio. Still is not good enough - this is the classic "step by step surgery" that I always do, finding out where I need to refine the overall situation.

 

My goal is to have the rig 100% robust - which I'm doing by adding in mains filters. Eventually the "are we there yet?!" dilemma will be resolved - the learning that I get from doing this exercise is always worthwhile.