LED Bulbs

[silverr1]

So I recently removed a smart dimmer for my music listening room. I was having a high frequency glare that would come and go in my system. I narrowed it down to the dimmer and now everything sounds great. 

 

I replaced it with an incandescent bulb and regular switch. The only bulb I had available is on the brighter side and you would be surprised how hard it is to get an incandescent bulb in this day and age of LED bulbs. 

 

My question is do LED bulbs dirty up the AC power like cheap power supplies do? 

 

thoughts?

[dericchan1]

1 hour ago, silverr1 said:

So I recently removed a smart dimmer for my music listening room. I was having a high frequency glare that would come and go in my system. I narrowed it down to the dimmer and now everything sounds great. 

 

I replaced it with an incandescent bulb and regular switch. The only bulb I had available is on the brighter side and you would be surprised how hard it is to get an incandescent bulb in this day and age of LED bulbs. 

 

My question is do LED bulbs dirty up the AC power like cheap power supplies do? 

 

thoughts?

I wonder when you had the smart dimmer switch, did you also had issues even when the lights were not on? Like if you listen to music in the room with lights off?

[silverr1]

Yes but not as bad as when the lights were on. Once the dimmer switch and led bulbs removed it has improved the most.

 

[dericchan1]

4 minutes ago, silverr1 said:

Yes but not as bad as when the lights were on. Once the dimmer switch and led bulbs removed it has improved the most.

 

My basement has 4 smart dimmer switches and about 50 led pot lights, I don’t think I ever notice any issue but wonder if switch them back to regular switches might be sq improvements worthy as a audiophile tweak 😂 

 

I always listen to music with lights off tho, just a habit not an audiophile thing 

[JoeWhip]

IMHO, it is the dimmer switch that is the cause of your issue, not the bulb. 

[silverr1]

That is what I was suspecting based on how they work for LED bulbs. Just wanted to see if anyone else had poor experience with LED bulbs. 

[yamamoto2002]

LED bulbs emits radio frequency EM noise. incandescent lamp does not. Amount of noise energy from LED lamp is different by models. Every models sold should meet noise reguration but expensive one from famous brand is not always low noise. There is LED bulbs noise comparison at 17:40 of the following video. Surprisingly cheapest one is the lowest noise

 

[PeterG]

I had a dedicated line run to my stereo.  It was only a few hundred dollars

[dericchan1]

27 minutes ago, PeterG said:

I had a dedicated line run to my stereo.  It was only a few hundred dollars

I have a dedicated 20A line to my stereo as well not sure if that matters

[PeterG]

19 hours ago, dericchan1 said:

My basement has 4 smart dimmer switches and about 50 led pot lights, I don’t think I ever notice any issue but wonder if switch them back to regular switches might be sq improvements worthy as a audiophile tweak 😂 

 

13 hours ago, dericchan1 said:

I have a dedicated 20A line to my stereo as well not sure if that matters

 

I think you answer your own question...I'm not an engineer or electrician, but my understanding of the dedicated line is that it prevents other electrical components, such as all those dimmers, from interfering with your stereo.  

[yamamoto2002]

I have some sort of electrician license, and installed dedicated audio line because I'm an audiophile VVF-2.0 3C with 20A MCB. It is connected to distribution board bus bar and HVAC is connected to the same bar. When HVAC works, audio line voltage fluctuates. I think it is caused by voltage drop on company service wire? I'm not sure if dedicated audio line contributes to improve SQ or not. Maybe using special shielded cabtire cable used at broadcast studios such as CV-S 3.5 3C and connect shield copper foil to GND using copper radius clamp only on distribution board end may contribute to reduce radio frequency incoming noise radiated from LED bulbs or other home appliances, but HVAC voltage fluctuation cannot be prevented.

 

This is oscilloscope screen of Picoscope 4444 with Picoconnect 442 CATIII probe to measure AC line voltage while HVAC running. Voltage fluctuation is visible.

 

[silverr1]

Interesting, are you able to hear anything that impacts your sound quality while the AC is running?

[yamamoto2002]

16 minutes ago, silverr1 said:

Interesting, are you able to hear anything that impacts your sound quality while the AC is running?

It seems it does not affect to sound quality, but ceiling light brightness fluctuates very slightly

 

About main lines problems, my Genelec subwoofer emits hum noise, hum level vary considerably day by day, it seems it is not related to HVAC, when there is a DC voltage offset on mains, power transformer rambles.