|
Other Vintage Household Electrical or Electromechanical Items For discussions about other vintage (over 25 years old) electrical and electromechanical household items. See the sticky thread for details. |
|
Thread Tools |
14th Jan 2019, 2:31 pm | #41 |
Heptode
Join Date: Oct 2015
Location: Gloucestershire, UK.
Posts: 719
|
Re: Switched or Unswitched Sockets for HI-FI
It will have an astonishing effect. Moving to a new house, my system is all set up in a garden room with wooden flooring. The quality is not a patch on what is was in the old house. When I get chance, it will have carpet and heavy curtains in there to tame the bottom end a bit. It sounds like a 70s Amstrad music centre currently.
|
14th Jan 2019, 2:32 pm | #42 | |
Octode
Join Date: Oct 2011
Location: Wrexham, North Wales, UK.
Posts: 1,457
|
Re: Switched or Unswitched Sockets for HI-FI
Quote:
It seems pointless using batteries for daytime only to still require a mains socket by night, it might as well stay plugged in instead. Rick. |
|
14th Jan 2019, 2:33 pm | #43 |
Dekatron
Join Date: Apr 2012
Location: Worksop, Nottinghamshire, UK.
Posts: 5,553
|
Re: Switched or Unswitched Sockets for HI-FI
The layout of the walls has the greatest effect.
|
14th Jan 2019, 2:57 pm | #44 | |
Dekatron
Join Date: Feb 2007
Location: Lynton, N. Devon, UK.
Posts: 7,081
|
Re: Switched or Unswitched Sockets for HI-FI
Quote:
If you charge the batteries from the same socket that you would have powered the amplifier, all you have done is time-shifted the problem. If the socket's going to damage the electrons, it'll damage the electrons. The electrons stored in the battery will still be the same, second-class, chipped, squeezed, and generally socket-mutilated electrons that would have powered the amplifier direct. So the amplifier will sound exactly the same. You can't make a silk purse out of a sow's ear. |
|
14th Jan 2019, 3:31 pm | #45 |
Triode
Join Date: Oct 2018
Location: South Lakeland, Cumbria, UK.
Posts: 47
|
Re: Switched or Unswitched Sockets for HI-FI
The definitive answer is clearly to rewire the house ...
https://www.psaudio.com/ps_how/how-t...cated-ac-line/ ... and before anybody thinks I believe it, I have read it twice and I am not sure if this is a parody or the author believed it. Nick. |
14th Jan 2019, 3:34 pm | #46 |
Pentode
Join Date: Apr 2018
Location: Tyne and Wear, UK.
Posts: 168
|
Re: Switched or Unswitched Sockets for HI-FI
I did not intend to start a flame war.
I am no audiophool either, but hifi accessories fascinate me. |
14th Jan 2019, 3:37 pm | #47 |
Guest
Posts: n/a
|
Re: Switched or Unswitched Sockets for HI-FI
Best HiFi...
Decide budget, Spent a third on going to concerts, Chose one that sounds like the concerts, Easy really, oops I have gone off topic selecting/making a real HiFi not foolery nonsense. |
14th Jan 2019, 3:39 pm | #48 |
Rest in Peace
Join Date: Apr 2008
Location: London, UK.
Posts: 2,508
|
Re: Switched or Unswitched Sockets for HI-FI
Last year, there was an enquiry on an electrical forum from an electrician who had been asked by a customer to install a dedicated circuit for a new home cinema amplifier. It was to be wired in screened 6.0mm² cable, and he flagged it up because the cable they had specified did not comply with the wiring regulations, plus the spiel they had given the customer did not make sense to him.
The massed ranks of electricians had a good chuckle, and for those who were not fully convinced that amplifiers should not be passing huge transients through the mains lead, I succesfully demonstrated playing Deep Purple or something at maximum reasonably listenable volume, via a 315mA mains fuse. My response is always: If a difference in sound is perceptible when changing from one correctly fitted power cable or plug to another, there is a problem with the audio equipment that needs to be put right first. |
14th Jan 2019, 3:54 pm | #49 | |
Dekatron
Join Date: May 2008
Location: Derby, UK.
Posts: 7,735
|
Re: Switched or Unswitched Sockets for HI-FI
Quote:
__________________
If I have seen further than others, it is because I was standing on a pile of failed experiments. |
|
14th Jan 2019, 3:58 pm | #50 |
Triode
Join Date: Oct 2018
Location: South Lakeland, Cumbria, UK.
Posts: 47
|
Re: Switched or Unswitched Sockets for HI-FI
Gramophone1, apology, no intention to cause offence. Many of us like the bells and whistles - they add to our enjoyment in using the gear. I think it is just that many people feel that in the high end hifi audio world that many people good honest people are being exploited.
Several posters have correctly identified the difficulty posed re the subjective assessment of quality and hence enjoyment. If only it were a case of people honestly saying - try this it sounded better to me, but there is no good reason that it should - instead of inventing a pseudo-scientific explanation. Nick. |
14th Jan 2019, 4:12 pm | #51 | |
Dekatron
Join Date: Feb 2007
Location: Lynton, N. Devon, UK.
Posts: 7,081
|
Re: Switched or Unswitched Sockets for HI-FI
To be honest, I don't think you have! A few of us have probably had a smile, that's all!
Quote:
Much audiophool stuff has defied any attempts to measure it, or even detect it by double-blind testing. For the current thread, there is an argument to say that a bit of extra impedance in the mains is A Good Thing. Why? Because it reduces the peak currents into the amplifier's reservoir capacitors (while broadening their duration slightly) which both gives the capacitors a slightly easier time, and means that the following-on circuitry has a slightly less-rippley DC supply to contend with. So any intermodulation with the music being played, will be less. However, the extra impedance of the socket should in itself be too low to measure. And, even if you add 100 more sockets in series, the effect on the amplifier should still be too low to measure. If it CAN be measured, then it's a bad amplifier design anyway! |
|
14th Jan 2019, 4:28 pm | #52 | |
Octode
Join Date: Oct 2011
Location: Wrexham, North Wales, UK.
Posts: 1,457
|
Re: Switched or Unswitched Sockets for HI-FI
Quote:
To sum it up, I don't care for fancy stuff so long as the amp says "made in Japan" on it. Rick. |
|
14th Jan 2019, 4:46 pm | #53 |
Dekatron
Join Date: Sep 2011
Location: Rugeley, Staffordshire, UK.
Posts: 8,831
|
Re: Switched or Unswitched Sockets for HI-FI
Man of my own heart there.
__________________
A digital radio is the latest thing, but a vintage wireless is forever.. |
14th Jan 2019, 6:21 pm | #54 |
Guest
Posts: n/a
|
Re: Switched or Unswitched Sockets for HI-FI
One chuckles...
|
14th Jan 2019, 7:31 pm | #55 |
Nonode
Join Date: Jan 2016
Location: Stafford, Staffs. UK.
Posts: 2,532
|
Re: Switched or Unswitched Sockets for HI-FI
The best improvement you can make is using gold plated connectors on absolutely everything. Especially the TOSLink optical connections. The reduction in electrical resistance on this pure optical, digitally encoded path has to be heard to be believed. The same is true of the purely digital HDMI path, where your better off spending the best part of £100 for one than the £20 ones, the man in PCWorld says so therefore it must be true. The fact that you can get the £20 cable for less than a fiver from any half decent supplier, just means that the £4 cable will be even worse than the £20 one even though its the same thing from the same manufacturer in China.**
** Terms and Conditions apply. No purchasing decisions should be made on the basis of the statements made above since they may be entirely fictitious or worse. Oh, and yes, I have seen people flogging TOSLink cables with gold plated ends. I may even have one that was being sold off really cheap. |
14th Jan 2019, 7:38 pm | #56 |
Heptode
Join Date: Oct 2015
Location: Gloucestershire, UK.
Posts: 719
|
Re: Switched or Unswitched Sockets for HI-FI
There is justification for buying decent cables, HDMI or otherwise... Build quality. I often see customers coming with RF and HDMI cables with the business end broken off. Invariably they are Tesco or Poundshop types. That's not to suggest that I endorse the ridiculous claims and prices of the famed Dixons Retail Group members. (Leopards come to mind here for some reason).
|
14th Jan 2019, 8:15 pm | #57 |
Dekatron
Join Date: Jun 2005
Location: Warnham, West Sussex. 10 miles south of DORKING.
Posts: 9,147
|
Re: Switched or Unswitched Sockets for HI-FI
Sounds like the King'a new clothes...
What about the house consumer unit contacts, the sub station fuses and connections, the numerous connections to the pylons. This lovely lot just along the lane from my bungalow does not appear to effect the quality of my 'Hi Fi.' Oh well if yer can make a buck out of it, why not. Regards, John. Last edited by Heatercathodeshort; 14th Jan 2019 at 8:21 pm. |
14th Jan 2019, 8:42 pm | #58 |
Octode
Join Date: Oct 2011
Location: Wrexham, North Wales, UK.
Posts: 1,457
|
Re: Switched or Unswitched Sockets for HI-FI
John, you have some nice firewood there, should keep the fire going for a week!
Rick. |
14th Jan 2019, 10:15 pm | #59 |
Moderator
Join Date: Mar 2012
Location: Fife, Scotland, UK.
Posts: 22,869
|
Re: Switched or Unswitched Sockets for HI-FI?
You're being far too modest, John. Surely that first photo shows the output transformer for your new amplifier, the one with push-pull Eimac 4CX15000As?
The second photo shows your new Russ Andrews underground 3-phase feeder with the acoustically superior woven outer jacket in its fetching red colour with 'clock' patterns to match your favourite socks. The filling pour for the jointing box was done in melted cones from BBC monitors. David
__________________
Can't afford the volcanic island yet, but the plans for my monorail and the goons' uniforms are done |
14th Jan 2019, 10:20 pm | #60 | |
Nonode
Join Date: Jan 2016
Location: Stafford, Staffs. UK.
Posts: 2,532
|
Re: Switched or Unswitched Sockets for HI-FI
Quote:
|
|