Russ Andrews QRT

[Neiro]

Nigel, you are quite welcome to borrow the unit. I drive to Southampton quite regularly, I could pop on a ferry and drop it off to you. PM me if interested.

Rgds

[Shane]

I would be interested to know when the Faraday cage was installed. Was it an attempt to solve this problem? If so, how much difference did it make? If it didn't make any difference, it can hardly be blamed for causing the problem. If on the other hand it was put in when the system was first installed in the current location, it would seem to be a probable cause.

You say that whenever the system is tried at friends' houses it sings as it should. How far away does it have to go before this happens? Would it happen in another room in your house, or a neighbour's house just up the road? (I appreciate that this may not be easy to establish, but these sound like desperate times you're living in!).

Have you ever tried any other systems in your room to see if they suffer from the same effect?

[andrew ivimey]

Crikey Neiro, you really are one of the obsessed - Welcome! Its a hard life.

Leaving aside the Faraday cage (personally, I'd lock up all the farads I could find and throw away the key !!! ) we do need some A/B blind testing on this RA thingamiejog.

I don't want it to work either (surprise? I don't think so) and I applaud you getting the ball rolling. Can a test amongst peers be organised in anyway?

[Neiro]

Andrew, Shane,

yes with hindsight the Faraday cage does seem a bit excessive!! However I was at my wits end. Having tried everthing I knew after two years, including trying the system in every room in the house - my poor wife, the only thing I could think of was RF or mains. I had done the usual mains things, seperate ring, clean mains fuse, new breaker etc so I rather homed in on RF. It was not actually that difficult, my company imports equipment from the US and I found a supplier in California. The whole thing cost £400 and a few cuts and burns. Unfortunately I do not really have a before and after as my wife agreed I could convert the garage -(she got the house back!) into a listening room so I did it at the same time, however as I said my flat sound is anywhere in the house.

I am quite willing to loan the unit, accompanied, for an evening say or I am quite willing to entertain one or two curious people - just PM me. I am in Farnham, Surrey.

Rgds

[NealG]

Well, i'm intrigued.

I've used for a number of years the RA silencers and purifiers. These where a carry over from my last house where they made a noticeable difference to my ears.

In our current house I installed a dedicated RA ring main as I noted when I first set up my system the mains quality was a lot worse than the other house but the silencers didn't seem to make much difference. They still don't but the dedicated RA ring does!

I'm glad the QRT unit works for you but I can't help think you've treated the symptom and not the cause, it's sort of counter intuitive to me, however, if it works......then...great!

As noted above unless you have sealed all the gaps your 'Faraday' cage will be a useful as a chocolate fire guard. Given what you have written I suspect you have looked at all the obvious areas like an over damped room, equipment supports, mains consumer units (See RA's The Power and the Glory) ?

I'm also curious how far you are away from the substation and if it powers any industrial areas.

[Neiro]

Neal,

agreed it does treat the sympton not the cause, it just gives a nice effect in the right direction, however as I said it does not recreate what I get when things are 100%, I would much rather have that!. I have a nasty feeling that the cause may be out of my influence. I have done all the usual RA and Ben Duncan stuff.

I am in rural-ish location with a lot of overhead cables and transformers up poles, a couple of which are right next to phone masts. The sub-station is about 1km away. We suffer regular powercuts. I have spoken to the Electrical Network manager who informs me that are area is on its last legs as regards capacity and reliability are concerned!!

I have an accquaintance who is one of the leading RF engineers in the country, he lent me a box which when plugged into my system ring gave off quite a buzz. He told me that he had spent 5 years developing the internal components not to buzz!! He concluded therefore that my mains is worth some investigation. He hopes to come over at some point with all his test gear, so I am hoping to get some hard facts re the RF and mains in my area.

[pre65]

Hi-this may be a silly suggestion but could you try running your system off a generator ?

That would eliminate all the mains problems.


Philip

[NealG]

Originally Posted by Neiro

Neal,

agreed it does treat the sympton not the cause, it just gives a nice effect in the right direction, however as I said it does not recreate what I get when things are 100%, I would much rather have that!. I have a nasty feeling that the cause may be out of my influence. I have done all the usual RA and Ben Duncan stuff.

I am in rural-ish location with a lot of overhead cables and transformers up poles, a couple of which are right next to phone masts. The sub-station is about 1km away. We suffer regular powercuts. I have spoken to the Electrical Network manager who informs me that are area is on its last legs as regards capacity and reliability are concerned!!

I have an accquaintance who is one of the leading RF engineers in the country, he lent me a box which when plugged into my system ring gave off quite a buzz. He told me that he had spent 5 years developing the internal components not to buzz!! He concluded therefore that my mains is worth some investigation. He hopes to come over at some point with all his test gear, so I am hoping to get some hard facts re the RF and mains in my area.

I'm in a semi rural area as well and suffer dropouts and frequent power cuts! The power to our house is underground but futher up the Lane it's overhead.

I wonder if there is a DC offset on your mains...It will be interesting to read what your friend finds!

[pre65]

Originally Posted by pre65

Hi-this may be a silly suggestion but could you try running your system off a generator ?

That would eliminate all the mains problems.


Philip

Hi-just to see if it works ive dug out my cheap 800w 2 stroke generator and connected it up to the system.

Its running a valve pre,45 single ended amp,CD player,DAC and DAC power supply.

Sounds about the same as mains to me,but i am in a rural location and never knowingly suffered mains problems.


Philip

[pre65]

Hi-update on the last post.

Have gone back to mains now,and for me mains is definately better.

Just a poser for technical persons.How do you get a ground earth with a generator ?


Philip