WD/WAD PSU PHONO II Choke upgrade

[Dik Dolan]

While I'm waiting for the posty to deliver my choke, I thought I'd ask a few very silly basic questions....

Which is best practice for fitting one?
Loosely twist the leads?
Making sure the frame is earthed?
As it's AC and there are no markings, so there isn't a preferred "in-out" way of wiring them, like there is with some fancy polyprop/ vcap type caps that say "outer shield to lowest impedance earth" etc?
Or just bolt the thing in and connect the wires and stop fretting the small stuff?=)

Is it here yet?=)

[pre65]

Originally Posted by Dik Dolan

Or just bolt the thing in and connect the wires and stop fretting the small stuff?=)

That's what I did.

[Dik Dolan]

Cheers Philip=)
It's just the waiting is giving me time to think, which is never good!

[bob orbell]

Have now done a lot of listening with the new choke and my chums PSU, on Friday I put on Friendship by Ash Ra Tempel, I love this album, lots of rolling bass with guitars, the first track is quite bass heavy and I found myself lowering the volume to avoid boom, the last track has waling guitars, this also was not nice, half way through the album I removed my PSU and used just my chums, the sound was now nicer to me, a quick change back to the original choke confirmed that I prefer the sound of the supplied WD choke, sad this, but I know that it dose not take much to tip the sound of my system over the top. There my be a Hammond choke up for grabs soon. BOB

[Richard]

Originally Posted by Dik Dolan

While I'm waiting for the posty to deliver my choke, I thought I'd ask a few very silly basic questions....

Which is best practice for fitting one?
Loosely twist the leads?
Making sure the frame is earthed?
As it's AC and there are no markings, so there isn't a preferred "in-out" way of wiring them, like there is with some fancy polyprop/ vcap type caps that say "outer shield to lowest impedance earth" etc?
Or just bolt the thing in and connect the wires and stop fretting the small stuff?=)

Is it here yet?=)

All good considerations Dik, I went through the same thoughts building mine.

I wouldn't worry about which wires go to supply and load as there is a cap C1 and C2 connected each side to ground so any shielding should be similar whichever way around.

Yes earth the frame, it carries 300V+ DC and if a winding insulation broke down I'd sooner the voltage went to earth than me!

I didn't twist the leads, just left them loose. Reason being the supply side will have a thousand times more ripple on it than the load side so if there is any coupling between the choke wires you are partly defeating the object of the choke/cap filter section.

[Dik Dolan]

Cheers Richard, and of course I realise now that when I said "it's AC" it's not!....thanks for not laughing=)

[Dik Dolan]

It arrived an hour or so ago, thank Philip @ Bluebell, excellent service.

So, fitted it, straight bolt in, no drilling as said above, despite it being what looks to be twice as big as the original choke, and stuck Dark Side of the moon on for a first listen.

First impression was that it's quieter- less volume, but then I realised it seems more dynamic, more detailed, better separation of background instruments in the mix. Then the guitars soared and the voices, oh wow the voices. so well, human sounding.. Bass detail seems so much more textured; the highs have body where before they seemed to get a bit thin as they went higher and voices.... hehe lovely stuff, can't fault it.

Of course it's only first impressions, and I reserve the right to go back on everything I've said so far but.... Holy **** this is good.
Thanks Colin and all you other gents, as said so much better than I- Best £20 ever.

(so far)

[bearded fiddler]

I concur wholeheartedly. The sound is just so much more real!

[Greg.]

I've now had a bit of time to evaluate this upgrade. Remember I use a Cathode Follower conversion in Pre II. Without doubt I stand by what I said in my earlier post about the improved sound from a digital source, in my case a heavily modified Naim CD3. I have also now listened with my vinyl system and upgraded Phono II in the mix. Playing vinyl, the improvements are very much less obvious if anything at all. I need to do a bit more listening and even if I conclude no improvement to vinyl sound, the improvement to CD is significant. As Phil said, £20 well invested!

[david]

As reported, I used a Danbury choke which appears to be a Hammond clone. However, a friend asked me go upgrade his CF and in talking to Bluebell they advised that a Hammond 194c 40h choke is even better in pres. It arrived today and they are absolutely right. You get the same improvements but more so.
Two considerations: it won't fit on Pre3 case and you may find it hard to find, it's listed under Guitar Amps. Neither of us use Phono