Russ Andrews QRT

[David Mccallum]

Mains problems can be a nightmare as i've found out several times in the past,Nero you have my sympathy ,for what it's worth.I've found the circuit breakers which are the most sensitive(RCD breakers) are the ones protecting your socket ring main.These can start to cause problems as they age and although your lamps stay on etc, you can get interferance running around the ring main which affects your HIFI.Dont know if that is your problem or not but earth leakage breakers are worth checking.Maybe a direct spur feeding your setup from the distribution board might help things?.I also live in a rural setting and have wind farm's and hydro electric plant nearby,this and a local pumping station caused me problems.I find my system sounds better at night and preferably after a glass or three of wine,filters made no better contribution,RA's mains lead made a very slight difference to cd replay but barely worth the cost so i decided not to give him any more cash.I am interested in any impartial findings however so good luck to you and let us know how things work out.

[NickG]

Same as any other local earth, conductive rod(s) or plate in the ground.

[David Mccallum]

Hi Philip,a ground earth is just that.you need a brass spike or similar,drive it into your garden and connect it to the chassis earth point on the generator.

[David Mccallum]

Ah, i see i am still to slow at typing.

[Audiognome]

Hi Neiro,

That's a very kind offer, but to be honest I don't think I'm the right person to be assessing it. I've been an electronic engineer for about 20 years, but a valve hi-fi enthusiast for about 6 months. My "system" (so-called) is essentially a pile of car-boot junk & I can't imagine that it would be a valid or useful test. I was more hinting that the "trusted ears" of some other BB members could give a second opinion on your findings. My reason for raising the question, is that I'm curious to know what's going on - not that I want to buy one - I need to buy some decent equipment first!

Thanks anyway,

Nigel.

P.S. Still very interested to hear how it all works out, though!

[Paul Bannister]

The following is expensive, but could provide a solution if you have enough money to try this route.
Kevin at Definitive Audio in Nottingham has developed a battery supply sufficiently robust to manage a full music set-up. It is free from external influence when supplying power - it's silent - and the music sounds good too.

[David Mccallum]

Some of the boats i work on have inverters fitted to their electrical systems to deliver mains voltage from 12 or 24 volt batterys.I sometimes wonder about using this gear to power a hifi system at home,the inverters vary hugely in price however you would'nt need large capacity so perhaps a few hundred quid would provide a stable supply for someone.Would also be good during power cut's to still have mains voltage available (at limited capacity of course).

[Ali Tait]

I've had similar thoughts but the sine wave you get off most inverters is hideous.Perhaps a very expensive one might be ok.

[Tony Moore]

20 years ago I was "fortunate" enough to be helping out as our company serviced three large inverters. These beasts were 500Kw a piece and each in a suite of cabinets 40 feet long! A huge battery room was the backup reservoir. These things were all quite low tech compared to nowadays but since they had such HUGE inductors inside (air cored, the size of a wardrobe) the output sine wave was quite good! A bit overkill for a HiFi though. Plus the noise the thing made would mean you couldn't hear the music anyway!

Getting it back synched with the mains feed for a switchover was a frightening and pretty random affair though!

[KTea88]

Neiro have you tried a 1 to 1 240v isolation transformer, I have one of these running my system its rated at 500kva. looks like a site tranny big yellow box.
this seems to sink noise and any dc content on the mains.
worth ago if you can get one.
the sound seems to be like listening at night all the while with the trany in place.
reduced noise floor.
I have wired this to a dedicated spur with sheilded cable running to and from hi-fi, trany to disboard.