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Cohibaman 11-23-2019 01:46 PM

Clean Power matters
 
I recently developed (and since solved) a mysterious issue I had with my system.

I started hearing intermittent bursts of hiss from either my speakers or subs. Because it was so intermittent, I couldn’t pin it down.

Then one listening session, between tracks, I noticed the meter needles on my McIntosh amps bouncing off of zero. I did some troubleshooting and it initially looked like it was either my C2300 preamp or JL Audio CR-1 crossover. I quickly ruled both out as the culprits after I removed the cables from the amps. Even with the interconnects disconnected, the needles were dancing. Very strange!

Flash back about 2 months ago, I noticed my Noise Harvesters were going absolutely crazy, nearly constantly lit up. Because I’ve been traveling a lot lately, I didn’t pay too much attention though - big mistake!

Well, yesterday I decided to figure out what was causing the Noise Harvesters to look like a runway at JFK. Turns out it is a noisy UPS I recently installed for my fish tank. Once I unplugged the UPS, all Harvesters went dark. Sure enough, the needles were now normal and stuck at zero - no more bouncing.

Two takeaways;

1) The Noise Harvesters work! They were just overwhelmed by either the type and/or amplitude of the noise. But as I said in other posts about them, for me they are a tool. They visually alert me of line noise and help me seek out the root cause of the noise.

2) Clean power is a must! The noise coming from the UPS was on a completely different circuit. Yet it still polluted other circuits. Further, as good as the power supply of the McIntosh amp is, the noise still got through all its filtration to the point it became audible.

Now I just need to figure out what I’m going to do with my UPS. :scratch2:

Puma Cat 11-23-2019 02:05 PM

MIke, If you haven't already, briefly check out this short video I made using an Entech Powerline Noise Analyser. You can clearly hear AM radio on the AC mains in my home.

https://youtu.be/42hmSXhiblc

Furthermore, the noise from the power supplies from one's components can go back out of the component to pollute other components in the system.

So, yeah, clean power matters.

Cohibaman 11-23-2019 02:28 PM

Yikes! Very interesting cable demo. Thanks for sharing!

I forgot all about my Entech power analyzer. Last I checked, my power appeared to be pretty good (of course I didn’t have this blasted UPS back then). I’m fortunate that I have a dedicated power transformer and live in a relatively rural area with little electrical noise.

I’m going to pull out the Entech and do some testing today.

Puma Cat 11-23-2019 03:01 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Cohibaman (Post 986546)
Yikes! Very interesting cable demo. Thanks for sharing!

I forgot all about my Entech power analyzer. Last I checked, my power appeared to be pretty good (of course I didn’t have this blasted UPS back then). I’m fortunate that I have a dedicated power transformer and live in a relatively rural area with little electrical noise.

I’m going to pull out the Entech and do some testing today.

Cool. Let us know what you find out.

This is why I use & invest in Shunyata Research's products; they ameliorate and attenuate the deleterious impact of these noise factors very effectively at several points throughout the power distribution system. Having come to know just how much noise is present in our "environments" & systems these days, its very hard for me to rationalize spending lot more money on amps, preamps and DACs only to further amplify all the noise that is already present.

A good example is having any consumer-type computer (e.g. Mac Mini, Intel NUC, etc) in an audio rack. The gigahertz bandwidth noise (RF) from these devices' CPUs and GPUs can be picked up by speaker cables, which, at these RF frequencies, literally act as antennas, and can be fed backwards into the power amp to be re-amplified as noise out of the speakers. This is why one of the best things one can do for a digital streaming front end is to get the computer out of the audio rack and as far away from the amplfication components as possible.

Okay, I've gone on too long here...sorry.

Cheers, Mike.

Cohibaman 11-23-2019 04:11 PM

Stephen,

Where are the Shunyata Venom V14 Digital power cables made?

Mike

Puma Cat 11-23-2019 04:19 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Cohibaman (Post 986569)
Stephen,

Where are the Shunyata Venom V14 Digital power cables made?

Mike

In Poulsbo, WA at Shunyata HQ.

Cohibaman 11-23-2019 04:23 PM

Gracias!

Puma Cat 11-23-2019 04:25 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Cohibaman (Post 986573)
Gracias!

De nada!

Cohibaman 11-23-2019 04:43 PM

Just ran a few simple tests using the Entech. Pretty low numbers even though the Harvesters are acting as if they’re possessed and the power meters are dancing. As soon as I unplug the UPS, Harvesters go dark and meters go to zero.

I might give the Shunyata Venom V14 Digital power cables a shot.

GSOphile 11-23-2019 05:15 PM

It's my understanding that the Entech, which is a good demo tool, does not measure everything on the power line that potentially affects audio.


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