Were to run my cable?

[ban-all-sheds]

Well if you think you can hear the difference between a 2.5mm cable and a 6mm, go ahead.

As I said - remember the minimum bend radius - for 6mm it's 54mm or 21mm, depending which way you are bending it.

 

[spxy]

I really dont know if there is a difference between using 2.5 and 6mm, but all my previous experiments from tightening or reducing connections, thus lowing impedence have brought good results.

I will rewire with 2.5 for now as it will require less work and will be easier to get into the CU.
I will let you know the results of my dedicated spur when its done.

 

[AdamW]

II will rewire with 2.5 for now as it will require less work and will be easier to get into the CU.

Those don't sound like the words of an audiophile, desperate to squeeze ever bit of performance out of a system!

Come on, use 25mm tails to wire straight from your CU into your amp PSU. No plug. No earth, this can cause hum.

 

[andemz]

full fidelity is what it is and playing by yourself to yourself is another experience.... You've got youself a doubles player,

new racket please

 

[AdamW]

As someone once said "Why high-fidelity? What is wrong with just fidelity?"

I am now thinking about what I might do if I shared spxy's beliefs on improving sound quality; would it be permissible to wire a hi-fi amp with metre tails (or similarly sturdy cable), straight from the output terminals of a dedicate MCB or RCD in the CU, into screw or solder terminals inside the amp PSU? Would the MCB be sufficient isolation in the eyes of the IEE?

Also, what kind of noise does an MCB or RCD impart on mains quality? Would it be significant in comparison to the tightening of contact screws?

 

[securespark]

Go one better, Adam. Get the REC to lay a new supply cable wired direct to the amp, with a 13A fuse in the cut-out..........fewer connections still...

 

[AdamW]

Ah, but the fuse would offer impedance to the incoming and thus should be ditched too. You really need a single cable all the way from the generator, preferably no connections.

I am convinced that the only way to get a truly clean mains input to the amp power supply is to build a sophisticated power conditioner. Which if you think about it, would just be an ac-to-ac power supply.

A cheap and simple better way to power your amp would be to power it from batteries. Sounds daft, but a huge array of batteries would give you a much cleaner dc power supply than any amount of screw tightening and cable massaging ever could.

 

[spxy]

There are people who do many of the things you mentioned.Hard wire from a seperate CU , they have the tails split into two so one goes to the house cu and one to a dedicated hifi CU.They use certain type of RCD, carnt remember which one to comply with regulations, then hard wire to the equipment.
They use earth spikes directly into the ground also.
And yes people remove the fuses from plugs (in europe there are no fuses in plugs)to reduce impedence.I have tried this myself and it makes quite a difference.
As to battery power, at the moment it only sutible for low powered equipment , not power amps as they draw too much energy, and batteries tend to degrade as they loose power.
So you can buy one or two battery powered pre amps or phono stages but not much else.

 

[spxy]

And of course we all use unswitched sockets der...

 

[ban-all-sheds]

If you can propel a submarine using batteries, I'm sure you could make a stereo work for a few hours...

 

[breezer]

If you can propel a submarine using batteries, I'm sure you could make a stereo work for a few hours...

you would need a lot of battery cells, each one is just over 2v see here

 

[AdamW]

I once saw a demonstration van for a car hi-fi installer. It had an array of 14.4V batteries, capable of providing 17,500 Cold-Cranking Amps. Not sure how that translates to amp-hours, but if CCA is equivalent to Ah then that is a battery pack capable of about 252kW, dunno how long for. Pretty nice.

Bear in mind this was a MASSIVE array of batteries, great big sealed truck-sized ones. You could probably make a decent one capable of sustaining a few kW for a couple of hours for a few thousand pounds, that would translated to many hours of listening pleasure as I doubt anyone listens to a sustained 1 kilowatt!

 

[plugwash]

cold cranking amps are the batteries maximum current output

but they aren't going to do that for anywhere near and hour

 

[ban-all-sheds]

you would need a lot of battery cells, each one is just over 2v see here

I think you could get away with a tad less than 5.25MW for a domestic stereo....

 

[AdamW]

Ah, OK.

Still, probably produced a decent output for a few hours of hi-fi power requirements that don't make you deaf

There's this well-known "expert" in the hi-fi world called Ben Duncan who sells products that erm... "improve" the performance of your hi-fi through infinitesimal means. Including a "Super Spur", available here which is described as:

Super Spur installations are based around a specially modified, rugged, steel-cased 'consumer unit'

Now, I am wondering, if you go modifying a CU, are you not violating its BS rating (no pun intended )? Would it not be illegal to sell these?

I have often wondered something. Whenever I read an article or product literature for something like this, it is usually accompanied by comments such as "this improved the sound quality of my system no end!". So I ask you this: is there some special brand of hi-fi buff who goes and buys rubbish equipment? Only with all these things that are producing "amazing improvements" over how it sounded before, subtracting the cumulative effects of all these improvements from what they hear now, they must have started off with something utterly sh*te.