Insufficient Power Conditioning?

[Paul Birkeland]

I concur that some inspection is in order.

I thought I was being all Mr. Handyman when I put a new microwave/range hood in, but the circuit feeding it also does my bathroom lights.

On the plus side, I know when my coffee is finished being reheated while I'm in the shower.

-PB

[Grainger49]

I'd never give you advice on house wiring but the circuit breaker advice came from my buddy Ron.  He has worked for Square D, Cutler-Hammer and ITE/Siemens in the molded case breaker divisions.  I've replaced several since receiving that advice.

[4krow]

Eight years ago, I bought my house that was constructed in 1930. To cut to the chase, EVERYTHING from the power transformer to the circuit box, and even a dedicated line was replaced, not to mention every outlet in the house. Even after all that, I found the best relief from first buying a large isolation transformer with 8 separate secondary windings and using a PS Audio P500 on one of those windings to do the rest. Almost everywhere I have lived has had to one degree or another, voltage/noise problems. You have to start somewhere, and more often than not, I find loose connections and more in one or more electrical outlets. You might start with this thinking and work your way back.

[johnsonad]

A similar experience. I'm active duty Navy and move every three or so years. The best piece of gear I own is a PS Audio Premier Power Plant. Constant dependable 120v output no matter where I've lived including Japan!  Having clean power makes a large sonic improvement.

[Grainger49]

I'm running all my analog pieces on an old, first product, PS Audio P300.  It is fed from my wall outlet.

[aroide]

I had serious noise issues with my BeePre.  After sleuthing, I realized that my AC voltage at that plug got down to 116V at times.  At the breaker box, 120V, but lots of loss through all the wire nut connections and distance with a large current draw device (plasma TV) on the circuit.  I did buy some silver conduction 'grease' but never got around to putting it on all the connections on that circuit.

In the end, I threw $$ at the problem and bought a PS Audio regenerator to get Ultra clear 120V and my BeePre has been very happy ever since.

Its a bit scary that houses can have so much resistive loss in the wiring.

[crgolfer]

I also had noise problems related to my plasma tv.  I couldn't find the cause until I noticed that the noise went away when switching channels.  The noise did not start until the tv is on for some time so there must be some kind of noise buildup going on.  I switched the wall connections around which seems to have solved the problem.

[aroide]

My voltage is low (as low as 112V) in my listening room also as its on the same circuit as the family room plasma tv and has the longest wire runs in the house.  The Bee Pre does not like lower voltage I have found.  Re-wiring house circuits is expensive, so my about-as-expensive-but -better option was to buy a PSAudio power regenerator.  Now I have ultra-clean, fairly low impedance 120V and very happy audio gear.

[elko]

I'm living in the Netherlands, and my Beepre struggles with the power (230v), the wallsockets deliver, to. When the voltage drops i'm getting some terible hum in my left channel. I already tried a small powerconditioner from furman. This device only filterd incoming power from hf noise. This didn't helped that much, so i send it back. I'm reading on this topic about the AC regenerators doing a marvelous job. Unfortunately such a device is way out of my reach pricewise. Nearly €5000,- is a really big investment.

Maybe i found a budget solution. What if one uses a DC-AC converter, the devices uses in caravans and motorhomes to connect home equipment to a 12v or 24v DC source. There are ones availble producing pure sine wave output at 230V. Connect one to a 12v DC supply so no batteries are needed.

I already orderd one of these devices and going to try this out soon. What are your thoughts on this. Is it actually a good idea or can i harm my equipment?

[2wo]

If your line voltage varys that much. How about using a Varic to supply it?  They are not that expensive and you can dial in the voltage of the day...John

[Deluk]

It looks as if the voltage standard for supply in the Netherlands is 230v +6%/-10% so in theory any equipment sold there should perform to spec within these limits. Perhaps the BH stuff can be considered a special case but I would have though it would be well within those parameters and therefore work without problems. Perhaps a comment from Doc would enlighten.
We are supposed to get a nominal 230v in the UK +10%/-6%, % the other way round, and I believe it is generally close to 240v.
I think the same power transformer is supplied to UK and the rest of Europe?

If you are suffering due to low volts I don't think a variac will help as the max it can supply is the voltage it's being fed.

[Paul Joppa]

Most variacs will go up to a bit over the input, maybe 10% or so(?)

Those asymmetrical voltages disguise the reality, which is that originally the UK was on 240v, the Netherlands was on 220v. In order to have a single EU standard , the Eurocrats split the difference (230v) with a tolerance allowing each country to keep their original power generators. If you live in or near the EU, you are well aware of the bureaucratic difficulties involved!

In the early days of Bottlehead, our European customers were almost entirely from the UK, so we just made 240v transformers. We are gradually switching to transformers with semi-universal windings. By "semi-universal" I mean to include the varieties of "230-v" but not include Japan which is on 100v.

[marco08]

good news for the new builders !! any chance we first comers from the continent could get a couple new transformers ? about one day in three, i get closer to 215/220 out of the french network, and some buzzing... what do you think ?

[elko]

Goodevening fellow Bees,

Trying DC-AC converter didn't help. It made the hum always present. Obvious because it converted exactly 230V, which is lower than power from my wallsocket most of the time.

I just found a nice deal on a variac (0-260v). Hope to receive the transformer soon so i can transform my own 240V I'll let you know if this is a solution to my humming problem.

[elko]

Finally found a solution for my hum problem. A variac which cranks up the voltage a bit is doing the magic. Very glad this solves the insufficient power condition in my case. Since the variac is providing the power there is a small hiss only the left Channel. At reasanoble listing volumes this is neglectable.