So I’m worried about EMF, electrical and magnetic fields, indeed any kind of invisible radiation that might affect me, personally, as well as my system. It’s clear to me that the system sounds better at night.. but then that’s less likely to be due to a reduction in background radiation, and more down to the fact that the power supply is less strained by kettles and cookers and televisions and washing machines and a million other devices all drawing current, fluctuating the mains voltage and its’ power factor, and shovelling plenty of noise back down the wire once again.
I’ve tried both mains filters and regenerators, in a different location. The latter was one of the original PS Audio PS300 designs, which was bulky, hot, hummed and drew twice as much power from the wall as it was able to deliver to my components of the era. For safety and electricity’s sake, I used to keep them and it switched off until I wanted to listen, which generally meant they stayed cold for a long time and were not performing at their best. The Lindemann, which I didn’t own at the time, I know for a fact takes over a day of ‘full on’ operation instead of being on standby before I starts to really sing. It needs to be hot. Notwithstanding that the PS300 was, indeed, quite effective at reducing noise and keeping the system on song, those limitations of heat and power and buzzing meant I sold it and switched to battery powered amps from Jeff Rowland for my tenure in the apartment I had at the time.
A long-winded way of saying: mains power matters. I’m not sure *what* I can do about RFI ingress into my home and my hifi short of throwing away all radiating bits of kit and encasing the house in multiple Faraday cages, but I’m not quite that paranoid yet! The Less EMF site is full of strange bits of kit which may work, may do nothing, and are certainly quite expensive. What price good health? Not enough to deploy the aforementioned Faraday cage, perhaps enough to invest in one or two things from Less EMF or similar company just to see what effect there might be on my system. It’s subjective, but to my mind much less subjective that how I ‘feel’. I’ve written about expectation bias, but how about the Placebo effect? A Schumann generator could work on my health by simply buying one, giving me the idea that it’s doing something positive which then engenders positive results.
Time to think again. I’ll concentrate on stuff which has an effect on my hifi, assume it works for health too, and deploy for both. If a Schumann generator makes for a wider and deeper soundstage, a more relaxed and musical presentation, let’s do it; I may feel so good about that my headaches could disappear.
Separately, introducing a better mains power supply is a no-brainer. A fellow GA has a full Roy Riches installation of hospital-grade incomer, dedicated mains spur per piece of equipment, specialist fuse box… the cost being more cosmetic than financial, the effect profound, immediate and very noticeable. It’s as if all those important things you lust after – space, detail, tangibility, musicality, naturalness, transparency – simultaneously improve in a leap, and retain all their ability to work together and deliver a great sound. There is no real down side that I could hear the first time I listened to the transformation, and just the hassle of thick cables and ugly junction boxes to conceal as sympathetically as possible.
Interestingly, I once heard a demo by the good guys at Isotek, with a selection of improvements to a Rega-based system – CD player, amp and speakers all by Rega if I recall correctly. It played with good pace and rhythm and was really enjoyable to listen to. Then, we introduced a selection of Isotek mains filtration products to the mix, ranging from low-end mains filter blocks to those plus audiophile cables that cost more than the CD player, until finally each component had its own mains filter, the amp sitting off a massive 2KW isolation transformer.
In each case the *quality* of the system improved. Vocals became more clear, detail improved, soundstage width and depth increased. The technical aspects of the presentation blossomed and the easy musicality slowly vanished. Until, crucially, the introduction of the massive 2KW isolation transformer on the amp. Suddenly, all the technical attributes remained whilst the system leapt forwards in musicality, rhythm and pace. It was the same system we had initially heard, but everything was better.
At the time I baulked at spending a few thousand on a similar setup, but I did borrow the isolation strip for home trial and found the same thing; yes, it as clearer and darker and more detailed and so on and so forth, but inevitably it slightly compressed dynamics and made it less musical. This took a while to tune into, and on persuasion from two fellow GAs I returned it.
There seems to be an element of mains filtration which removes hash but contrives to remove excitement and dynamics too. I am not sure why, but have avoided them as has my massive-incomer-system GA chum, to good effect. Over the next few weeks I’ll be adjusting the power properties of my system to try and get some of the benefits with none of the losses; more depth and detail, no loss of dynamics and musicality. Sadly, after my recent house move everything is plugged into one ring main and I’ve used an isolation transformer just to segregate digital components from analogue. Does this really matter? It seemed to make sense at the time, but I haven’t tested it for myself.
Similarly, the house is littered with noise suppressors from Audioquest and Russ Andrews, some of which buzz alarmingly for no reason whatsoever, and then stop; it’s something someone somewhere in my street has switched on and off. A Microwave? Do I need these in place, do they really make a difference? I’ll let you know dear reader :)
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