Balanced power

[Damien]

i have just read another article about balanced power....

is it really that good. is it worth doing? who does it, what will it cost.

should we build it into the new studios?

damien

[JulienG]

I'm an odd one in that I don't really belive in balenced power.

While there are some small theoretical benefits 90% of the results people get are that almost every "balenced power transformer" unit is actually also a line conditioner.

Here in Australia I've generally found the power to be extremely stable and found no difference when running a studio off a line conditioner as opposed to the wall (caveat that this was a private spur for the complex with a seperate feed to the studio's breakers, smaller locations will inevitably be worse), but I haven't done the balenced power experiment.

The big thing to be aware of is any plugpack, or two prong'd devices may assume neutral is ground. Worth doing a safety check first.

[smash]

"Here in Australia I've generally found the power to be extremely stable"

Hmmm,

Not sure what Melbourne is like but the power situation in Northern Sydney is appalling. I have just moved to Manly, on the northern beaches, which so far has been pretty good, but the nearby suburbs of Fairlight, Seaforth, and Balgowlah are having regular brownouts and blackouts. I know people who were getting PC's/Plasma's/Fridges replaced on average every three months until somebody recommended they get a power conditioner.

Blackouts dont really kill hardware but the over/under voltages that precede and follow sure seem to.

Smash.

[rick]

dave peach makes and sells a balanced power unit ( 120v on positave and 120 volts on negative)
when he showed it to me it was full of promises about what it would do , how much it would lower the studio noise floor etc etc
in my room it do absolutly nothing (we where in kings cross at the time)

HOWEVER in steves room down the hall on the same circuit the difference was amazing all his hums and buzzes cleaned right up

the bottom line is in a room full of semi pro gear it did wonders
in a room full of pro gear wired correctly it did squat

should you put it in your studio, sure its a great idea
have you got the bucks...?
can you get a system built locally
we are still talking about running this room on balanced power
but its not top of my list of things to do

[blackfoot]

I've had one of Peach's balanced supplies. Can't say that it made any difference that I could hear in either the Liechhardt or Newtown area. It did finally shit itself & took out alot of gear! I wish you better results.

[Audioboffin]

I'm an odd one in that I don't really belive in balenced power.

While there are some small theoretical benefits 90% of the results people get are that almost every "balenced power transformer" unit is actually also a line conditioner.

Here in Australia I've generally found the power to be extremely stable and found no difference when running a studio off a line conditioner as opposed to the wall (caveat that this was a private spur for the complex with a seperate feed to the studio's breakers, smaller locations will inevitably be worse), but I haven't done the balenced power experiment.

The big thing to be aware of is any plugpack, or two prong'd devices may assume neutral is ground. Worth doing a safety check first.

A couple of oddities in the statements above. 24 hour runs with a logging multimeter shows spikes well over 1400 volts in both Melbourne and Sydney suburban and inner-city locations. Brown outs are also common place, and the wave form is generally far from a perfect sine wave. While a fresh wiring install can regain control over a part of the mains supply, the surrounding grid, load and actual cable conditions are not able to be controlled or in many cases predicted.

I'd definitely NOT agree that Australian power is stable. If it was then the number of hard drives I replace in situations where there is no UPS would be a lot less. Interestingly enough, exactly the same hardware running on UPS's has far fewer "unexplained" failures.

I have never yet seen a 2 pin plugpack approved for sale and use in Australia where one of the mains pins is assumed to be ground or used as a grounding point. Some older US equipment (for example some old Fender guitar amps) may have a tie between neutral and chassis via a capacitor, but anything legally allowed to connect to the mains in Australia does not tie neutral to earth/chassis ground. If you have ANY doubt at all, have a licensed electrician do a "tag and test" job on your gear.

I have used Peach balanced power supplies in many situations (both in controlled studio environments and live). In each and every case there were improvements in residual noise, with the side effect of apparent tonal improvements (undoubtedly because of the reduction of hum and HF noise). In all of the live experiments, improvements were in the order of at least 10 dB less noise.

Some of the better engineered studio installations (separate earth, star grounding philosophy, heavy cabling etc etc) displayed less of an improvement, but critical listening and comparisons before and after installation of a Peach balanced supply all delivered the same results: definitely less noise and definitely better imaging and a more solid bottom end.

It's very easy to exceed the current capacity, so it is worthwhile doing an audit on what you are supplying.

[mal stanley]

An experience we had in Melbourne at one of our rooms-ABC-(speaking personally..)We trialled two balanced power units which made little difference.. in some instances it may work..I suspect that correct grounding of power and audio feeds plus a good line conditioner would probably solve most problems..
Another aspect though is the proliferation of switchmode power supplies so prevalent now...

[Chris H]

Another aspect though is the proliferation of switchmode power supplies so prevalent now...

I was very suprised to see in the AT review that the Neve re issue 1073 has a switchmode PS. A bit PW i thought.

[ZiggY!!]

I am about to put together a pair of audio racks, what are you guys using for power conditioning/power distribution in your racks? Its only for a small home studio so balanced power to me is overkill. The room itself has been freshly wired on its own feed from the fuse box and so far it has been very quite when running on rack through my console.

[heathen]

[quote="ZiggY!!"]I am about to put together a pair of audio racks, what are you guys using for power conditioning/power distribution in your racks? Its only for a small home studio so balanced power to me is overkill. The room itself has been freshly wired on its own feed from the fuse box and so far it has been very quite when running on rack through my console.[/quote]

For a home setup just make sure you run all your gear from 1 power outlet (so theres no earth loop), get a decent surge protector (probably useless but better than nothing) or a UPS, I had a ups but really did'nt need it. Really important also is to use good quality audio cables such as Canare. Also unplug your gear from the outlet whenever its not in use, very important in case of storms and the like. Do these simple things and you should get no issues.

Regarding power on the Northern Beaches, I'm in Allambie Hts, I'd agree it's not perfect at all but it's not too bad, 2 years back was worst with about 3 nasty brownouts, I'd never seen 1 here before that, came home after several beers 1 night and none of the fluro lights worked and the incandecants were barely emitting any light at all. This year though no brownouts. Has'nt been too bad at all for a while.