"Audio Grade"?

juniorJBL

juniorJBL

SUB 1500 :)
When I was at RMAF I looked at an "Audio Grade" Breaker box. I thought to myself "are you kidding me" These people really think that this helps.:no:

They can certainly find way to get people to think so:yes:

Here we have a panel for $1500 no less, special "gold plated" breakers and buss bars now you can not fix it without having a spare at $100. This does not make sense to me.

Power enters your house on Aluminium!!!:yes: Transformers are not replaced until they die!

It is kind of like an MP3. once an mp3 always an mp3. There in no reclaiming what is not there.

Just had to say this as it makes me laugh.
 
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You may not be able to reclaim anything not there, but you can keep it from degrading further.. however I am like many, and can't see as much value as you can spend to make everything audio grade from the meter to the speaker. My ears aren't that good, and if they were, it's about music.. not perfection to me..
 
I actually have an audiophile grade wall plug. It certainly makes a distinct difference.

But a whole breaker box?? I can see a few breakers maybe....
 
I am guessing someone that spent big dollars would buy this. In all reality, there are folks who spend 150k on systems... 1,500 is cheaper than alot of interconnects that these guys use.

Evan
 
GaryP said:
I actually have an audiophile grade wall plug. It certainly makes a distinct difference.

But a whole breaker box?? I can see a few breakers maybe....
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Why stop at "few breakers"...If you have dirty power on one side of the breaker your going to have dirty power on the other side , reguardless of brass,copper,silver or gold. It just looks prettier..And by gosh for the price it just has to sound better.
 
I was just getting at this box will do you absolutely no good. Gold plated buss bars and outlets and breakers? Just buy hospital/data grade. These are good outlets. Are you going to run gold or silver wire for 120/240v @60Hz sometimes moer than 200' no you are going to use copper. Do you have aluminum in your house then yes put copper or bare minimum put copper pigtails on (don't forget the deoxit) the outlet.

Really you are asking for more corrosion than anything. I have been involved in the electrical side of things for some time and I can tell you that a mixture of metals will just give you problems. I am not saying not to buy it. just that we are talking a single frequency not variable.

Now careful planing and installation of an electrical system in a house will give you years of reliable operation with no degradation from what comes in. This box will not do that for you unless it is installed with careful planning and installation and at that point you should just put in a standard panel that you can get parts for at your local home center or electrical supply house.

I realize that I will get flamed for this but I just wonder why:scratch2:
 
You're right! I guess for you, seeing is believing! Or is that seeing is hearing? Whatever...

How could it look prettier when it's in a fuse box? My fuse box is in the garage. X-Ray vision?

Did you ever read my previous post about my clothes washer being on the same circuit as my stereo? Listening to tunes one night and the W walks through the basement listening room and starts a load. I get no respect, I tells ya! :(

All of the sudden when the machine turns on - grunge! I could clearly hear the graininess of the music. I was surprised, to say the least. When she went upstairs, I briefly turned off - grunge/graininess. Turned it back on. Grunge.

So you may think that I left the washing machine off. After all, tunes rule, right? Nope. I turned off the stereo....and am still alive to talk about it today!

So what experience have you had, Avionic?

Incidentally, I eventually found a power conditioner for a good price that filtered out the grunge/graininess. But not the washing machine motor noise. Or the water draining. Or the W asking me to put her stuff in the dryer... :D
 
GaryP said:
You're right! I guess for you, seeing is believing! Or is that seeing is hearing? Whatever...

How could it look prettier when it's in a fuse box? My fuse box is in the garage. X-Ray vision?

Did you ever read my previous post about my clothes washer being on the same circuit as my stereo? Listening to tunes one night and the W walks through the basement listening room and starts a load. I get no respect, I tells ya! :(

All of the sudden when the machine turns on - grunge! I could clearly hear the graininess of the music. I was surprised, to say the least. When she went upstairs, I briefly turned off - grunge/graininess. Turned it back on. Grunge.

So you may think that I left the washing machine off. After all, tunes rule, right? Nope. I turned off the stereo....and am still alive to talk about it today!

So what experience have you had, Avionic?

Incidentally, I eventually found a power conditioner for a good price that filtered out the grunge/graininess. But not the washing machine motor noise. Or the water draining. Or the W asking me to put her stuff in the dryer... :D
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Use a capacitor on the motor for noise unless you are saying "physical" not through the wire. As far as the W proly should do as requested :yes::D
 
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Yes, it is through the wire. But everything is so noisy anyway.... mechanical and ...errrr.... otherwise... ;) ...I'd just give up and try again another day. :)
 
GaryP you need a dedicated circuit for your gear. A quick simple run of 10/3 wil give you 2 20amp circuits that should have very little voltage drop evan at full load.
 
I believe you are correct.... and I am working on it!

Now, what about the laundry situation? :scratch2:




:D
 
Take over doing the laundry and then you'll decide when the machines run. Just don't ruin your wives clothes!!
 
MOPAR3 said:
Take over doing the laundry and then you'll decide when the machines run. Just don't ruin your wives clothes!!
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Ever since I shrank her angora sweaters to poodle size, I've never dared 'help' her with her laundry unless specifically asked.

:no:
 
So what experience have you had, Avionic
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Work with 3 phase power every day at the daytime job. Nice thing about gold --its a better conductor than brass or copper- for both power and signals (trash) riding on the AC power.
 
because we are sorta on topic here..
would computers, televisions, or vcr,dvdplayers and such contribute to the grunge/graininess you described?
or should you just stray away from anything useing motors?
 
I don't really know. I think that anything drawing lots of power - motors - will contribute to grunge. I know of a guy who unplugs everything and runs his stereo by battery power. A little extreme for my tastes..I don't have a super-duper high end system so I doubt that it would help my sound quality. But who knows - I've never tried this. It probably works for this guy at least.

Try unplugging a few items and see if there is a difference.

Ever try listening to music late at night (or early in the morning) when there is little power being used in the neighbourhood?
 
avionic said:
Work with 3 phase power every day at the daytime job. Nice thing about gold --its a better conductor than brass or copper- for both power and signals (trash) riding on the AC power.
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What do you mean? Copper and silver are more conductive than gold - which I know you're already aware of.
 
Your right ..but my point is. If you have trashy power entering your domecile it really doesn´t matter what material you have for the breaker boxes,circiut breakers,house wiring power cords and plugs or even fuses..Whitout a proper filter the trash will still be there even with a dedicated drop to your system. Isolation and filtering...Key
 
juniorJBL said:
When I was at RMAF I looked at an "Audio Grade" Breaker box. I thought to myself "are you kidding me" These people really think that this helps.
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'Audio grade' means to take a generic part, include something that appears value added like gold plating (and often no more than a label change), then sell it for a huge mark up to audiophiles.

juniorJBL said:
Power enters your house on Aluminium!!! Transformers are not replaced until they die!
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I work in the power industry and spend a bit of time in our substations; most of the bussbars and switching elements are steel. None of them are gold plated.

The conductors are al or cu, spread 50/50 but tending towards al as it's cheaper and lighter, but more cu is areas near the sea as corrosion becomes a major factor in use with al.

avionic said:
Your right ..but my point is. If you have trashy power entering your domecile it really doesn´t matter what material you have for the breaker boxes,circiut breakers,house wiring power cords and plugs or even fuses..Whitout a proper filter the trash will still be there even with a dedicated drop to your system. Isolation and filtering...Key
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I agree re filtering, but most of the generic 'filters' available are only effective at RF. Most noise created by appliances is at quite low frequencies, usually 3/5/7H of the mains from motors and some broadband hash from brushes, and switching transients.

Adding a dedicated circuit will do nothing to alleviate any of this if generated within the premises because all the circuits parallel at the switchboard.

Filtering mains at LF to remove all of the noise that's there is very difficult, but in my opinion, if an audio product does not do a credible job of doing so, it's design and implementation is inadequate.
 
Brett said:
I agree re filtering, but most of the generic 'filters' available are only effective at RF. Most noise created by appliances is at quite low frequencies, usually 3/5/7H of the mains from motors and some broadband hash from brushes, and switching transients.

Adding a dedicated circuit will do nothing to alleviate any of this if generated within the premises because all the circuits parallel at the switchboard.

Filtering mains at LF to remove all of the noise that's there is very difficult, but in my opinion, if an audio product does not do a credible job of doing so, it's design and implementation is inadequate.
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:yes:
 
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