Mains Enhancers adn Alternatives

Posted by: Greg Beatty on 02 May 2001

Hey All...

With all this hullabaloo about mains quality, dedicated lines, spikes in the ground and such I thought I would ask if anyone has tried using an uninteruptable computer supply to power audio components (of whatever ilk).

The latest generation of these things can supply higher-wattage stuff like computer monitors with a pure sine wave for hours. I'm thinking it could power my l'il CD player for days or weeks on a single charge.

Anyone try this? What about other alternatives? What's your favorite mains cleaning tool?

I know Naim recommend against using anything, but the threads persist and so I ask.

- GregB

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Posted on: 02 May 2001 by Martin Payne
Greg,

earthing is very important to a Naim system.

If it's disconnected from the mains it will also be disconnected from the earth?? Very bad.

If you manage to leave only the earth connected how much of the isolation would you then lose?

cheers, Martin

Posted on: 03 May 2001 by Greg Beatty
Good questions.

The system could still be earthed through components that are not run off the separate supply. My amp is earthed and my system sounds much better when I run my CD player (its a discman) off of batteries.

And I don't know how earthing works in battery-operated devices. Maybe it is not a problem as all components (if the whole system were run off one supply) would see the same negative potential so an earth would not be necessary. I dunno, but battery operated minisystems and such work without ground hums and such.

- GregB

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Posted on: 03 May 2001 by Greg Beatty
My discman came with a line-out to phono lead. Standard Sony issue. My player has a separate line-out jack, which is not affected by the volume control.

My discman is 10+ years old. My girlfriend brought her $39 jobbie over that she got at target and it was noticably better than mine. About 1/2 way between mine and a CD3.5, I'd guess, depending on your listening priorities.

My discman does better with batteries (cleaner, more punchy sound) and my girlfriend's did as well. If your using a Naim system, make sure the signial is still grounded if you disconnect your Naim CD player.

And don't forget the Green Pen tweak, which is reputed to work a treat when using cheaper CD players wink

My dealer (now defunct) said that he preferred a discman run off a Hi-Cap to a CD3. Apparantly Naim make a cable for just such a hookup, so using a discman is not as daft an idea as some may think.

- Greg

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Posted on: 03 May 2001 by Greg Beatty
Jeremy -

'fraid not - he usually had good sound in the shop.

Just funky (shall we say) business practices. He was written up, very negatively, in Listener twice and ended up in court.

- GregB

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