Having read every post I could find on this topic, I decided to conduct my own experiment in advance of my planned equipment upgrade next year. The background is that 3 years ago, before commencing my Naim ownership, I had our house totally rewired as part of a total refurb. Work was done by my son who is a fully qualified, very experienced electrician. Each room on the ground floor has its own ring main.
When playing music I have never been aware of any extraneous noise generated by other electrical equipment. Nevertheless, I asked my son if he could spare me a day of his time to connect up a new dedicated consumer unit, attach 10mm cable with an unswitched MK socket at the other end into which we plugged the SuperUniti.
Result. Not one iota of discernible difference to either my 60+ year old ears, or those belonging to my son (28yrs)!
A very worthwhile exercise for me, as the disruption, mess and expense of installation would have been considerable.
I can only conclude that having a brand new carefully designed and installed electrical system, using only top quality components, has paid dividends in my case (plus being fortunate in that no other electrical equipment in the house breaks through or audibly interferes).
As I have had to discount a Fraim (no space, all boxes have to live on purpose built alcove units), I am now free to devote my attention to boxes and cables!!
Posted on: 30 November 2016 by Timmo1341
That's an interesting find Timmo. I heard the difference from standard ring main to dedicated 10mm supply myself and I was amazed at the difference. I wasn't expecting much to be honest. The system was a 282/250dr etc so maybe that is a little more fussy than the SU?
Aargh - don't plant seeds of doubt, please!! My hoped for upgrade includes 272/300dr etc. Seriously though, my point really was it sometimes pays to spend a little time and effort on a trial before jumping in feet first. Whatever the reason (ears, quality of installation, sheer good fortune), I would have gained nothing from having a dedicated radial circuit installed. I fully accept others will hear the benefit. One size doesn't always fit all, and we should never assume it does.
Posted on: 30 November 2016 by james n
The main benefit with these installations is the lowering of the mains impedance seen by the audio kit which in the home is at the close point to where the incoming utility supply enters (so at the meter tails). Much better than the usual multiple daisy chained wiring of a typical ring so depending on how many sockets, the quality of the connections to each one and what else is plugged into them (and the sensitivity of the kit itself to mains quality) you may not get a massive advantage with the dedicated spur. Every place is different though so mileage will vary (as Timmo points out)
Adam - what sort of interference do you get - clicks as the pump goes on and off or worse ? It's worth trying to suppress the problem at the (noise) source and see if this sorts out the problem before re-wiring.
Posted on: 30 November 2016 by Adam Zielinski
Adam - what sort of interference do you get - clicks as the pump goes on and off or worse ? It's worth trying to suppress the problem at the (noise) source and see if this sorts out the problem before re-wiring.
The heating pump is in a basement and supplies heating to the entire building 24/7. The heating level is adjusted automatically based on a feed from external sensors. As soon as the heating season started, I noticed my PSUs started to hum. Now that it got colder I also get hiss from the tweeters when amps are un-muted.
In the summer all was quiet.
Adam
PS. It's only our second winter season in the 'new flat', following a complete refurbishment and re-wiring of the property. Last winter I dismissed the 'noises' as I was so used to them from before. But having dead quiet equipment during the summer months, told me something was amiss.
Posted on: 30 November 2016 by james n
Ah ok - sounds like a different phase might be worth trying then with regards the CH pump. I had a similar problem with my old 300PS which would make a loud 'grunting' noise regularly on a Sunday morning (and a loud hum whenever the missus used her hair dryer) for about 10 minutes which i couldn't work out what was causing it. After noting it had gone away when we'd had problems with the pumps in a small sewage pumping station at the bottom of our small cul-de-sac i checked with the engineers when they were next doing maintenance and the wet well pumps were set to 'de rag' - which involved switching rapidly between forward and reverse to break up any rags etc that clog the rotors - at that time when my 300PS would make the noise. So source located and only sorted when i got rid of the amp !
Interesting your hiss level varies - has it been particularly wet or dry recently as the seasons have changed ?
Posted on: 30 November 2016 by james n
Well the hiss is quite normal (at a low level) - its just self generated noise and shouldn't be dependent on the environment. I'm surprised it's changed though - have you changed components, ie higher sensitivity or 'brighter' speakers or anything in the amplification chain ?. My thought on the weather was just down to any changes in how effective your mains supply ground is - something it may be worth getting your electrician to check.
