Mains Conditioner

I added an Isol8 Powerline Axis DC blocker. reduced the hum to a reasonable and consistent level. no noticable difference in SQ.

Bob F

Hi I think the conditioner only works if you plug it into the fridge or whatever is causing the hum

you could try a earthing rod outside with earth cable running into the back of your hi fi socket.

Mains conditioner is not going to help at all. Dedicated mains circuit may help a bit.

The lound humming is most likely caused by other domestic interference or from your neighbours. If your socket even shares a phase with other 'noisy' equipment you will be getting some of that through your transformer.

The first thing to do is try to identify the cause of the hum. I'm fairly certain that some Naim amps/PSUs hum more than others, regardless of mains quality, dodgy fridges, etc. I've had three Naim amps in my current house, two were noisy enough to hear quite easily from any point in the room when no music is playing. The other one is almost totally silent.

Try switching off every appliance in your house, and see if the hum reduces. Then turn everything back on, one at a time, to see if you can identify a cause. If not, the issue may be in a neighbours house, or the mains supply. 

Chris su that's seems a good idea, I will try that later. I am going to buy a cheap conditioner just to see if any difference is noted.

The sq has seemed to have dropped of late maybe all the festive lights in santas grotto cul-de-sac but I put it down to speaker position to accommodate the festive tree.

Huge commented some years ago a conditioner helped so a conditioner does seem quite a cheap option if it works

Ricto - you cannot do 'cheap' and 'conditioning' at the same time - it's either that or the other I'm afraid.
Trust me a main conditioner mounted in a distribution block (if this is what you're thing of) will adversely affect the sound quality and will do nothing to stop the transformer hum.

If the cheap conditioner doesn't prove fruitful on the hi-fi you can always try it on the TV and 'see' if there are any benefits there.

Be careful,  hum is not always bad mains, it can be a naturally noisy transformer.   If it changes tone & volume, its indicative of  (probably/might be)  "DC" on the mains.  If that is the case,  a non-specific conditioner, including an RA £40 thing, will not do anything.  You need a filter thats made specifically for filtering/blocking "DC",  sometimes called DC Offset,  or correctly called asymmetrical AC waveform distortion.

First be sure its not caused by something in your home,  turn everything off,  & I mean everything,  except the units with the noisy transformers,  then systematically turn each item back on & go from there. But if the tone & volume are unchanging,  you might be in for a frustrating time & might need to accept you have noisy transformers.     NB:  I have my own DC filter but the transformers are not exactly silent.

What we need is a calibrated mains synthesiser which can generate arbitrary waveforms and distortions so we can see what happens when the mains is not pure 230V 50Hz

Oh look, mine is being delivered to my lab in a few weeks from Newtons 4th, a fab company in Leicester who make world class mains generators and power meters.

It is certainly going to be fun seeing what causes transformers to rattle.

And its going to be fun to measure the efficacy of some of these so-called mains filters, many of which i suspect are nothing more than snake oil.

jon honeyball posted:

It is certainly going to be fun seeing what causes transformers to rattle.

I think it's a small fly which got caught inside and is trying to get out....

jon honeyball posted:

Oh look, mine is being delivered to my lab in a few weeks from Newtons 4th, a fab company in Leicester who make world class mains generators and power meters.

Just so long as it's not supplied by Einstein's 4th:  Time machines can be really tricky beasts!  

It's going to be very mild in Blighty, so start by turning off the boiler/central heating. I noticed a drop in quality whenever my last one came on . Since having a new one installed everything's a lot quieter...including the radiators.

Unfortunately, where I live is situated very close to a residential care home that has its own power generator. On the odd days this on it leaves a baseline hum that is audible ambient and has a nasty effect on everything on the mains.      

Huge posted:

Just so long as it's not supplied by Einstein's 4th:  Time machines can be really tricky beasts!  

I find Einstein musically irrelevant & Newton too heavy.    When it comes to 4th's,  I much prefer Beethoven's or better still the 4th Old Hooky. 

Mike-B posted:

Huge posted:

Just so long as it's not supplied by Einstein's 4th:  Time machines can be really tricky beasts!  

I find Einstein musically irrelevant & Newton too heavy.    When it comes to 4th's,  I much prefer Beethoven's or better still the 4th Old Hooky. 

On the subject of musical 4ths, how about "The Song of the Little Robots" from "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Universe".   ("Share and Enjoy...".)

Perhaps you should try an isolation transformer rather than a power conditioner. Either that or a power regenerator unit.

I have positive experience with Isol-8 Axis DC blockers which don't seem to impact SQ - at least to these ears. I live in a rural area with lots of farms around so heaven knows what's being injected into the mains

Prior to this the XPS2 (now replaced by a 555PSDR) used to hum and buzz away joined in from time to time by the 300PS. All is quiet now and things also improved by getting my boxes onto decent stands - although I'm not sure to what degree this was coincidence

I'd love a dedicated mains spur but currently not practical in our old cottage as I'd have to run an external cable around 3/4 of the house.

Ricto posted:

My system NAC 272 250 DR naca5 speaker wire and focal 1028be. Firstly due to wifely complaints my system is not best position however the amp makes a really loud hmm to the point you actually can not sit next to it I would guess about 45dB. It has to be the power supply as this is the second amp and both are the same. 

However my question is, would a power conditioner help and does the russ andrews justify the cost over a £40 one. I have read a few articles however they all seem quite old the newest being from Hugo (2010) . So I'm wondering if any one has tried any recently. I also note that a direct power supply to the mains is best however the consumer unit is on the other side of the house.

 

Ricto

The 250 does by default make a bit of hummm. However, if it is as loud as you are saying, there is a good chance it is being caused by DC offset. I had the same issue with my 200, after I troubleshooted the problem (pretty much by doing what others in this thread have said) I found my issue to be caused by DC offset. I picked up a $99 US device that cured the problem with no ill effects on SQ. In my research, I also learned that almost no power conditioners performed this operation, even ones costing thousands. 

Mike-B posted:

Huge posted:

Just so long as it's not supplied by Einstein's 4th:  Time machines can be really tricky beasts!  

I find Einstein musically irrelevant & Newton too heavy.    When it comes to 4th's,  I much prefer Beethoven's or better still the 4th Old Hooky. 

While some find it retrograde, I was always more a fan of Kepler.

Mike-B posted:

 

I find Einstein musically irrelevant & Newton too heavy.    When it comes to 4th's,  I much prefer Beethoven's or better still the 4th Old Hooky. 

I bet you're uncertain about Heisenberg as well!

PeterJ posted:

Mike-B posted:

 

I find Einstein musically irrelevant & Newton too heavy.    When it comes to 4th's,  I much prefer Beethoven's or better still the 4th Old Hooky. 

I bet you're uncertain about Heisenberg as well!

Is that better than Carlsberg?

Probably!

I don't understand why soany people get hum...must be where you live I guess

greekspec2 posted:

I don't understand why soany people get hum...must be where you live I guess

It has nothing to do with where you live, transformers just hum, it is just what they do.