Do you have your system on its own dedicated ring on the house electrical supply?

I presume you've picked the bones out of - Search Results

Adam Meredith posted:

I presume you've picked the bones out of - Search Results

I would presume he hasn't, that would take ages, and probably drive him insane.

Short answer - dedicated circuit, yes. Like most others, very worthwhile for me. Dedicated ring - no idea, I went with Naim's recommendation for UK users and just went with a radial.

Dedicated radal spur giving each component its own socket.  Possibly biggest difference of any upgrade. 

Regards,

Lindsay

Thanks, I could probably do this quite easily but not using a 10mm ring.

I assume most are using standard twin and earth like the rest of the house?

You want a separate consumer unit with 50amp breakers. Split the meter tails with a Henley Block. Run a single 10mm squared cable to a good unswitched socket, or sockets. This applies to the U.K. only and whatever you do, get a properly qualified electrician. Splitting the 100 amp tails with the power still on is not something for an amateur. 

Hungryhalibut posted:

You want a separate consumer unit with 50amp breakers. Split the meter tails with a Henley Block. Run a single 10mm squared cable to a good unswitched socket, or sockets. This applies to the U.K. only and whatever you do, get a properly qualified electrician. Splitting the 100 amp tails with the power still on is not something for an amateur. 

Exactly what I did a year or so ago and it was an improvement - I also put Powerlines onto my XPS, SC and 250 (all DR's) which I also felt was a worthwhile further improvement. Only thing the new main didn't completely kill was transformer hum when SHMBO's hair dryer is used. Just shows how much electrical filth those things generate. Only seems to happen when she the heater is at full wack.

[@mention:28598595209586295] if you are in the UK, give Naim support a call. They will be able to tell you what they recommend for your system. For me, they suggested a separate consumer unit with 32 Amp type C MCB, 10mm T&E cable, and unstitched sockets. That's what I used - no special 'audiophile' cable, sockets etc. 

You would think a specialist electrician network wide supplying audiophile quality mains installations on specification specifics  would be available on quick dial by now.   Or at least from request from proper hifi dealers.

Don't know if it's the same availability in UK, but in Canada I had my electrician install a lightning surge filter on my dedicated Audio circuit, at the panel. It's a separate box that is attached to the side of the panel. It wasn't expensive. You might want to ask..

going to this extent, can you get a mians conditioning  consumer unit rather than adding anything else like a Isotek right next to your system that you then plug into?

You don’t need conditioning or surge filters, just a clean supply. The arrangement I summarised above is all you need, and it’s what Naim suggested many years ago. Keep it simple. 

When I rewired my house I ran a dedicared ring to the lounge, with multiple sockets in several strategic positions. When serious listening to music  there would not normally be anything else on in the room other than the hifi system. That was my compromise, and glad I didn’t run a dedicated spur because the positions I originally envisaged having everything needed a complete change once I set up and assessed the sound, the electronics ending up at the opposite corner of a 7m room. 

(I installed more dedicated circuits in the rest of the house than people normally have as well, to minimise effect of interferences between any area, and prevent unrelated things being cut off in event of a fault.)

He have a dedicated spur. The opportunity arose to install one when renovations were made to the house, and it seemed silly not to grasp it.

There is a ring main socket nearby, so it is easy to compere comparatively "clean" amps to comparatively "dirty" ones.

The difference is more than we expected. In the same order of magnitude as installing a Fraim. The presentation is cleaner. Simple yet more detailed than before. We considered it a worthwhile upgrade. In our case it didn't involve any disruption to the house because it was already in pieces.

ChrisSU posted:

[@mention:28598595209586295] if you are in the UK, give Naim support a call. They will be able to tell you what they recommend for your system. For me, they suggested a separate consumer unit with 32 Amp type C MCB, 10mm T&E cable, and unstitched sockets. That's what I used - no special 'audiophile' cable, sockets etc. 

Had the Spark in today and the 10mm cable is in and all getting connected up next week the same as you Chris as this is what Naim recommended to me also.

Am I likely to hear a sound difference?

Yep 10mm main cable to unswitched MK double sockets. Makes a big difference and a fairly cheap upgrade in the Naim grand scheme of things.

Popeye - 

You should hear a change - the extent of which will depend on how cluttered your mains was from things like household appliances (e.g. fridges and alike). Hopefully, detailing and bass will step up.

I would also suggest the tails closest to the incoming mains feed (in the splitter block) are wired to the hi-fi CU - i.e. to be done by the sparks. 

Depending upon your internal hi-fi wiring, you may wish to experiment with the order of kit plug ins. Some prefer putting the power amp 1st in the sequence/others the source I think.

It may also be beneficial to get a CU with spare capacity or wire-up some spare sockets for the upgraditis bug! i.e. get a larger CU at the outset?

In my experience, it's easier to get the spare capacity installed at the outset, than get a sparks to revisit (potential drilling/redecoration et al) - and the cost difference wasn't material in the overall scheme of things.

For years I have two dedicated spurs one for my Linn Radikal/LP12 and the other for my Naim amps from a dedicated Consumer Unit.

i have often wondered the difference in sound quality deploying a ‘ring’ rather than a ‘spur’ and what fundamentally is the difference in terms of electrical configuration and UK regulations.

Richard

stick to what you have     correctly isolate electrics   dismantle clean exposed conductors re fit and retighten connections   SPRAY with dioxit 5    .   done for a few years  

Very useful thread - Finally pulled my finger out and have an Electrician coming next week to quote to get a separate CU and radial installed for the Hi-Fi. 

FangfossFlyer posted:

 

i have often wondered the difference in sound quality deploying a ‘ring’ rather than a ‘spur’ and what fundamentally is the difference in terms of electrical configuration and UK regulations.

Richard

 

If you do a search for diydata.com electrical glossary, the terms are explained.

For regulations go to iet.org or hse.gov.uk electrical standards

FangfossFlyer posted:

For years I have two dedicated spurs one for my Linn Radikal/LP12 and the other for my Naim amps from a dedicated Consumer Unit.

i have often wondered the difference in sound quality deploying a ‘ring’ rather than a ‘spur’ and what fundamentally is the difference in terms of electrical configuration and UK regulations.

Richard

 

I was advised by my dealer to do the same - two spurs, one for digital power (Radikal) and second for Naim electronics. Standard cable used and unswtiched MK sockets.  The work was done during extensive remodelling of the downstairs of our house so couldn't do a before and after and comment on the improvement in SQ - but certainly not as much "clicking" as my previous arrangement in the other house when the fridge compressor was a constant pain.

Popeye posted:

ChrisSU posted:

[@mention:28598595209586295] if you are in the UK, give Naim support a call. They will be able to tell you what they recommend for your system. For me, they suggested a separate consumer unit with 32 Amp type C MCB, 10mm T&E cable, and unstitched sockets. That's what I used - no special 'audiophile' cable, sockets etc. 

Had the Spark in today and the 10mm cable is in and all getting connected up next week the same as you Chris as this is what Naim recommended to me also.

Am I likely to hear a sound difference?

I'm fairly certain that this cleaned up the sound quite a lot for me. As others have mentioned, I installed the dedicated circuits as part of a major house refurb, so I never made a direct A/B comparison of before and after. The old circuit is still there, so maybe I'll try it one day!

I imagine the benefits would be greater in terms of isolation if your mains is polluted - our house is in a rural location with few neighbours and no commercial buildings nearby, so I would hope the incoming mains isn't too bad. I also try to keep gadgets and dodgy PSUs to a minimum, or so I thought until I started to investigate: it seems this might be easier said than done. See https://forums.naimaudio.com/to...34#73793444789439134 

Except... it is tne same incoming mains supply, so if the problem is that being ‘polluted’ then the dedicated circuit won’t change it. What it does is bypass everything else in the house.

I did have one specified when they were building the condominium. And they installed it. Only problem was they wired the dedicated ring to the wrong set of sockets and this came to light after it was behind grain matched wall panels, under a heated floor and under a long run of carefully grain matched marble tiles.

Estimated cost of fixing this blunder: $100K plus moving out of the apartment for several weeks. So I guess the answer to the OP is yeah, but no, but yeah kinda, but no. 

I am looking into this and have my electrician coming round this week to discuss. 

His initial view is that, using 10mm squared cable from a separate consumer unit with 50amp breakers, he’d only be able to have one twin socket on the end and not two.

He could wire 2 x4mm as a ring and have a two dedicated sockets. He said that this would be the equivalent of an 8mm direct supply.

Today I power my 272 via XPSDR and my 250DR from a twin socket using Powerlines. 

I also use a Powerline lite to a wireworld matrix 2 block from which I connect my Rega Aria, Rega TTPS, my Cisco 2960 switch and my UnitiServe.

Question - should I go for the single dedicated double socket on a 10mm direct supply and have the 250 and XPS as the only components benefitting from it with the other components essentially on the main mains circuit as they are today or have two double sockets but with a 8mm dedicated supply with everything on that same supply?

many thanks

David