balanced power conditioners: bpt vs. equitech

[Matt Syson]

Hi
The mains cabling is already balanced in the sense that the 'go' and 'return' current does not flow to earth. While it may be that the neutral is connected to earth at your fuse board or elsewhere outside the studio space the 'radiation' from your cabling due to current flow in the studio will be substantially the same with a 'balanced' source or the way it is generally supplied.
Having decent FILTERS to remove excess harmonics and noise is probably far more important.
Incidentally, adding a transformer will INCREASE the impedance of your mains supply so any supposed effects such as 'improved bass' will actually get WORSE with a transformer.
For any studios that have applied a balancing transformer, did you analyse the frequencies of the 'noise' that have been reduced? Was it 50/60 and the first few harmonics, or was it higher frequency trash that the cables acquire on the way into your place?
Matt S

[MIKEHARRIS]

Bryston has balanced power as well...i may be mistaken but believe these to use Piltron transformers.

[Flymax]

Just get the equitech. Its plug and play. It will be fine for a small setup.

Originally Posted by t_d

i didn't know the difference..

i want clean power, reduced noisefloor.. don't know if i believe the hype about "tightened bass" or "deeper sound"... audiophile voodoo if you ask me....

what i'm after is reduced noise and clean power coming out of the house circuit.

[Danny Stone]

In my opinion I think you should look at North America – AVR2 with Balanced Input | Torus Power

[Danny Stone]

Originally Posted by MIKEHARRIS

Bryston has balanced power as well...i may be mistaken but believe these to use Piltron transformers.

They do.

[airmate]

Originally Posted by Matt Syson

Hi
The mains cabling is already balanced in the sense that the 'go' and 'return' current does not flow to earth. While it may be that the neutral is connected to earth at your fuse board or elsewhere outside the studio space the 'radiation' from your cabling due to current flow in the studio will be substantially the same with a 'balanced' source or the way it is generally supplied.
Having decent FILTERS to remove excess harmonics and noise is probably far more important.
Incidentally, adding a transformer will INCREASE the impedance of your mains supply so any supposed effects such as 'improved bass' will actually get WORSE with a transformer.
For any studios that have applied a balancing transformer, did you analyse the frequencies of the 'noise' that have been reduced? Was it 50/60 and the first few harmonics, or was it higher frequency trash that the cables acquire on the way into your place?
Matt S

Very good points! In my case mains filters have made a pretty decent improvement...

[Geoff_T]

Originally Posted by Matt Syson

Hi
The mains cabling is already balanced in the sense that the 'go' and 'return' current does not flow to earth. While it may be that the neutral is connected to earth at your fuse board or elsewhere outside the studio space the 'radiation' from your cabling due to current flow in the studio will be substantially the same with a 'balanced' source or the way it is generally supplied.
Having decent FILTERS to remove excess harmonics and noise is probably far more important.
Incidentally, adding a transformer will INCREASE the impedance of your mains supply so any supposed effects such as 'improved bass' will actually get WORSE with a transformer.
For any studios that have applied a balancing transformer, did you analyse the frequencies of the 'noise' that have been reduced? Was it 50/60 and the first few harmonics, or was it higher frequency trash that the cables acquire on the way into your place?
Matt S

Hi Matt

I agree with your points. Nowadays everyone is looking for a "band-aid" to fix their studio ailments when a close study of the studio environment, possible noise sources (like lamp dimmers and old refrigerators), and decent grounding would possibly yield better results with less cash expenditure.

How all the old studios managed without "balanced" power, monster cables, and the rest of recent fix-all devices, I will never know.

Perhaps they designed their rooms properly?

Posted from my iPhone 4S

[Matt Syson]

Hi Geoff.
If modern students manage to stay awake to about year 2 of high school where they are told about some of the essential 'laws' of electrical theory, Ohms Law, Faradays laws and so on they might begin to understand what is going on. You don't have to have a 'degree' in it unless you want to make a career of it. Just an overview is sufficient so you can avoid obvious pitfalls. I have done technical work in hundreds of studios across Europe and farther afield and don't remember seeing any with dedicated 'power balancing' transformers.
The worst studio for HUM was one in Germany where the desk was about 4 metres from a 11KV overhead single line cable for the railway. When trains went past the alteration in radiated field changed the colours and shifted the image on a CRT computer monitor. Yes there was some hum on the desk output, about 10dB worse than it should have been.
I have however been to many studios where the monitors hum (when I arrive) although recording out is fine, this is simply poor wiring practice.
Having worked in the past at many BBC and independent broadcasters I have never been aware of 'balanced power' for any of the studios although in the late 1980's isolation transformers were introduced as 'health and Safety' measures for 'Artistes' to use their own guitar amps where their equipment had not been fully tested for safety. This was an issue of DEATH and LIABILITY and not hum reduction.
Matt S

[airmate]

Originally Posted by Geoff_T

Hi Matt

I agree with your points. Nowadays everyone is looking for a "band-aid" to fix their studio ailments when a close study of the studio environment, possible noise sources (like lamp dimmers and old refrigerators), and decent grounding would possibly yield better results with less cash expenditure.

How all the old studios managed without "balanced" power, monster cables, and the rest of recent fix-all devices, I will never know.

Perhaps they designed their rooms properly?

Posted from my iPhone 4S

As far as I understand, today there is more HF noise in the mains, due to switching PSUs and the likes.

[Matt Syson]

Hi
Yes, for which the 'balanced' aspect will have decreasing influence as although they may be 'balanced' at fundamental power line frequencies, they are certainly not at anything above a few hundred Hz.
Matt S

[Geoff_T]

Originally Posted by Matt Syson

Hi Geoff.
If modern students manage to stay awake to about year 2 of high school where they are told about some of the essential 'laws' of electrical theory, Ohms Law, Faradays laws and so on they might begin to understand what is going on. You don't have to have a 'degree' in it unless you want to make a career of it. Just an overview is sufficient so you can avoid obvious pitfalls. I have done technical work in hundreds of studios across Europe and farther afield and don't remember seeing any with dedicated 'power balancing' transformers.
The worst studio for HUM was one in Germany where the desk was about 4 metres from a 11KV overhead single line cable for the railway. When trains went past the alteration in radiated field changed the colours and shifted the image on a CRT computer monitor. Yes there was some hum on the desk output, about 10dB worse than it should have been.
I have however been to many studios where the monitors hum (when I arrive) although recording out is fine, this is simply poor wiring practice.
Having worked in the past at many BBC and independent broadcasters I have never been aware of 'balanced power' for any of the studios although in the late 1980's isolation transformers were introduced as 'health and Safety' measures for 'Artistes' to use their own guitar amps where their equipment had not been fully tested for safety. This was an issue of DEATH and LIABILITY and not hum reduction.
Matt S

Hi Matt

I sorted a problem of hum in a basement studio in Tel Aviv. The problem was that the basement/bomb shelter was the basement of a multi-storie building and extended under the side walk of the street above.

Running parallel to the console's unbalanced bus bars was a massive power cable feeding current to the building. They had to contact the power company to have the cable re-routed.

I found it using a simple reel of equipment wire attached to the input of an oscilloscope. You could follow the path of the cable above the ceiling with that simple jig.

I've seen other hum issues in studios, all fixable with basic tools and a little imagination.

There's more muck on power lines these days and a filter will fix them but an isolating transformer? HF will sail straight through it!

Posted from my iPhone

See you all at booth 1209 at the AES, turn right at the entrance then left at second aisle.