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BPT 3.5 & SP Owners

I am considering purchasing a BPT 3.5 balanced power unit. I trying to determine if I can put the BPT 3.5 in my audio room or do I need to locate it in an adjacent room. My primary concern is mechanical transformer hum, because I believe I have dc offset (leakage) which may cause the BPT 3.5's transformers to hum.

So here are a couple of questions:

a. does your BPT 3.5 transformer have any mechanical hum? If so, can you give a sense of how much hum (ie. starts to become audible at 5 feet, or 2 feet).

b. are you running your power amplifiers thru the BPT 3.5? If so, which power amps do you use and do you like the benefits of the 3.5?

c. is anybody using long power cords (10-20 feet) from their stereo gear to the BPT 3.5?

Thanks.
banpuku
bigshutterbug
381 posts
 
I never had any noise problems or bad hum with my 3.5 either. Not audible at all from the listening area 10 ft away, and barely noticeable from 3-4 ft next to it. It worked extremely well with my front-end, and I had added benefits when running my VAC Phi 30/30 amp on it. No current limiting problems or loss of dynamics like I had with some other balanced line conditioners with the same amp.
ckorody
643 posts
 
Chris makes some very fine power cables - I would talk to him about the long run
cuwill
6 posts
 
First let me say I think the 3.5 is one of the top power conditioners out there. Second, I have run several different power amps through my 3.5 signature and I thought it was beneficial. More black backgrounds, definitely lowers the noise floor.

But, yes, I experienced hum during certain times of the day or night when it is dealing with dirty power. The level of hum varied with how dirty the incoming power was and therefore how hard it was working. When humming, it was audible from the listening position about 12 feet, but only if no music was playing. With music playing it was too low in level to hear. And, just to be clear, often times there was no audible hum. I had another balanced pc before the BPT and it hummed all the time and sometimes could be heard during quiet passages. I bought the BPT to replace it and there was simply no comparison.

It is an excellent product.

Chuck
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