Game Changing Tweak Part 2


A couple of years ago, I bought a pair of Electraclears from ADD-Powr, an audio products company. They’re plugged into the same hospital grade outlet that my system uses and has improved the overall sound quality of the system, described in a post I wrote called Game Changing Tweak in August 2020. Since then I upgraded my system with a Plinius SA-102 amp and Plinius M-16 pre-amp that was bought from and brilliantly modified by Plinius Repair in California. The amp delivers 120wpc of pure Class A by flicking a toggle, and though it’s all solid state, it has the supple sonics of a fine tube amp. I live in a rural area where the electric grid can be a bit gritty. An audiophile friend recommended that I get an isolation transformer to clean up any noise infiltrating from the power lines. I bought a new Tripp Lite from an eBay site for less than half of what the same unit was selling for elsewhere, and was impressed with the immediate improvement in clarity and coherence from the addition. Every component in the system is plugged into the power filter, a Chang Lightspeed Powerline 6400, which is now plugged into the isolation transformer. I haven’t detected a loss of detail with this configuration in any way. I listened to the system for several weeks before remembering my Electraclears were still in the outlet that the isolation transformer was plugged into. I had to consider that the isolation transformer may be negating the effect of the Electraclears, so I pulled them from the outlet they were sharing with the transformer and plugged them directly into two of the transformer’s four outlets. The improvement was incredible. The transformer lowers the overall noise floor, and the Electraclears expand the musicality. If you happen to already own these Electraclears, then an isolation transformer would be a worthwhile acquisition.This is a synergistic coupling that I fortunately discovered by acting on a hunch.

bartholomew
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I also noticed the improvement when I was playing an SACD disk. It's got three concertos by Locatelli with Sandrine Cantoreggi on violin. It's a superb recording, and you think you're sitting in the middle of the orchestra with the five channel set-up. Before I had the isolation transformer and Electraclears in place, the highest notes on the E string of the violin sounded closer to a piccolo than a violin. After the installation, I was hearing sharpened and genuine high notes.

The new eau4 is equivalent in effectiveness to 2 eau2s or AC harmonic resonance on steroids, or a further awakening and insight into the power of music, in this case recorded music, when presented with, shall we say...life?!

@Bemused:

Thanks for articulating the technical "how and why" of my set-up. I agree that the Electraclears were still working in the background when they were upstream of the transformer. However, the a/b epiphany happened when I plugged the Electraclears directly into the transformer for a much more pronounced effect. It was too striking an improvement to be a placebo effect. I think the transformer does a very good job at filtering noise, but possibly devices as well that are designed to boost signal, which is what the Electraclears do.

Thanks for sharing your interesting story. Indeed that is what an isolation transformer does - reduces any capacitance common mode noise between windings using a faraday shield. Then the Chang filters the magnetic differential noise. Now the relocated ElectraClears induce their low frequency square wave signal upon the AC line and the harmonic energy "reference" is restored. 

I think that the ElectraClears were working prior to the location switch. But you did not mention their (A/B) effect on the sound when the transformer was in place. Care to elaborate?