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How To Do You Measure the Quality of Your AC Power?

What is the best way to measure the quality of the AC power feeding your listening room? Is there a device you can plug into an outlet that will give you the voltage, frequency, the total amount of distortion relative to a perfect sine wave, etc.? Furthermore, how would you measure the ability of your AC main to deliver transient currents?
It seems like there may be a scenario where you could measure your power quality to be excellent but somewhere in the line you could have a loose or poorly made wiring connection which under heavy load (such as powerful bass notes) you could run into trouble with power delivery. In this scenario, an AC regenerator would not help you, or would help very little.

Just curious what methods people have come up with to systematically analyze their power and how they use those measurements to drive buying decisions or repair work, if needed.

Edit: My apologies for the title typo.
128x128mkgus

Showing 1 response by musicfan2349

musicfan2349's avatar
musicfan2349
207 posts
 
Dimming lights? Treadmill affecting things? Let's start with something simple!
Most modern outlets use some sort of wire capturing spring. They're quick and easy to install. Strip and insert wire, done. While they may hold the wire fine, IMHO they're crap for a SOLID connection. If you're competent enough I'd suggest the following: Kill the power at your breaker box. Pull the outlets in your audio room and redo the connections using the *screws* on the sides of the outlets. (Or have an electrician do it, even better.) This will give you more conductive surface area and a more SOLID connection. I've done this in a couple homes I've owned and it made all the difference. No more dimming lights during loud, bass heavy music. Good luck!

Happy listening!
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