PS Audio Noise Harvester

Here's another current thread over at AA.

http://www.audioasylum.com/audio/general/messages/449302.html

Sean
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Electroid ( and others ): If you go back in the archives, you'll find that i make mention of this type of occurance more than a few times. This is why i've talked about using a VERY LARGE isolation transformer ( with tweaks ) to feed the entire system and individual isolation transformers ( with tweaks ) at component level.

The primary iso gets rid of most of the crapola coming in on the mains. The individual iso's catch what has "leaked into" the AC feed between the primary iso and the outlets. As most of us know, the wiring within the house can and does act as a long wire antenna for both EMI and RFI, so the individual iso's help to act as a secondary filter in this respect.

On top of that, the individual iso's also keep the "internally generated garbage" of one component from being pumped back into other components via their common AC feed. That's because each component is now electrically isolated via the isolation tranformer.

Iso's work going both ways. That is, they not only keep the garbage from getting into the component, but also help to minimize the amount of garbage generated within that component from finding its' way back into the AC lines to contaminate other gear. The end result of such an approach is that you have cleaner AC coming in for all of the gear with a drastic reduction of cross-contaminated AC at component level. Sean
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Drubin: That is an interesting observation that you shared with us here. Is your system on dedicated lines? Do you have more than one line, and if so, do you have your analogue separate from your digital, etc ??? Are you running any other type of power line conditioner and / or aftermarket power cords, etc ??? Where do you have the Harvester's in proximity to your system, etc ??? Sean
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Thanks for the quick response Drubin.

I asked about your AC system / dedicated lines / aftermarket PC's, the placement of your Harvester's, the use of PLC's, etc... for specific reasons. I was trying to determine not only the effectiveness of the Harvester, but also how effective your dedicated lines, PC's, and PLC's were.

Out of curiosity, is the Harvester that is placed on one of your dedicated lines tied into the same circuit as your Foundation Research PLC or is it on the other circuit? Sean
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Drubin: It would appear that your combo of gear / power cords / AC system seems to be working quite well for you. That is, at least in terms of the purity of incoming AC signal AND in having selected gear that has a low level of self generated internal noise from within the components themselves. This shows competency in design of the power supply and / or power cords, which hopefully carried over into other parts of the circuitry too : ) Sean
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Musicseller: Try disconnecting your audio gear from the outlets while leaving the NH plugged in. If the light show remains, you've got a ton of noise coming in on that circuit. If the light show slows or disappears when plugged in by itself, your audio gear is generating at least part of the noise that the NH is picking up.

Using this approach, one can plug the NH into various outlets and find which of their house circuits / individual outlets is "cleanest". Once the "cleanest" outlet is found, you can plug one individual component at a time into the other outlet of the duplex that the NH is plugged into. By checking the "light show" of the NH, you can now see which of your individual components generates noise BACK INTO the AC system. Be aware that some components will do this whether they are turned on or off !!!

If you find an individual component that causes the NH to put on quite a light show, you may want to take steps to try and isolate / filter the AC coming in and out of that individual component. This can be done several different ways i.e. through the use of an isolation transformer, tuned AC filters, parallel line traps, etc...

Another trick that one can do is to use the NH as a "test circuit" for various AC line conditioners. That is, plug the NH directly into the wall and watch the light show. Now plug the NH into the various outlets of the PLC / filters that you may be using and compare the differences. If the NH flashes at or very near the same rate in both places i.e. when plugged directly into the wall OR plugged into your PLC, the PLC / filter isn't doing much to control incoming noise. Sean
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