PS Audio Noise Harvester

Just want to give my experience with the noise harvester. I have had one in service for over a month. I honestly can't perceive an improvement or detriment from its use. Maybe my ears are shot. But what has fascinated me is the unpredictable behavior of the blue light. I have a dedicated music room with a dedicated circuit that includes three 15A wall outlets and an overhead light. Typically, but not always, the NH may not flash for the entire day until about 9 PM. After 9 PM it generally begins to flash, sometime once every few minutes while at other times a few flashes per second. I have also witnessed rapid flashing continuously for about 36 hours. Then again I have seen it remain silent for two days. No relationship to day of week. And I have deligently tried to correlate the flashing with operating in-house devices - but THERE IS NO CORELATION!. I have check the 3-5 times per second flashing at 3 AM when nothing (including the fridge, AC, and lights) were on. I tried to relate the flashing to rain, relative humidity, wind, temperature, etc., etc., ad infinitum, BUT NOTHING. Can someone please explain this behavior? As far as I'm concerned, at present the NH is nothing more than a noise sensor that presents curious patterns of external power line noise that I can't explain.

Anybody else experience this? Thanks.

Nano, seems like an expensive late night light show , I think i"ll pass 8^)...

I, too, was skeptical beyond belief regarding the PS Audio Noise Harvester. I read the AVS Forum threads, which actually added to my skepticism but also somehow managed to futher tweek my curiosity. I ended finding one here on Audiogon (thanks again, Audiogon, for always having ads for what I'm looking for!) for $75.00, new and in the box. I plugged it in to the same circuit as my system is on, which is a dedicated line from a second sub-panel, with hospital grade receptacles, and sat back to listen. The first thing I noticed is that it flashes like there is no tomorrow. Is my line that dirty, or is just designed to do that? I don't know, but I do know that definition and detail have been enhanced. There is better delineation of instruments, and a more projected midrange. Are the changes radical? Well, no, they're not, but they are there. Is it worth a hundred dollars? Perhaps not, but at $75.00 I don't feel as though I was taken.

Does anyone have experience using the NHs on non-dedicated circuits while their audio/video equipment is on a different, dedicated circuit?

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
>