GoodSoundClub - Romy the Cat's Audio Site

In the Forum: Analog Playback
In the Thread: The last phonocorrector: “End of Life" Phonostage

Post Subject: It is not about power supply.Posted by Romy the Cat on: 9/2/2011

N-set wrote:

You always repeat that you do not listen to the power supply thanks to your "isolating" PS philosophy.
This is a super attractive thing worth all the blood, sweat and tears! But then at the same time some disturbing notes come that
a CM filter in the power line may affects dynamics. How can it be? Does it mean that in the reality
the signal penetrates that deep to the power line? Otherwise how can signal feel a CM choke in the
line? So the PS is not truly isolating? If so, perhaps one hears it's other parts and we are back to the anal rituals of
sound shaping by PS choke insulation, diode brand, etc? Sorry for sounding a bit like a talmudist, too many questions.

It is not about power supply but about electricity in mains. To me PS starts from primary of transformer but the EMI filters sit before it. Thos filters are usually a combination of common mode and differential filter. The last one have capacitors that go from not and neutral to ground. My assumption that those caps do the typical damage the caps do on AC like of wall electricity. Make an experiment. Take a 5-10uF cap (any cap) and shunt primary of any audio devise. Juts stick it into the power outlet where a playback is connected. You will have lost of dynamics and worsening of very lower bass. Try it. There is absolutely no rational explanation of it but it is what it is. I might propose that the caps in RFI/EMI filters damage sound. I might also propose that disrespect to the filter load might be something that compromises sound (if you look in the math of those filters then you see that it cannot be used a generic filter from the shelf but the constriction the filter need to be optimize to the very specific current that the load draws – practically no one does it unless then built discrete filter from scratch). The reality is that I don’t know the true reason but I know that by disconnecting the filters from most of the electronics I used I did get sonic benefits. Would it be the same in your case? I have no idea. If you use an audio component that I know in my region then I would be able to say with high confidence if you mast to bypass the EMI filter in your specific component. In your case I have no idea nether about your electronics, or about your electricity, or about your listening objectives. I do not need to know all of this but I do know that it will take for you a few minutes to look into the RFI/EMI filters yourself. I would like to feel that this site is not about advise(s) in audio (fucking English: the word “advise” must have some kind of plural form!) but rather it is about discovering own common sense in audio. You, yourself shorting your own RFI/EMI filter is what I call "common sense" in audio. All the rest is just a full of crap.

The Cat

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