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In the Forum: Audio Discussions
In the Thread: It’s mad, mad, mad... electricity.
Post Subject: UpdatePosted by N-set on: 1/11/2021
A bit of the background. Before acquiring the PP, the whole system had been moved from it's previous location in Gdansk to a new one in Warsaw. New, busy city, new apartment, new electricity. Straight after the move and connected to the new house power, the sound was simply uninspiring, very much unlike in my previous location. I honestly did not want to listen much. This was the reason to get the PP. It did give very very good results with my tuner but had some grounding issues with the phono. After the long fight, documented above (thank you guys, thank you PP Richard for the help) this was eventually resolved and I have installed a dedicated power line and GND for the PP. Whether needed or not I honestly cannot tell as I did not do much listening with PP connected to the house power. But for a peace of mind I installed the line right before the Christmas (was actually a pretty quick job with a right electrician). Then came long weeks of burning in of the line. I connected a fridge, some lights and several time a washing machine (about 2kW peak). Not through PP of course, just directly. Recently I finally started listening. I've had so far only one long listening session so cannot comment much on the sound yet. But one is sure - the sound has changed from just correct and uninvolving to more resolved, dynamically contrasted and emotionally engaging. Most prominent change in the base and upper base, the latter being the most sensitive point. Was spinning one LP after another, finding a great pleasure in the sound, resembling what I had before the big move. I feel there is still some tweaking to be done - with the PP the arrangement of the AC cords seems more important to minimize the cart pickup and some more break in is also needed. But at this stage I'm very happy!
Below are the details of the current power connection (mostly for my records):
1) Dedicated power line: 6m of 5x6mm2 flat cable (AWG 9.5). The connections of the cable:
PP GND - Neutral - Line - Drain GND - System GND (could be more optimal with PP GND and Line exchanged but let's not be picky)
Drain GND connected only on the power distribution side and left unconnected at the receptacle.
Dedicated fuse box, connected directly to the power entrance to the apartment:
RCBO Siemens 5V3316-6, 63A type figuring it should have the most reliable contacts
After it 16A, 10x38mm fuse on the line, Siemens 3NW7013 holder
2) PP connected to this line, with its ground at PP GND. System GND connected via a separate 10mm2 (AWG 7) stranded wire (around 3m) to its dedicated GND (System GND). PP GND, System GND and the Drain GND are connected only at the power entry to the apartment. There are 2 separate GND wires: For the phono and for the digital
From PP a 3m power cable 3x4mm2 (AWG 11) to a my old DIY power strip. Connection to PP via a Nema L6-15 twistlock connector. The cable carries the PP GND. All the components are lifted from the PP GND and connected only via the dedicated GND above. The AC cables have actually Paul's drain system: there is a GND strand, connected only at one end to the PP GND at the power strip, but disconnected at the component end. The AC cables are DIY solid core 2.5mm2 (AWG 13) in teflon braids with solid copper plugs (thanks Paul for that construction!).
An interesting observation: The 20kHz carrier freq of the PP dropped by some 8dB at the phono output going from a normal household stranded wire power strip to the 3x4mm2 solid core above. I recon this is the skin effect in action and the thick cable acts as a filter for the PP HF noise. Looking at the engineering data on cables, e.g. here https://fliphtml5.com/tbxwk/pnhi/basic there limiting frequencies quoted for the max skin depth. 11AWG has 3200Hz. If I find enough motivation, I will change the PP to system connection to 9.5AWG (6mm2) which has around 1kHz less (more than 9.5AWG will not fit my Nema plugs).
Thanks again everyone for the help: Vaclav from HifiStrore in Prague for delivering the PP, PP Richard for a great deal of support and help (I'm yet to try your AC cable), Romy and other contributors for your advise and help. Needless to say I began to buy LP's again 
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