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In the Forum: Audio Discussions
In the Thread: It’s mad, mad, mad... electricity.

Post Subject: The same path?Posted by floobydust on: 2/20/2009

I think we're on the same path... maybe from opposite directions. I agree that if one can identify multiple devices that provide clean power without impacting the sound quality then thru some level of analysis one could hope to determine what factor(s) effect the power the most or least.

Without trying to make it a trivial task, the AC power has but a few simple parameters: 1- voltage, 2- frequency and 3- waveform. If you can correctly manage the 3 and eliminate anything that is not part of the 3 parameters, in theory you have perfect power.

Of course, this is more difficult in practice. Regulating voltage is not rocket science, but to what degree of regulation is acceptable and furthermore, what effect does transient load changes have on the voltage output and waveform. As transients could be much shorter than a single waveform duration, how immune is the power source from waveform distortion due to transient conditions in the load? As the load can be highly inductive, how immune is the power source to this behavior? Needless to say, it can become quite a difficult challenge and mixing the types of loads you put on the power source also creates cumulative problems based on how they load the line.

I do feel that other solutions would have to exist.... finding them becomes both difficult and expensive not to mention time consuming. On the flip side, I would tend to think that pure linear supplies (in end-user equipment) create less of a problem for loading a power source. Their impact (by design) is against the entire waveform unlike digital supplies which only affect a portion of the waveform. In mixed mode cases, you may find one device works better than another.

I won't pretend to have the answers, but it is one area of audio that I've thought about quite a bit over the years... more now than ever as power companies are less consistent in controlling the basic parameters of the power delivered to your home.

Regards, KM

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