Component power source

[djjustice]

Recently I discovered that I can hear the differences between input voltages going to my amplifier. I know this, since I usually favor the sound the most at 120 volts. This made me recal something that someone posted a while ago about Greek audiophiles, and all of their almost absurd obsessions with expensive equipment. Half way through the video the main audiophile/host described a voltage regulator, that I have only seen costing as little as $800, that regulates the voltage to his preferred level, which happened to be 120 volts. I have a power cleaner that constantly tells me my amp usage, volts, and a few other things; which is how I found this out in the first place. Can anybody else here tell the difference, and prefer one voltage over another? I don't think I will be dishing out $800 bucks for one of those any time soon, but am curious about how a couple of volts could objectively affect an amplifier.

[Paul K.]

What probably helps most is to have a regulated voltage that has little change in its output voltage with different input voltages from your power company or with changes in the load drawn by your power amplifier. OTOH, I seriously doubt there would be any measurable, much less audible differences in the sound of your system, with a regulated voltage supply, simply based on the exact value of that voltage, be it 115 volts, 120 volts, etc., unless you're one of those "golden eared" types.
Paul K.

> Recently I discovered that I can hear the
> differences between input voltages going to
> my amplifier. I know this, since I usually
> favor the sound the most at 120 volts. This
> made me recal something that someone posted
> a while ago about Greek audiophiles, and all
> of their almost absurd obsessions with
> expensive equipment. Half way through the
> video the main audiophile/host described a
> voltage regulator, that I have only seen
> costing as little as $800, that regulates
> the voltage to his preferred level, which
> happened to be 120 volts. I have a power
> cleaner that constantly tells me my amp
> usage, volts, and a few other things; which
> is how I found this out in the first place.
> Can anybody else here tell the difference,
> and prefer one voltage over another? I don't
> think I will be dishing out $800 bucks for
> one of those any time soon, but am curious
> about how a couple of volts could
> objectively affect an amplifier.

[Pete Schumacher ®]

> What probably helps most is to have a
> regulated voltage that has little change in
> its output voltage with different input
> voltages from your power company or with
> changes in the load drawn by your power
> amplifier. OTOH, I seriously doubt there
> would be any measurable, much less audible
> differences in the sound of your system,
> with a regulated voltage supply, simply
> based on the exact value of that voltage, be
> it 115 volts, 120 volts, etc., unless you're
> one of those "golden eared" types.
> Paul K.

The higher voltages will allow the rails on typical full bridge rectification to go just a bit higher, which would reduce clipping, a measurable difference. It's not much, but the when the amp is clipping on those transients, it may just be audible and that could be the difference you'd hear.

Ideally, a big flywheel and a motor/generator combo would provide the best, noise-free power at the highest possible regulation.

[djjustice]

Do you think that using a solar panel could provide the cleanest power and voltage regulation? Ive seen pictures of set ups at shows like CES that run on batteries; but wit ha solar panel, you have 10ft of high quality wire, rather than miles of lower quality wire that go everywhere, are used by everyone, and probably have bad solder joint and what not.

I think I unfortunately may be one of those expensive taste/ semi-golden ear types. I can usually hear the differences in components, that others like my friends cannot recognize. Its an expensive ability.

[jtaylor]

> Recently I discovered that I can hear the
> differences between input voltages going to
> my amplifier. I know this, since I usually
> favor the sound the most at 120 volts. This
> made me recal something that someone posted
> a while ago about Greek audiophiles, and all
> of their almost absurd obsessions with
> expensive equipment. Half way through the
> video the main audiophile/host described a
> voltage regulator, that I have only seen
> costing as little as $800, that regulates
> the voltage to his preferred level, which
> happened to be 120 volts. I have a power
> cleaner that constantly tells me my amp
> usage, volts, and a few other things; which
> is how I found this out in the first place.
> Can anybody else here tell the difference,
> and prefer one voltage over another? I don't
> think I will be dishing out $800 bucks for
> one of those any time soon, but am curious
> about how a couple of volts could
> objectively affect an amplifier.

In my 25+ years of working on High Fidelity flight simulators, I have experienced and seen some unbelievable Electronic problems. We had a 5.000 volt reference power supply drift out of tolerance and cause a myriad of problems. A change of 0.010 volts was all it took to make a major headache for us for an hour or two. We were slightly shocked to find that only 0.01 volts DC would cause such a huge amount of problems as this reference power supply did.

I've also had problems with dropping the LSB in a DAC in the motion system that caused a constant, but very small jolt every time this LSB was dropped. That was an extremely strange problem, I'm just glad that it was only the LSB, any other bit dropped would have kicked the crap out of you on motion.

So when it comes to small voltage variations, depending on where in the circuit it may occur. A small voltage variation can easily cause noticeable differences in the operation of electronic circuitry.

Now if your House voltage runs at 115 volts AC in a constant and stable manner, you wouldn't notice any problems unless it drifted by 5.0 VAC or more probably. I also must add that some of the older Electronics were very disturbed by temperature changes, which can also be critical in some cases.

J. Taylor

[Paul K.]

If the line voltage was running at, say, 115-117 volts and the power amp was being over-driven into clipping, I could see where increasing the line voltage to 120 volts "might" sound better assuming the clipping was reduced significantly or eliminated, but I still have doubts.
Paul

> The higher voltages will allow the rails on
> typical full bridge rectification to go just
> a bit higher, which would reduce clipping, a
> measurable difference. It's not much, but
> the when the amp is clipping on those
> transients, it may just be audible and that
> could be the difference you'd hear.

> Ideally, a big flywheel and a
> motor/generator combo would provide the
> best, noise-free power at the highest
> possible regulation.

[Pete Schumacher ®]

> Do you think that using a solar panel could
> provide the cleanest power and voltage
> regulation? Ive seen pictures of set ups at
> shows like CES that run on batteries; but
> wit ha solar panel, you have 10ft of high
> quality wire, rather than miles of lower
> quality wire that go everywhere, are used by
> everyone, and probably have bad solder joint
> and what not.

> I think I unfortunately may be one of those
> expensive taste/ semi-golden ear types. I
> can usually hear the differences in
> components, that others like my friends
> cannot recognize. Its an expensive ability.

Solar panels are silicon wafers, inherently noisier than OFC. But they would suffer degradation of regulation depending on how intense the light hitting them is.

Power isolation via motor turning flywheel turning generator will provide THE cleanest AC power you could possibly want.

What I'd like to see would be to have a DC rail in the home specifically dedicated to audio electronics. No transformers, no rectifiers and the noise they generate. Just a capacitor bank in the electronics to keep AC source impedance low . . . ahhh, to dream.

[Pete Schumacher ®]

> If the line voltage was running at, say,
> 115-117 volts and the power amp was being
> over-driven into clipping, I could see where
> increasing the line voltage to 120 volts
> "might" sound better assuming the
> clipping was reduced significantly or
> eliminated, but I still have doubts.
> Paul

As I said, the differences would be small, but measurable. As to whether or not they're audible, that is another question.

[Paul K.]

going back to the original scenario you pictured, if the power amp was being driven into clipping and increasing the line voltage took it out of clipping and made the sound better, the very same effect should occur if the signal to the power amp was reduced enough to have the same reduction effect on clipping, and it would again sound better, even though the loudness would be less. Conclusion? Any improvement in sound would not be due to a specific line voltage as Dj is claiming.
Paul

> As I said, the differences would be small,
> but measurable. As to whether or not they're
> audible, that is another question.

[djjustice]

You should try to go for it then. I would do allot of testing, but I do not have any land or real money to work with.