Optimising dedicated Hi-Fi mains supply

[Blackmorec]

When this whole Covid19 epidemic is over, I’m going to have an electrician update my 2 dedicated mains supplies, but in the meantime I’d like to confirm its design and make sure I’m ordering the correct components

Right now I have the following installed: Tails are taken from the back of the original consumer unit to a 2nd ‘dedicated for hi-fi’ consumer unit....this is the first area for improvement.

The hi-fi Consumer Unit contains a generic isolation switch and 2 AHP (Hi-fi Tuning) fuse holders with AHP gold fuses. From each fuse holder, 2 single 6m runs of Acrolink 7N P-4030 II Stressfree cable are each connected to 2 Furutech Duplex FP-13 63-D Gold wall sockets, wired in series.

My future installation is foreseen as the following:

From the meter, the original tails will go to 2 Henley blocks, with 2 sets of tails, one to the original CU and one to a new Hagar Hi-Fi CU

The Hagar will contain a Doepke DFS 2F Audio RCB, and 2 Gigawatt G-C16A MCBs, one for each run of Acrolink. No further changes are envisaged....the Acrolink and in-room sockets will remain as currently wired, in series, as separate radials

* Bold indicates items to be purchased

My questions:

Does the new Hagar Consumer Unit need a separate isolation switch before the Doepke RCB and if so, what type of switch?
Does the above specified layout sound like its missing anything in order to meet UK code? I would like to pre-order all the components so the electrician only has to do the installation as typically the hardware electricians have to hand is basic household consumer stuff

https://www.doepke.de/en/products/p...sidual-current-f/for-audiophile-applications/

http://www.gigawatt.eu/produkt/g-c16a-power-grid-overcurrent-protection-switch/

Thanks for inputs.

 

[daytona600]

Have you tried off-grid
pv panels or mains charger + inverter
built my own sounds great with the hifi & powers the whole house 16amp/240v
rock solid 240v 50hz power

https://www.livingvoice.co.uk/lv-battery-power-supply.html

 

[Blackmorec]

Thanks for the suggestion....Looks interesting but not something that really suits my needs. My current installation sounds great. It just needs bringing up to date with the latest ‘best practices’ and can probably sound even better than what i currently have

 

[daytona600]

NO rfi , emc , brown outs , surges , peaks & even works in a power cut
LV system used at munich show powering a £1.6million kondo / living voice system

 

[christoph]

Have you tried off-grid
pv panels or mains charger + inverter
built my own sounds great with the hifi & powers the whole house 16amp/240v
rock solid 240v 50hz power

https://www.livingvoice.co.uk/lv-battery-power-supply.html

Do you have an idea how much that Living Voice solution might cost?

 

[Blackmorec]

NO rfi , emc , brown outs , surges , peaks & even works in a power cut
LV system used at munich show powering a £1.6million kondo / living voice system

Yes, all valid reasons for going that route. Given I can’t do anything for several months I’ll amuse myself by reading up on the technology. I do know that taking care of a good mains supply does bring substantial rewards, so thanks a lot for the heads-up

 

[daytona600]

depends on size 400watt circa £300 4,000watt home made £2000 cheaper than a fancy mains cable
LV / Stromtank x 10/20 times the cost
why have goods mains when you can have perfect mains & use off the shelf mains cables

 

[Joostp]

Have you thought of installing an isolation transformer?
I have built my own with a 3000VA transformer and some mains filters and it really improved SQ.

 

[LeBlanc]

depends on size 400watt circa £300 4,000watt home made £2000 cheaper than a fancy mains cable
LV / Stromtank x 10/20 times the cost
why have goods mains when you can have perfect mains & use off the shelf mains cables

What is your source for these prices? This link mentions a price of GBP 25,000 for the BPS: http://www.theaudiobeat.com/visits/living_voice_vox.htm

 

[Kingrex]

I can't quite follow what your talking about. Maybe its the euro slang. In the USA, as a tradesman we talk about feeders, branch circuits, power cords, feeder breakers or main breakers, branch circuit breakers, power distribution strips. I don't know what a Tail is.

Are you trying to get rid of your branch circuit fuse protection and replace it with a Branch Circuit thermal/mag overcurrent protection device,

Are you changing the branch crcuit cabling from your distribution panel to your rack?

Are you replacing a power strip?

I have always heard solar destroys your audio. I bought a set of amps a fellow member could not use any more as his solar inverter is a massive dump of sine wave distortion and harmonics on his power line.

I personally avoid any power conditioner unless absolutely necessary. I like a good power strip bolted to my branch circuit via cord. But that is not always feasible. The subpanel really needs to be in your audio room to do it legally.

I like pipe and wire from my panel to my rack. Better is OFC branch circuit wire.

I appreciate the technical reasons for a CB over a fuse. I know manufacturer who use CB over fuses. But, Spoc thinks he hears a fuse sound better than a CB. I would love to hear your impression of swapping the branch circuit fuse disconnect with a CB disconnect. In the USA, we don't have a cost effective way to legally do as such.

 

[Crom]

From the meter, the original tails will go to 2 Henley blocks, with 2 sets of tails, one to the original CU and one to a new Hagar Hi-Fi CU. The Hagar will contain a Doepke DFS 2F Audio RCB, and 2 Gigawatt G-C16A MCBs, one for each run of Acrolink. No further changes are envisaged....the Acrolink and in-room sockets will remain as currently wired, in series, as separate radials.

Looks like we're doing virtually the same thing!
I've got a spare port in my henley blocks so I'm taking 2 x 25mm tails to an isolation switch near the main CU. From there I've got 15m of 16mm twin and earth to run to to a separate hagar CU which has a fuse in it followed by RCCBs (probably the doepke ones). As I understand it, this install meets regs assuming that I use SWA for the 15m run if the cable is to be buried, or surface mount the cable. Re your question, yes, I believe that you will need an isolation switch or fuse in your second CU but please check with your electrician!

 

[justubes]

Where can one order the Doepke RCCB which ships out of the EU?

 

[Blackmorec]

So the electricians from local firm Harveys arrived on Tuesday to do the install of a new Hagar CU with Doepke RCCB switch and 2 Gigawatt MCBs. They also removed the previous CU, based around a simple cut-off switch and 2 AHP ’Klangmodul III’ fuses.

They started the job by calling up the layout diagram I’d sent and discussed all my needs and requirements...so a really good start. They didn’t flinch when I told them that a good job done in the garage affects the SQ I get upstairs and were perfectly happy to use my contact cleaner to ensure a low impedance supply and earth. They also understood when I asked them to cut off the insulation rather than repeatedly bending the cable backwards and forward, as I’ve seen some electricians do.

We then took a look in the meter cabinet and discussed the best way to take off tails and earth to the new CU. In the process, they identified the cleanest point (from a noise standpoint) to take the new earth. They had brought a 2 way Henley block made from solid copper, which really looked the business.

I should also mention that they also took great care with Covid precautions, wearing masks, using hand cleanser and keeping the obligatory 2m distance between us.

Below are photos of their installation. The picture of the meter cabinet shows the 2 way Henley block and Earth going right back to the incoming house earth.


The circuit itself is very simple and direct...... 2x 25mm2 L & N tails from Henley block to Doepke, link from Doepke to Gigawatt to 2x 6m Acrolink Hi-fi radials with Ns back directly to the Doepke. Earth goes straight from Radial to incoming house earth

So how does it all sound? Well after I first installed my 3 Sean Jacob’s DC3/4 hybrid LPS I mentioned standing 5 fields away from a cat. 5 Tornado. Immediately following this installation that changed.....from 5 fields distance to 2! The music became a force of nature... fast, powerful and frankly a little overwhelming. By day 2 this had calmed down, with no Tornado in sight. On day 3 a new pair of speakers arrived. Not literally but for all the World it sounded as though I’d upgraded my Magico S1 MkIIs to M2s. The bass had always been good, thanks to the Devialet 440s with SAM dialled in at 100%, but now with the new DC3/4s plus these mains changes, the bass was completely different. Deeper and altogether more physical, it has oodles more timbre, texture and detail and it imbues the music with so much acoustic space, ambience and atmosphere. The soundstage was great before but now ‘soundstage‘ is really the wrong word, as it implies something ’out front’. What I’m now hearing is a fully immersive soundscape where the music has a physical shape and presence. There is no room or speakers, there’s just the recording venue on classical music and whatever the sound engineer thought appropriate for his studio music. Modern electronic music like Boris Blank’s Electrified is utterly stunning, with infinitely large sound fields and so much physical presence. Also the word ‘layering’ is no longer appropriate given the totally cohesive nature of the sound field. One of the albums I like to listen to is Rodrigo y Gabriel Live in Japan. The first thing I noticed was the extra depth and complexity of the crowd.
So no doubt I’m still in for some further changes but at least in my case I can report that my previous mains radial arrangement was seriously holding back my system, especially in the area of bass and ability to create a fully immersive and atmospheric soundscape.