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Power direct from the wall, or Power Conditioner?
#1
Curious about the mix of people powering their Devialet straight from the wall versus from a power conditioner.

From the wall can include an audiophile caliber power cord and dedicated line or outlet.  

Given the all-in-one integrated Devialet, should we get better sound quality (straight from the wall) without potential dynamics limiting power conditioners, or, does the noise/grunge digital high frequency filtering benefits of a power conditioner out weigh any amplifier limiting constraints?

I currently have my D200 and Aurender S10 both plugged into a Running Springs Audio Haley conditioner, but plan to try the D200 straight to the wall, with a TWL Digital American power cord, this weekend.

Ciao
Kenreau
Synology DS412+> Aurender S10> AQ Wel AES > Devialet 200> AQ Castle Rock Bi-Wired > Vandersteen 5As.
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#2
After decades of active power generator/regenerator use from all the usual suspects, ie; PSA, Shunyata, Furutech, Furman and others I switched 6 years ago to an ultra high-end passive power distributor from Furutech called a Pure Power Six. It was basically a 6-outlet heavy, thick-walled billet of CNC'd aluminum that featured little more than a star-wired triplet of high-end Furutech AC outlets around a center compartment with a granular RFI/EMI medium. It proved to be the absolute best I'd ever heard as there was nothing in it to ever fail and/or inflict electronic hum or buzz into the power. If there was no ground loop issue at initial plug-in there was nothing on-board that was ever going to make noise. It worked incredibly well but I quickly exceeded the 6 outlets and needed more. Not wanting to throw another $20k at it for another PP6 I started researching a DIY alternative and over the years discovered a really worthwhile work-around.

Today I start with a 10 outlet PS Audio Dectet completely gutted of its internal noise & surge protection as well as its 15A IEC inlet. ALL its outlets & internal wiring are removed. Only thing I retain is the housing and single sheet of shielding along its back side. Then starting at the AC wall receptacle I install a Furutech GTX-D rhodium 120V/20A outlet. IMHO simply the finest outlet ever made and head & shoulders beyond anything/everything else out there! The ONLY AC outlet in the world using alpha treated pure OFC copper contacts and nano ceramic/carbon particle shielding/damping technology! With it I also use an Oyaide billet aluminum housing at the wall with a matching Oyaide carbon fibre outlet cover simply because I believe it to be a superior product to the Furutech frame/cover. From there to the Dectet I use a Furutech FI-50 20A rhodium plated carbon fiber stainless steel piezo carbon 120V/20A male plug with a high-current Crystal Cable Ultra power cord and a matching Furutech Fi-50 carbon fiber rhodium plated 20A high-current IEC female inlet to the Dectet. Again 100% solid alpha treated OFC copper contacts! The Dectet itself once stripped/gutted is refitted with 5 Furutech GTX-D rhodium plated inlets and again all 100% OFC alpha-treated contacts. Dectet internal wiring is star-wired, equal-length solid core 5n silver with a 4 layer PTFE, silver-plated copper braid, PEEK jacket with a final PTFE jacket... nothing gets in/nothing gets out of that wire within the Dectet housing. Every component connected to the Dectet also uses Furutech FI-50 CF/SS carbon/piezo AC 120V/20A plugs and/or 20A female IEC's and all power out of Dectet is again via Crystal Cable Ultra with FI-50 terminations at both ends. Additionally all speaker wire, interconnects, XLR's etc are also Crystal Cable Ultra, Dream or Dreamline.

The benefit; no chance of electronic buzz/hum ever occurring if it doesn't occur right outta-the-box it never will occur... least from the Dectet! If it does occur its ground loop or component-related and corrected immediately. In 3 years with the Dectet and 3 years before that with the F'tech PP6 there's never, even once been a hum, buzz, crackle or pop in my system. And unlike having an 'active' AC power conditioner its never even considered if an errant noise occurs. Having had active power conditioners for years and years we become suspicious of them and ALWAYS look there first when a new noise occurs. The biggest endorsement I can give is turning my Devialet remote all the way up with a 24/96 streaming track paused produces exactly as much noise from each speaker as cranking the remote all the way up while the Devialet unplugged. In all fairness I've had active power conditioners that would do that but never one that did it forever or more than a few years! Too many (hundreds/thousands!) little electronic widgets & gizmos in there that can (and do) go wrong. And if it 'can' fail, it will fail! Not a matter of 'if'... simply when. I'm totally happy with 'passive' conditioning and certainly more problem & worry free than I ever was with an active system.

In closing, unless you've also done electrical work from a dedicated line & circuit breaker with startlingly small improvement, it really does all start at the wall outlet. If you want to just try one thing with minimal cost or effort, make it a Furutech GTX-D rhodium or gold plated outlet. there's NOTHING else that comes close! There's no other outlet with 100% OFC copper contacts and carbon/ceramic nano particle shielding/damping... and the difference is H-U-G-E!!! Please, look around, if you can find better, let me know cuz I want it too. Bet ya can't! ;-)

Oh and later if you just can't stand not having one of those massive, mega-spendy line conditioning power generators and the accompanying bragging rights, well you're in luck there too as you happen to already have arguably the best, cleanest sounding AC outlet in the world to plug it into!
Statements in my posts are opinion only, not to be construed as fact. Any projects I engage in are at my own risk! Their outcome cannot be assured and may result in success, small/no change or catastrophic failure. I encourage no one rely on anything I say or do as gospel and to realize your mileage may vary!
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#3
I just plug my stuff into a quality domestic MK socket on a ring main I had installed dedicated to my hifi when I had my listening room built.
Devialet Original d'Atelier 44 Core, Job Pre/225, Goldmund PH2, Goldmund Reference/T3f /Ortofon A90, Goldmund Mimesis 36+ & Chord Blu, iMac/Air, Lynx Theta, Tune Audio Anima, Goldmund Epilog 1&2, REL Studio. Dialog, Silver Phantoms, Branch stands, copper cables (mainly).
Oxfordshire

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#4
I use straight to the wall. 4 separate spurs (or more technically correct 'radials') from a bog standard Hager fuse box, but not the same one as for the rest of the house. Not that that makes much difference but it's easier to isolate the whole hifi stuff without affecting the domestic mains. Two radials are 6mm2 cheap twin and earth, 2 are cheap 10mm2. The latter two are leftover from my previous all-10mm2. The 6mm2 just seems to be better. The 10mm2 have MK unswitched UK sockets, the 6mm2 have Furutech GTX-D rhodium US sockets. For a power cord to the Devialet I use an Entreq Challenger 3V, and a homemade (can't remember the cable but it was cheap) cord to the Melco using a cheapish Furutech U.S. plug and a Martin Kaiser IEC.
I prefer the dedicated radial approach as it keeps the cross-component interference to a minimum. I don't have any problems with ground loop hum either which is the potential downside of such an approach. I tried to keep each radial as equidistant to the fuse box as possible.
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#5
(27-Jun-2015, 00:17)Manoet Wrote: After decades of active power generator/regenerator use from all the usual suspects, ie; PSA, Shunyata, Furutech, Furman and others I switched 6 years ago to an ultra high-end passive power distributor from Furutech called a Pure Power Six. It was basically a 6-outlet heavy, thick-walled billet of CNC'd aluminum that featured little more than a star-wired triplet of high-end Furutech AC outlets around a center compartment with a granular RFI/EMI medium. It proved to be the absolute best I'd ever heard as there was nothing in it to ever fail and/or inflict electronic hum or buzz into the power. If there was no ground loop issue at initial plug-in there was nothing on-board that was ever going to make noise. It worked incredibly well but I quickly exceeded the 6 outlets and needed more. Not wanting to throw another $20k at it for another PP6 I started researching a DIY alternative and over the years discovered a really worthwhile work-around.

Today I start with a 10 outlet PS Audio Dectet completely gutted of its internal noise & surge protection as well as its 15A IEC inlet. ALL its outlets & internal wiring are removed. Only thing I retain is the housing and single sheet of shielding along its back side. Then starting at the AC wall receptacle I install a Furutech GTX-D rhodium 120V/20A outlet. IMHO simply the finest outlet ever made and head & shoulders beyond anything/everything else out there! The ONLY AC outlet in the world using alpha treated pure OFC copper contacts and nano ceramic/carbon particle shielding/damping technology! With it I also use an Oyaide billet aluminum housing at the wall with a matching Oyaide carbon fibre outlet cover simply because I believe it to be a superior product to the Furutech frame/cover. From there to the Dectet I use a Furutech FI-50 20A rhodium plated carbon fiber stainless steel piezo carbon 120V/20A male plug with a high-current Crystal Cable Ultra power cord and a matching Furutech Fi-50 carbon fiber rhodium plated 20A high-current IEC female inlet to the Dectet. Again 100% solid alpha treated OFC copper contacts! The Dectet itself once stripped/gutted is refitted with 5 Furutech GTX-D rhodium plated inlets and again all 100% OFC alpha-treated contacts. Dectet internal wiring is star-wired, equal-length solid core 5n silver with a 4 layer PTFE, silver-plated copper braid, PEEK jacket with a final PTFE jacket... nothing gets in/nothing gets out of that wire within the Dectet housing. Every component connected to the Dectet also uses Furutech FI-50 CF/SS carbon/piezo AC 120V/20A plugs and/or 20A female IEC's and all power out of Dectet is again via Crystal Cable Ultra with FI-50 terminations at both ends. Additionally all speaker wire, interconnects, XLR's etc are also Crystal Cable Ultra, Dream or Dreamline.

The benefit; no chance of electronic buzz/hum ever occurring if it doesn't occur right outta-the-box it never will occur... least from the Dectet! If it does occur its ground loop or component-related and corrected immediately. In 3 years with the Dectet and 3 years before that with the F'tech PP6 there's never, even once been a hum, buzz, crackle or pop in my system. And unlike having an 'active' AC power conditioner its never even considered if an errant noise occurs. Having had active power conditioners for years and years we become suspicious of them and ALWAYS look there first when a new noise occurs. The biggest endorsement I can give is turning my Devialet remote all the way up with a 24/96 streaming track paused produces exactly as much noise from each speaker as cranking the remote all the way up while the Devialet unplugged. In all fairness I've had active power conditioners that would do that but never one that did it forever or more than a few years! Too many (hundreds/thousands!) little electronic widgets & gizmos in there that can (and do) go wrong. And if it 'can' fail, it will fail! Not a matter of 'if'... simply when. I'm totally happy with 'passive' conditioning and certainly more problem & worry free than I ever was with an active system.

In closing, unless you've also done electrical work from a dedicated line & circuit breaker with startlingly small improvement, it really does all start at the wall outlet. If you want to just try one thing with minimal cost or effort, make it a Furutech GTX-D rhodium or gold plated outlet. there's NOTHING else that comes close! There's no other outlet with 100% OFC copper contacts and carbon/ceramic nano particle shielding/damping... and the difference is H-U-G-E!!! Please, look around, if you can find better, let me know cuz I want it too. Bet ya can't! ;-)

Oh and later if you just can't stand not having one of those massive, mega-spendy line conditioning power generators and the accompanying bragging rights, well you're in luck there too as you happen to already have arguably the best, cleanest sounding AC outlet in the world to plug it into!
Hi Manoet,

Your saying you hear the same noise when your pausing as you do when you unplug... My 200 and the rest of my gear are connected to a couple of 3 dollar power blocks behind my tv and when I first got it I did that test in the middle of the night (no background noise) and I heard nothing at all, right on the tweeter not a single bit of noise with the volume all the way up. Do you have very high sensitivity speakers? If not, there must be something wrong in your setup. Or am I just the lucky one to have a completely quite Dev?
                                                    Lifetime Roon, Mac mini, int. SSD, ext. HDD, tv as monitor, key board and track pad on bean bag as remote,Devialet 200, Od'A #097, Blue jeans speaker cable,                                     
                                                                                                                                                                            Dynaudio C1 MkII.
                                                                                                                                                                              Jim Smith's GBS.
                                                                                                                                                                        Northern NSW Australia.
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#6
(28-Jun-2015, 09:18)Pim van Vliet Wrote:
(27-Jun-2015, 00:17)Manoet Wrote: After decades of active power generator/regenerator use from all the usual suspects, ie; PSA, Shunyata, Furutech, Furman and others I switched 6 years ago to an ultra high-end passive power distributor from Furutech called a Pure Power Six. It was basically a 6-outlet heavy, thick-walled billet of CNC'd aluminum that featured little more than a star-wired triplet of high-end Furutech AC outlets around a center compartment with a granular RFI/EMI medium. It proved to be the absolute best I'd ever heard as there was nothing in it to ever fail and/or inflict electronic hum or buzz into the power. If there was no ground loop issue at initial plug-in there was nothing on-board that was ever going to make noise. It worked incredibly well but I quickly exceeded the 6 outlets and needed more. Not wanting to throw another $20k at it for another PP6 I started researching a DIY alternative and over the years discovered a really worthwhile work-around.

Today I start with a 10 outlet PS Audio Dectet completely gutted of its internal noise & surge protection as well as its 15A IEC inlet. ALL its outlets & internal wiring are removed. Only thing I retain is the housing and single sheet of shielding along its back side. Then starting at the AC wall receptacle I install a Furutech GTX-D rhodium 120V/20A outlet. IMHO simply the finest outlet ever made and head & shoulders beyond anything/everything else out there! The ONLY AC outlet in the world using alpha treated pure OFC copper contacts and nano ceramic/carbon particle shielding/damping technology! With it I also use an Oyaide billet aluminum housing at the wall with a matching Oyaide carbon fibre outlet cover simply because I believe it to be a superior product to the Furutech frame/cover. From there to the Dectet I use a Furutech FI-50 20A rhodium plated carbon fiber stainless steel piezo carbon 120V/20A male plug with a high-current Crystal Cable Ultra power cord and a matching Furutech Fi-50 carbon fiber rhodium plated 20A high-current IEC female inlet to the Dectet. Again 100% solid alpha treated OFC copper contacts! The Dectet itself once stripped/gutted is refitted with 5 Furutech GTX-D rhodium plated inlets and again all 100% OFC alpha-treated contacts. Dectet internal wiring is star-wired, equal-length solid core 5n silver with a 4 layer PTFE, silver-plated copper braid, PEEK jacket with a final PTFE jacket... nothing gets in/nothing gets out of that wire within the Dectet housing. Every component connected to the Dectet also uses Furutech FI-50 CF/SS carbon/piezo AC 120V/20A plugs and/or 20A female IEC's and all power out of Dectet is again via Crystal Cable Ultra with FI-50 terminations at both ends. Additionally all speaker wire, interconnects, XLR's etc are also Crystal Cable Ultra, Dream or Dreamline.

The benefit; no chance of electronic buzz/hum ever occurring if it doesn't occur right outta-the-box it never will occur... least from the Dectet! If it does occur its ground loop or component-related and corrected immediately. In 3 years with the Dectet and 3 years before that with the F'tech PP6 there's never, even once been a hum, buzz, crackle or pop in my system. And unlike having an 'active' AC power conditioner its never even considered if an errant noise occurs. Having had active power conditioners for years and years we become suspicious of them and ALWAYS look there first when a new noise occurs. The biggest endorsement I can give is turning my Devialet remote all the way up with a 24/96 streaming track paused produces exactly as much noise from each speaker as cranking the remote all the way up while the Devialet unplugged. In all fairness I've had active power conditioners that would do that but never one that did it forever or more than a few years! Too many (hundreds/thousands!) little electronic widgets & gizmos in there that can (and do) go wrong. And if it 'can' fail, it will fail! Not a matter of 'if'... simply when. I'm totally happy with 'passive' conditioning and certainly more problem & worry free than I ever was with an active system.

In closing, unless you've also done electrical work from a dedicated line & circuit breaker with startlingly small improvement, it really does all start at the wall outlet. If you want to just try one thing with minimal cost or effort, make it a Furutech GTX-D rhodium or gold plated outlet. there's NOTHING else that comes close! There's no other outlet with 100% OFC copper contacts and carbon/ceramic nano particle shielding/damping... and the difference is H-U-G-E!!! Please, look around, if you can find better, let me know cuz I want it too. Bet ya can't! ;-)

Oh and later if you just can't stand not having one of those massive, mega-spendy line conditioning power generators and the accompanying bragging rights, well you're in luck there too as you happen to already have arguably the best, cleanest sounding AC outlet in the world to plug it into!
Hi Manoet,

Your saying you hear the same noise when your pausing as you do when you unplug... My 200 and the rest of my gear are connected to a couple of 3 dollar power blocks behind my tv and when I first got it I did that test in the middle of the night (no background noise) and I heard nothing at all, right on the tweeter not a single bit of noise with the volume all the way up. Do you have very high sensitivity speakers? If not, there must be something wrong in your setup. Or am I just the lucky one to have a completely quite Dev?

No, mine is too. One of the first thing I noticed about the D-Premier when I had a home demo 4 years or so ago was the silence, even on phono. It was the one area where it was immediately and obviously superior to my resident Goldmund Mimesis 29.4 monos.
Having bought a D-Premier, then a second and then an update to 800 they have remained silent.
One of my pairs of speakers are 109dB/watt sensitivity, too. Used with the max power set at 200wpc (where the normal listening volume is around -30dB) even at 0dB there is zero audible noise from either the treble or mid range horn.
Devialet Original d'Atelier 44 Core, Job Pre/225, Goldmund PH2, Goldmund Reference/T3f /Ortofon A90, Goldmund Mimesis 36+ & Chord Blu, iMac/Air, Lynx Theta, Tune Audio Anima, Goldmund Epilog 1&2, REL Studio. Dialog, Silver Phantoms, Branch stands, copper cables (mainly).
Oxfordshire

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#7
Direct from the wall for me with 2 dedicated power lines (20A and 10-2 wire) one for the Devialet, one for the Aurender. Furutech GTX-Gold outlets and Harmonic Tech Fantasy AC-10 for both lines. Dead quiet and best dynamics. It has its draw back though... Whenever I leave house and theres a bad weather forecast, I disconnect both units. Done that for years so I'm used to it now.
Dedicated Mains >Crystal Standard Power Cables >Aurender X100L >Locus Design Essentia USB >D200 >Siltech 330L >Dynaudio C1 Signature
Montréal

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#8
Speakers are 90dB@1W/1M so not super efficient but no slouches either. What I was saying and just re-read and can't understand how it might have been misunderstood is that at full volume and paused it is as dead silent as when powered down. It couldn't be any blacker/quieter.
Statements in my posts are opinion only, not to be construed as fact. Any projects I engage in are at my own risk! Their outcome cannot be assured and may result in success, small/no change or catastrophic failure. I encourage no one rely on anything I say or do as gospel and to realize your mileage may vary!
Reply
#9
(28-Jun-2015, 14:05)Manoet Wrote: Speakers are 90dB@1W/1M so not super efficient but no slouches either. What I was saying and just re-read and can't understand how it might have been misunderstood is that at full volume and paused it is as dead silent as when powered down. It couldn't be any blacker/quieter.

I think what Pim was observing was that, like yours, his Devialet is quiet but without using loads of special plugs and wires anywhere, just cheap connection blocks.
Mine is too.
A very expensive strategy of getting power to a Devialet is certainly not necessary from the point of view of noise. Whether there is any other benefit, otoh, I will never know.
Devialet Original d'Atelier 44 Core, Job Pre/225, Goldmund PH2, Goldmund Reference/T3f /Ortofon A90, Goldmund Mimesis 36+ & Chord Blu, iMac/Air, Lynx Theta, Tune Audio Anima, Goldmund Epilog 1&2, REL Studio. Dialog, Silver Phantoms, Branch stands, copper cables (mainly).
Oxfordshire

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#10
Thanks F1! Coincidentally my previous 2 DAC, Pre & amp combos have been equally quiet and probably didn't 'require' special noise abatement but old-time hifi guy that I am, I tend to use high-end outlets, plugs, IEC's, cables and terminations for two totally different but distinct reasons for every piece of equipment plugged into the wall... pro-actively for enhanced SQ via cable signal transmission integrity and prophylactically, as "an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure" solution to quell any potential electrical grid-grunge. Additionally I use it 1; cuz its there, built and paid for years ago and 2; because I need more than a single dual-gang outlet in that location. Of course knowing its efficacy doesn't kill me either ;-)
Statements in my posts are opinion only, not to be construed as fact. Any projects I engage in are at my own risk! Their outcome cannot be assured and may result in success, small/no change or catastrophic failure. I encourage no one rely on anything I say or do as gospel and to realize your mileage may vary!
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