To Aesthetix users

P.S. I've heard amazing things about the Nordost Thor, which the reviewer on whose recommendation I impulsively bought th EPA uses it in between his equipment and the EP15... 'course this would still bring Jim's objections into play...

Patrick

For my house wiring, the 20 A circuit is dedicated (only the audio outlets, 4 WattGate). They are "star" wired. Yes, the AC+, AC- and ground all run directly back to the circuit breaker panel. The house is grounded with 2 ten foot copper rods and is also tied to the cold water pipes. The breaker panel is 220V, so there are AC breaker on both sides of the 220V (different phases). I made sure that the heavy duty equipment in the house is on the other phase from the audio gear to further isolate it.

Sounds like you need AC isolation (such as the ultimate outlet, it will remove the nasty noise from other devices on the same circuit). The Thor would also allow all devices to operate from the same power and ground (but it is quite expensive and will not help if the ground is not good).

If you converted from 2 wire to 3 wire plugs .... do tell ... where did you get the ground wire??

If you are getting radio reception through the Io, try some shielding to get rid of the noise (such as cryotweaks http://www.cryotweaks.com/product.asp?pf_id=ERS).

For tubes, search around, there is plenty written up. From my experience the best bet is Telefunken ECC83 (12AX7) in the V1 & V2 positions. Get a good NOS matched pair, and there are still places to get good ones.

You can always try swapping the power supply cables to see (well hear) if the noise switches channels. Then at least you'll know whether it is in the power supply or the phono stage. The next thing to do is swap the tubes in right and left channel in the phono stage and/or power supply.

Oh heck, just go all out and get the second power supply. Swap out the EL-34's for some KT-66 and let 'er rip.

Enjoy!

Just a warning here: I understand that you MUST take great care when swapping the power umbilicals here. When you power the Io down and then disconnect the power cables between the Audio and PS chassis, you MUST wait at least 20 minutes before reconnecting these cables or the solid-state regulators in the PS will be destroyed. I tend to take a more conservative approach and wait an hour.

PatrickArmory,

Congratulations. I thought I wrote exhausting posts but yours beats mine by a nose!

I don't have an Aesthetix but I do have an EP15A (love it). I too have a hard time imagining it damaging anything, but then again I had a hard time imagining it making any component sound notably worse - until I heard it happen.

My EP15A improves the sound of every component I own, but when a friend brought his Berning ZH270 over it was clearly happier being plugged straight into the wall. Our line voltage is anything but stable, thus the Exact Power, but Berning advises against line conditioners for this amp and in this case he was right.

Does that apply to your Aesthetix? I have no clue!

P.S. The Exact Power will not filter out noise from dimmer switches, transformers, etc. I spoke to the EP's designer himself. His recommendation for dimmers was to keep trying different ones until you stumble on one that's quiet in your environment. Not scientific but it worked. We also had to relocate the transformer for our 12V ceiling lights that backwash the wall behind the equipment rack. The hum was unavoidable with the transformer within six feet.

Star grounding works well for us. Worth a try and costs peanuts to implement.

Good point Jafox. I don't wait an hour though. Also remember to first disconnect the AC power cable before disconnecting the power supply umbilical.

One other thought about the hum. My SME arm had a DIN-RCA Music Metre silver interconnect that was fine in the first setup. When I moved, this cable picked up hum in the new setup. I tried several well regarded cables and settled on the Nordost Quattro Fil. By far, it had the best shielding (lowest hum). Turns out that it matched ny listening preferences best too.

One way to test this theory would be to simply disconnect the phono leads in to the Io and note if the hum is still there. The next step is to disconnect the hum in to the amo and note if the hum is still there.