Do power conditioners help with unwanted hum/noise

Sean, thanks much for the tip. I have done a bit of research here and lurked eBay. The best kind appears to be what's called an ultra isolation transformer with very (high? low?) internal capacitance, on the order of 0.0005 pF. I have a 220V three-wire line (2 hot, 1 neutral, and I can run a dedicated ground) ready for use as the new audio circuit, so what I need is bucking and isolation.

I don't know if single transformers exist which can do both jobs, but that might be the ideal solution, if I could find it.

My problem is my relative ignorance in the domain. I can wire up a house and build an amp kit but I don't know enough to ask all the right questions of an eBay seller, or recognize that a tranny has the right taps by looking at it and its specs.

Could you possibly suggest a basic reference on the subject?

Tobias: You don't need a bucking transformer at all. You can simply use a 220 - 240 volt transformer and separate the legs down to two 110 - 120 volt lines. Personally, i prefer to keep all of the equipment on one leg of the 220 line, but there are those that have split them and never run into problems. Many of these transformers can be run with multiple taps i.e. 110/120, 220/240, etc...

The spec's that you quoted as far as capacitance and "ultra isolation" are right on the money. The only other real factor is current capacity. This would be the rating in KVA's. If you have a 5 KVA ( 5000 watt ) transformer and are running it at 220 volts, you can use ohm's law to tell you how much current it can sustain. Divide 5000 by the input voltage ( 220 or 110, etc... ) and you'll arrive at how much current the transformer can pass. As mentioned in other threads about this topic, i recommend staying below 60% of the rated capacity of the transformer if possible. That is, if your entire system adds up to 2000 watts of draw, you should have a transformer capable of 3 KVA ( 3000 watts ) at the very minimum. A 3.5 KVA unit would be better and closer to the ratio i described. Obviously, a 5 KVA would provide even more headroom with the potential for an even lower noise floor due to less noise induced by the transformer itself.

Hope this helps. Sean
>

Sean, Arye Track 7? Still writing? I await thee. thanks...warren

Warren, i'm sorry if i never got back to you about this subject. I sometimes get plastered with a large quantity of emails at one time. As a result, i sometimes end up losing track of where i left off at or which ones i had enough time to read but not enough time to respond to at the moment. By the time i log back on, more email has shown up and i get lost all over again.

If you would be kind enough to do so, please post your question publicly and i'll do my best to answer it. This may help others to follow along too, reducing some of the emails i may end up getting that ask similar questions. Sean
>

Thanks for the help, Sean, very much. I think I can go ahead and buy a transformer, thanks to you.