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Power Sensitive Components

My new system has sounded wonderful until this recent heat wave. Then I noticed at times a certain loss of clarity and some slight glare. Mostly likely due to power issues. I started to consider a regenerator or conditioner. But first I thought I would try upgrading the stock power cords. As I described in another thread I purchased a Cable from Ice Age Audio. Their Frankencable. After a 50 hour burn in I tried it in my Accuphase amp. Didn’t do much. Accuphase strongly recommends that you use the supplied cable. Then I tried the DAC. My MSB Discrete has two power supplies. One for the digital conversion and one for the analog output. With the cable on the digital supply the sound improved noticeably. I then moved it to the analog supply.  A slight improvement. Probably because the digital supply was now back to the stock cable. Then I moved it to the Aurender N20 streamer. Again a noticeable improvement especially to the soundstage which was wide with  impressive depth and instrument separation. . Really impressive. So I left it there. The next day I noticed that while the wonderful soundstage was still there that loss of clarity was still there also. It was hot and ACs were running hard. So the power issue was back. So I decided to move the cable back to the digital power supply. That cleaned up the sound a lot removing the clarity issues. However the soundstage was not as impressive as it was with the cable on the streamer. Luckily I have two more of these cables arriving on Friday so all of the source components power supplies will be addressed. What I found and suspected was that the DAC supply is the most critical and probably power hungry of the three. It runs the warmest of them. Even warmer than the amp. Now after getting the cables in place I still sense power issues I’ll probably get a PS Audio Powerplant 3. This summer is going to be really hot. Trying to avoid that expense but after spending a lot on my components I’m not going to starve them of the power they need to perform the best.

jfrmusic
61falcon's avatar
61falcon
106 posts
 

Just curious, why do you think the power is an issue. Are your lights flickering and dim? Maybe your local news is pointing out issues?

mwood
48 posts
 

This is an interesting discussion. Near Boston where I live and during the heat wave last week , I noticed two things; a duller less articulate sound and the voltage/bias meters on my 300B mono locks had gone from the constant a reliable reading of +/- 92 volts to the high 80’s. My electrician who is a bit of an audiophile himself said not to worry. He explained that when the whole Northeast is experiencing 100 degree weather the demand it puts on the grid can easily affect the voltage at the receptacle. Sure enough once outdoor temperatures were 15 degrees cooler my amps were back to showing 91+ voltage at each tube and the sound was once again back to normal.

jfrmusic OP
165 posts
 

@61falcon 

The reason is my system started sounding strange once the current heat wave of above 90 temperatures hit. When temperatures dropped below 90 to mid 80s the system sounded normal again. Also on the hotter days the system sounded better later after 7pm and worse in the afternoon. I notice the sound issues more with Classical music in the upper frequencies such as strings in particular. They sound harsh and lack clarity. So I’m thinking this is about voltage fluctuations do to power demands. 

ghdprentice
6,581 posts
 

OP,

 

I’ll be really interested to hear the results with the powerplant. Hopefully for you it will completely solve the problem. Fingers crossed.

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