PS Audio Noise Harvester

I, too, was skeptical beyond belief regarding the PS Audio Noise Harvester. I read the AVS Forum threads, which actually added to my skepticism but also somehow managed to futher tweek my curiosity. I ended finding one here on Audiogon (thanks again, Audiogon, for always having ads for what I'm looking for!) for $75.00, new and in the box. I plugged it in to the same circuit as my system is on, which is a dedicated line from a second sub-panel, with hospital grade receptacles, and sat back to listen. The first thing I noticed is that it flashes like there is no tomorrow. Is my line that dirty, or is just designed to do that? I don't know, but I do know that definition and detail have been enhanced. There is better delineation of instruments, and a more projected midrange. Are the changes radical? Well, no, they're not, but they are there. Is it worth a hundred dollars? Perhaps not, but at $75.00 I don't feel as though I was taken.

Does anyone have experience using the NHs on non-dedicated circuits while their audio/video equipment is on a different, dedicated circuit?

Musicseller: Try disconnecting your audio gear from the outlets while leaving the NH plugged in. If the light show remains, you've got a ton of noise coming in on that circuit. If the light show slows or disappears when plugged in by itself, your audio gear is generating at least part of the noise that the NH is picking up.

Using this approach, one can plug the NH into various outlets and find which of their house circuits / individual outlets is "cleanest". Once the "cleanest" outlet is found, you can plug one individual component at a time into the other outlet of the duplex that the NH is plugged into. By checking the "light show" of the NH, you can now see which of your individual components generates noise BACK INTO the AC system. Be aware that some components will do this whether they are turned on or off !!!

If you find an individual component that causes the NH to put on quite a light show, you may want to take steps to try and isolate / filter the AC coming in and out of that individual component. This can be done several different ways i.e. through the use of an isolation transformer, tuned AC filters, parallel line traps, etc...

Another trick that one can do is to use the NH as a "test circuit" for various AC line conditioners. That is, plug the NH directly into the wall and watch the light show. Now plug the NH into the various outlets of the PLC / filters that you may be using and compare the differences. If the NH flashes at or very near the same rate in both places i.e. when plugged directly into the wall OR plugged into your PLC, the PLC / filter isn't doing much to control incoming noise. Sean
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Yes musicseller, your house it probably that dirty.

I have a ton of parallel stuff in my house due to it being a dirty house and also a dirty suburban neighberhood I am guessing. The more I add the better it keeps getting though I may be topping off now.

You may wonder whats up with my house, but over the couple years I have added 25 different parallel conditioners, two richard gray 400's and audioprism foundation 2 for parallel conditioning and being able to plug all these in. Two quantum symphony pros and a hydra as my main souce conditioner. I kept getting better as I kept adding.

One of my problems is my theater has 13 lights on it and it uses the dimmer so this adds tons of noise to the system not to mention all the other lights on dimmers around the house. And yes, the noise harvesters go nuts with the 13 lights dimmed in the theater. Though its become less with all the conditioning.

Yes Drubin, all the lights dimmed in the theater did effect the sound in my system. It clearly took life out of the sound. I have one of the dimmer switches behind me so when I am on the couch I can reach my hand back to dim the lights or just simply turn them off. So sitting listening to two channel I tried it on and off staying in my sitting position and it was clear how having them dimmed affected the sound for the worse.

This test with the dimmer on and off was at the time before I add about 9 more parallel condioners, so it was clear that I still had a lot of conditioning at the time. I now don't hear the drop in sound quality with all the lights dimmed in the theater. I should out of curiosity, try dimming all the lights in my house and see what it does???

With all the conditioners I use 5 bc noise hound mk3, 6 quantum electroclears, 5 enacoms, 1 audioprism quiteline mk3, and 9 noise noise harvestors. The noise harvestor seem to be a good value and they are very easy and small. The bc 86, NH, and enacoms seem to give about the same amound of conditioning. The quantums are a completly different beast that works on different princables though they work well in my system.

I think the important thing I was trying to acomplish cause I am no electrical wizard is having a variety of MANY different parralel conditioners. I think they all work differently cleaning different types of noise at different frequencies so as a team they may be getting a full spectrum of the garbage in the lines??

I am also skeptical, but at the price it might be worth trying. At least it can function as test gear, even if there is no effect on the sound quality.

The supposed effect of AC power noise is a mystery to me. I have a light over my turntable which is plugged into power from a dimmer. Dimmers are supposed to be a disaster near audio equipment: I expected to turn the light off while listening. However, the dimmer has absolutely no effect on the audio equipment. None. Nada.

This is a relatively new dimmer. I have another decades-old dimmer installed in a portable junction box that I use for powering christmas tree lights. (If you drop the voltage a bit the bulbs last much longer). It causes a bad buzz.

There are dimmers, and there are dimmers.