Today’s studio-blog, (my 73rd,) is about Harringay’s Snap Studios.
https://willyoumeetmeonclareisland.wordpress.com/2023/03/26/the-studios-of-london-snap-studios/
A blues club, a long lost voice, a rejuvenated singer, a Last Shadow Puppet and the most successful British artist you’ve never heard of.
by 23 Comments
Riveting stuff as ever mate .
Shd have let me know you were in my yard..We could have met for a tofu frappuccino or gone to gaze at the N17 Cathedral of football !
Cheers, mate. I was in a rush before a gig in Bandit Country. Next time.
Fab blog as ever Niall! Good nerdy. What is balanced mains power? Never heard that one!
I gather it takes out any fluctuations. I guess some of the equipment must be that sensitive to variable current. Maybe @fentonsteve knows more.
Power conditioners used to be common in small racks of equipment. I haven’t seen one used since analog gear became used less but I have one in the “graveyard” at the back of the warehouse.
https://www.thomann.de/gb/furman_m10x_e.htm?glp=1&gclid=EAIaIQobChMIhJ2qlM_6_QIVloFQBh2IvgQ0EAQYCiABEgIGbfD_BwE
Balanced Mains is a way of removing hum loops (caused by Earth leakage currents) using a 1:1 transformer where the secondary is centre-tapped (think: 2:1+1). So 240V goes in, two lots of 120V comes out – rather like those yellow transformers workmen use on building sites (where the 120V peak is less likely to cause injury). Or like the Ground Lift switch on a DI box.
The other thing they are good at removing is the mechanical transformer buzz caused by clipped 240V Mains, or DC on the AC Mains, usually the result of local substation demand outstripping supply. Toroidal transformers used in high-end audio gear (such as my Naim power amp) suffer from this and, living in the sticks, the local power station is many miles away. When my neighbours are all boiling their kettles during the Corrie ad break, my power amp vibrates.
Donkeys years ago, I used to work round the corner from these guys:
https://airlinktransformers.com/category/balanced-power-supply
Some pedantry:
Those yellow building site transformers and the power tools that use them are centre-tapped 110V AC, so that the potential to earth from either of the two live conductors is only 55V.
You are correct, Mike. Hoist by my own – typo plus unusual slacking of dullness (it was very early – perhaps* I’m more interesting first thing in the morning).
(*) I’m not.
Awesome, thanks.
I used to run all my kit unbalanced until during one of the lockdowns I thought why not try changing out the cables and give balanced a go as all my kit is fully balanced and has the required connectors. I didn’t expect to hear much if any difference in the SQ. I was wrong it made an immediate and very noticeable improvement across the board. I can’t pretend to completely understand why but nevertheless it simply did and continues to do so. I swapped the cables out again retuning my kit to an unbalanced state just to check that I wasn’t mistaken a couple of weeks ago. After an hour I changed the cabling back to balanced as it was obvious that I found balanced preferable. I now run all my kit balanced, dacs, amps, headphones and iems. If the kit is balanced then why not.
I use a power cleaner too but not for my amps. For some reason running my amplification through a power cleaner seems to slightly dampen the dynamics, the sound just sounds ever so slightly muted and veiled.
I am probably mad.
Yes balanced audio cables I knew and have many of. I didn’t know there’s a mains power equivalent. Fun for days 😀
I suspect but have no way of verifying that the reason for my preference lies not so much in an inherent superiority of balanced connections over unbalanced connections but rather that more effort has been made over the implementation by the various kit manufacturers in the balanced circuitry of their kit. There really shouldn’t be a difference but there is.
Balanced audio lines were invented to combat the problems of low signal levels (from microphones), long cable lengths and electrically noisy environments (like TV studios with dimmed lights).
You’re quite right, there really shouldn’t be a difference over short distances with line-level signals, but there often is. Similar to, when I had an Arcam CD transport and separate DAC, there was a noticeable difference when using an optical or coaxial cable connected between the two. Same digits in either case.
I think it all goes to show how shallow studies have been into hearing abilities of humans. A lot more has been spent on testing sight. Some Film Colourists can see colours of the fringes of the YUV spectrum which others can’t, and can’t be shown on a TV – they are Golden Eyes and get paid handsomely for it. As far as I know, there’s only one industry standard test for Golden Ears.
I went down the rabbit hole of bi-wired loudspeakers and read a good scientific paper saying theoretically there’s a difference with normal 2 core but you’d get a greater difference moving your chair or even your head by a few inches.
As I already had sturdy bi wired speaker cables I just carried on with them. A mate spaffed £400 quid on custom cables and was delighted with them. Good for him.
Decent quality cables and connectors reach a point where incremental cost really isn’t justified. Where that point is is a personal matter.
The best thing you can do is buy cables with gold-plated connectors. They won’t corrode when exposed to the air, so will always make a good connection, which won’t get worse over time. The gold plating need only be a ‘flash’ (a few microns thick) to prevent oxidisation. The cable itself has less of an effect at audio frequencies, unless you’re in an electrically-noisy environment.
The usual caveats apply – spend most of your money on the kit. A good amp with basic cables will sound good. A crap amp with 24 karat speaker cables is going to sound crap.
And remember that diminishing returns kicks in quite early. Often the biggest improvement is by taking the time to properly position speakers. It’s free and with a little bit of effort will make a far bigger difference than swapping out speaker cables.
Amen to that brother.
Yep. The biggest (and cheapest) improvement in sound quality I’ve made in years was nailing some sheets of compressed fibreglass insulation to the walls. Room acoustics: varying degrees of crapness.
Another good one Nial, keep up the good work.
Marvellous, as per.
The “interesting” thing about silver is that silver oxide is equally electrically conductive as pure silver.
You know how copper goes green over time? Copper cables eventually fail. Silver-plate those copper strands, though, and they perform at their best forever.
I am very dull.