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The sound of my new electrical service: Day 1

And I mean a completely new service. New pole!, new pole transformer!, new underground line to the house (was above ground), new meter, and new breaker box with all new breakers. House wireing remains the same. Talk about an upgrade! Or, will it be a sonic downgrade? I wouldn't be surprised. House was built in 1964, so that stuff was 50 years old.
I don't do much desk work, so typing all these subjective impressions will be quite a bit of work for me. I hope we all can find it interesting at the least. I doubt too many others will have to go through this with their systems, so maybe it's pointless, but might still be interesting. Beforehand, my system was sounding so good that I was afraid to change anything. You know what I mean don't you? If not, I'm sure you will get there eventually.
System: completely restored, vintage tube. Been through the modern stuff, this is the real thing. I will stick to digital VIA CD for the first few days to keep things simple for us.
Day 1: Eric Clapton "Unplugged", Buddy Guy and Jr. Wells "Alone and Acoustic", Ani Defranco "Living in Clip"
Right away I noticed the urge to turn the volume down. I'm usually inclined to turn it up because this system can sound so deliciously juicy with real life timbre and tone. Not sure if it now plays louder at the same volume setting, or if it is just more irritating. On Unplugged the instruments have lost that deliciously right timbre and tone. Total lack of analog like sweetness and the system could even be mistaken for solid state. It has aquired a solid state like impression of power though. Foot stomp/tapping is more audible with a bass like presence. Sibilants, S's are pronounced like they linger too long. Capton's voice is both murky and harsh at the same time. Overall, a great loss of transparency that makes this obviously a recording and not the musicians in my room.
On Buddy Guy, a lack of clarity on the voices. Also irritation when things get peaky. Jr's harmonica is dark and lacking the usual bouncy excitement. Guitar tone seems lacking in higher frequencies. Again though, I hear more intense feet to the floor sounds. Need to play something with bass to see what happens there.
On to Defranco's live disc. If you have any interest at all in this artist, just buy this one. You might not love all of it, but the good stuff is just great. On this disc, the energy is all there, but on the irritating side when things get loud. Voice comes off better than the other two discs, but not at all what I am used to. Bass? Well, it seems tighter, but not better or stronger. Her guitar rings out as usual with plenty of power, but, again the timbre is off making everything less interesting. When the music quiets down, a perception of transparency sets in that approaches what I am used to here.
Thats it for now, stay tuned for day 2, etc. to come.
hifiharv
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almarg
9,670 posts
 
03-19-14: Mapman
Beyond the multimeter, which is a logical first step, is there an affordable gadget out there that can be used to actually measure AC line noise? That would take a lot of guesswork out of the equation when attempting to determine value of adding conditioners, regenerators, etc.

I'm thinking an oscilloscope type device could certainly be used but something more affordable and easier for a lay-person to use and get a clear determination of line noise frequencies and levels just for this purpose?
I suspect that in most cases even an oscilloscope would not provide useful information. While it would give a general idea of the overall magnitude of noise and distortion, it would say little or nothing about how the noise and distortion is distributed among what will inevitably be an enormous number of different frequencies. And there is no telling how a given component will react to a given noise or distortion spectrum. I doubt that even a sophisticated and expensive spectrum analyzer would be particularly helpful.

In any event, my bet is that the most significant contributor to the problem is a change in line voltage (even if it was and still is within spec), due to the transformer replacement and perhaps also to the change in the outside wiring.

Best regards,
-- Al
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almarg
9,670 posts
 
Harv, I see in some of your past posts that you are probably using a pair of vintage Fisher monoblocks. What model would they be? And perhaps a bias readjustment is in order, if the amps have adjustable bias and if my suspicion is correct that a change in AC line voltage may have affected their sonics.

Regards,
-- Al
jea48
4,266 posts
 
Harv, I see in some of your past posts that you are probably using a pair of vintage Fisher monoblocks. What model would they be? And perhaps a bias readjustment is in order, if the amps have adjustable bias and if my suspicion is correct that a change in AC line voltage may have affected their sonics.
03-19-14: Almarg
Al,

Very plausible.
.
.

Hifiharv said:
Total lack of analog like sweetness and the system could even be mistaken for solid state.
Jim
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theo
2,659 posts
 
Just a random thought here. Could it be that you voltage has either increased or decreased enough given the new equipment you listed, I would favor increased. So now your equipment has changed the efficiency in which it operates with a more corrected voltage. Since you had it all set up based on the previous voltage and electrical feed, and you may just need to make some readjustments to your setup, e.g. Re-aim the speakers, change any acoustic panels, etc.

Again just a thought that seemed logical, that a chain reaction of the change in power is telegraphing through the system or re alining the "synergy" so to speak.
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mapman
21,835 posts
 
"I suspect that in most cases even an oscilloscope would not provide useful information. While it would give a general idea of the overall magnitude of noise and distortion, it would say little or nothing about how the noise and distortion is distributed among what will inevitably be an enormous number of different frequencies."

Al, explain please why that would not be useful?

It would seem to me that if I can simply isolate the noise frequencies from the proper AC line voltage frequency, that would be sufficient to be able to measure noise levels before and after any change. Specific frequencies involved in the noise would not matter, though it might be informative in terms of helping to identify potential sources of noise perhaps, if one should care.

BEing able to measure noise levels overall on a scope, if possible, would seem to be a better alternative than merely guessing based on what one might hear. That would take a lot of teh mystery out of power conditioning benefits case by case if viable.
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