Moondogs have arrived!

[Erik Mandaville]

Some additional information and possible product of interest from Transcendent Sound.

Transcendent products, most often the SE OTL and Grounded Grid preamp, have been discussed here in the past. This balanced power supply is from the same company, and link might be worth viewing just for the extra information. Bruce Rozenblit is an electrical engineer, not just an audio-designer-hobbiest. I have no connection with the company other than the respect I have for its products.

This balanced power supply is really something I should consider myself very soon. One uses one's existing power strip into the supply chassis, and that is in turn plugged into the AC supply. However, it may not provide the same level of ground loop immunity as the component linked above.

http://www.transcendentsound.com/power_supply.htm

Erik

[Marvel]

I found this quite some time ago. You easily (and safely) build something for your own use.

http://www.peavey.com/support/technotes/soundsystems/acpowerdist.cfm

[Erik Mandaville]

Good information!

I wanted to mention another thing re: the Transcendent product: We have discussed these in the past, but the Transcendent balanced supply also uses an in-rush current limiter. It can help provide something of a soft-start feature for equipment that may benefit from it. It may also help compensate for the different line level voltages that existed with vintage equipment; I'm thinking mainly of heater/filament supplies where close tolerances are more important than B+/plate supplies. These in-rush current limiters can also be installed in individual components; I have one in my tube preamp, which uses solid state bridge rectifiers and very heavy filter capacitance.

Erik

[Erik Mandaville]

Another (and last) example.

http://www.toroid.com/standard_transformers/balanced_transformers/balanced_transformers.htm

[sfogg]

"The only way that the chassis of a component will become hot is if the circuitry of that component would fail and it could not find a path to ground. But of course, if you leave the other components plugged in, it will find another path to ground."

Yes.... *but* (there is always a but) that path to ground will be through the interconnects ground connection.

Try putting 15+ amps through the ground connection on most interconnects and see what happens. They are usually around 26 or 28ga (not the 14 or 12ga safety ground connection that is now disconnected) and are not at all capable of carrying that kind of current.

If one is lucky the circuit breaker will trip.

If one is unlucky that ground connection will burn up first... leaving the failed component with a hot chassis.

If one is very unlucky that burned up ground connection will then proceed to start a fire.

Shawn

[Cut-Throat]

Try putting 15+ amps through the ground connection on most interconnects and see what happens. They are usually around 26 or 28ga (not the 14 or 12ga safety ground connection that is now disconnected) and are not at all capable of carrying that kind of current.

If one is lucky the circuit breaker will trip.

If one is unlucky that ground connection will burn up first... leaving the failed component with a hot chassis.

If one is very unlucky that burned up ground connection will then proceed to start a fire.

Shawn

Have you ever looked in an amp and seen what gauge wire is hooked to the other end of the IEC connector? Mine are 20 gauge wire on my Moondogs and my interconnects are 18 gauge. Since I built both the amps and the interconnects myself, 12 or 14 gauge wire from the amp to the outlet is not the defining element.

Again, you are making a mountain out of a mole hill on this issue.