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EquiTech 1.5RQ Balanced Power Review

roog

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I wanted to be shocked at "clean" and "motor driven generator" in the same sentence. But I fact-checked and it checks out. So have an upvote.

http://www.jkovach.net/projects/powerquality/

http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b298/professor95/BrandY.jpg

While it remains true that cheap generators produce horrible sine waves, a good generator can be cleaner than the grid.

I am sure that a good motor/alternator can do 'electrically quiet' quite well, mechanically though its another matter and I think that you would have to be very committed to run up such a set every time you want to list to your stereo.

If we are going esoteric I prefer the idea of battery banks and then we can go straight in with DC and cut out the AC stage altogether, charge them during the day from PVs or from the utility and listen 'off-grid" during the evening.

If we are going to be radical we could use fuel cells run off Methanol or Hydrogen and once we had got over the initial and substantial CO2 cost for making the thing all that emits at (point of use) is water, Eco stereo :0) I agree probably not!
 

HighImpactAV

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I respectfully disagree. I have been involved in the design and construction of a dozen high-end recording/mastering studios over the last 30 years. Many were three or more room facilities that had 72 input Neve and SSL consoles, hundreds of pieces of outboard gear, miles of wiring, kitchens, and offices. Every studio tech had their own idea on how to integrate all this to avoid grounding issues including driving copper poles deep into the ground. Sometimes it worked and sometimes it didn't. Sometimes it was great in the morning but at 5:30 pm the noise appeared. Also, we had outside engineers and rental companies bringing in their own racks of gear just to keep it interesting. It was a constant issue and in most cases never resolved until we started using dedicated wall-mounted balanced power units for every room. Problem solved! Maybe overkill for the home HiFi, but maybe not if nothing else works for you. FYI - most of these studio techs were well-educated and highly paid professionals.
Thanks for your post. Almost all recording/mastering studio designs I've seen have included isolation transformers with balanced power. The new CEDIA HQ Reference Home Theater has a Torus Isolation transformer specified by Erskine Group. Arthur Kelm has a Mix Interview in which he says "an isolation transformer is mandatory": A WELL-GROUNDED APPROACH TO AC POWER PROBLEMS. Like EquiTech, Arthur Kelm's client list includes a lot of musicians. This is because many musicians enjoy having their own recording studio, not because the isolation transformer is used during a concert. :rolleyes: Kelm also has a nice list with the definition of problems he is trying to solve.
 

milosz

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Resorting to the use of an isolation transformer to solve ground loop issues in a home audio playback system seems like overkill, but if that's all that will fix it, you can buy a commercial isolation transformer for WAAAAY less than this thing. You can get a 1.8 KVA isolation transformer from Amazon for under $700. Of course that doesn't come with the "audiophile" marketing.
 

Chrispy

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I am confident vast majority of people using this solution have no such problem. They simply deploy them to get "better sound."

That's what I take to be the basis of reviews here, i.e. for home use with gear sent in by individuals with home setups, not particularly how suited for professional/studio use as some have brought up. Plus the vendor's marketing in this case....
 

RayDunzl

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You can get a 1.8 KVA isolation transformer from Amazon for under $700.


Like this? https://www.grainger.com/product/TRIPP-LITE-1-8-kVA-Hospital-Grade-Isolation-1AYB2


1626391235532.png
1626391265419.png




Then I only "wasted" an extra $300 when I got my rack mount sized input and output breakered input and output voltage displaying 10 outlet GFCI protected ETL Listed 1.5RQ years ago (used).


1626391181232.png



And I fully expect to get back my entire cost when/if ever sold.
 
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wwenze

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With copper prices getting higher, you might even get more money for it.

https://tradingeconomics.com/commodity/copper

Copper theft is a thing...
https://www.todayonline.com/singapore/man-stole-copper-wires-mall-finance-wifes-chemotherapy

SINGAPORE — At his wits’ end because his wife’s chemotherapy bills were taking a toll on his finances, a technician stole earth cables fixed to the ceiling of Golden Landmark Shopping Centre in 2006 to sell. The law caught up with Muhammad Resat Ahmad last year, and he pleaded guilty on Tuesday (March 7) to two counts of dishonest misappropriation of property.
Read more at https://www.todayonline.com/singapore/man-stole-copper-wires-mall-finance-wifes-chemotherapy
 

thumbslapper

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Another "its for the studio not home" post - i co-owned a studio where we leased space in a commercial building, and we had all sorts of ground hum and noise issues we were dealing with, after the equitech was installed (& instructions followed) noise levels went down 6-9db across the board. we had easily 50-60 pieces of outboard gear and an old 1984 sound workshop console. We ended up buying a smaller second one that we would plug troublesome guitar amps into (my parter has a collection of 40 vintage guitar amps, mainly fender), and it absolutely got rid of the hum. Recording engineers are generally a pragmatic bunch, if things work they will use them, which is why you continue to see these balanced power modules being installed in studios.
 

Billy Budapest

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Pretty soon we are going to see audiophiles purchase generators solely to run their audio systems in an effort to get “clean” AC.
 

Cuniberti

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Another "its for the studio not home" post - i co-owned a studio where we leased space in a commercial building, and we had all sorts of ground hum and noise issues we were dealing with, after the equitech was installed (& instructions followed) noise levels went down 6-9db across the board. we had easily 50-60 pieces of outboard gear and an old 1984 sound workshop console. We ended up buying a smaller second one that we would plug troublesome guitar amps into (my parter has a collection of 40 vintage guitar amps, mainly fender), and it absolutely got rid of the hum. Recording engineers are generally a pragmatic bunch, if things work they will use them, which is why you continue to see these balanced power modules being installed in studios.
Thank you for posting this. I have felt a bit like a lone wolf here. Regardless of education and background in electrical engineering I have witnessed the best in the field become reduced to tears in a large recording studio setting trying to lower the noise floor. Simply suggesting an AC/DC conversion is all that is needed in shocking naive.
 

Billy Budapest

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Thank you for posting this. I have felt a bit like a lone wolf here. Regardless of education and background in electrical engineering I have witnessed the best in the field become reduced to tears in a large recording studio setting trying to lower the noise floor. Simply suggesting an AC/DC conversion is all that is needed in shocking naive.
No, I get it. The same concerns affect broadcast audio and video facilities, too. I have worked at a radio station and know about grounding issues. But to suggest that these same measures can be applied to residential installations is lunacy and, in fact, can be very dangerous. Would you want to touch the energized chassis of a tube amp?
 

RayDunzl

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Would you want to touch the energized chassis of a tube amp?


No, therefore, if applying "technical power" to it (or any other device), should warrant a "technical" test with a meter to see if the case is electrically hot before further use/experimentation.

Test:

Measure ohms from power plug to case - no connectivity on the "Hot" and "Neutral", low resistance between the case and the Earth (if present).

If connectivity is noted from "Hot" or "Neutral" to the case, stop. Your test has revealed an incompatibility with "technical power".


After that, plug it in, measure voltage from the case to another Earth point - 0V expected.

Finally, turn it on and measure voltage from the case to another Earth point - 0V expected.

---

Don't know what you're doing? Good luck to you in this and all your other activities.
 
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HighImpactAV

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Resorting to the use of an isolation transformer to solve ground loop issues in a home audio playback system seems like overkill, but if that's all that will fix it, you can buy a commercial isolation transformer for WAAAAY less than this thing. You can get a 1.8 KVA isolation transformer from Amazon for under $700. Of course that doesn't come with the "audiophile" marketing.
People don't just buy isolation transformers just to solve ground loop issues. Isolation transformers provide galvanic isolation so that expensive electronic equipment is protected from lightning and surges. I have a 100 amp isolation transformer that provides protection for 6000 Volts and 3000 Amps for 1000 repeats. I've had two friends have their home electronics damaged due to lightning strikes.

There are also some cost savings in having a single 240 volt 50 amp circuit at the theater rather than all the 15 & 20 amp circuits needed for my equipment. Most theaters that use an isolation transformer have more than a single 20 amp circuit.

Pretty soon we are going to see audiophiles purchase generators solely to run their audio systems in an effort to get “clean” AC.
I recommend a Ford F150 Lightning for all high end home theaters. :)
Ford F150 Lightning.png
 

egellings

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So what if the sine wave is somewhat distorted? It gets rectified in the typical transformer with diodes & caps setup, and only the peaks contribute to the final rectified DC voltage. The electricity can do the boogaloo between the peaks and it won't matter unless it generates noise that is picked up by the equipment.
 

michaelahess

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Money, and you may not actually own the building. I have commissioned lovely huge double conversion UPS systems for computer rooms in the dim dark past. 30kVA units or bigger. I have a pretty good idea as to just how expensive they are. If you want ultra pure, nothing beats the old gen-motor sets. CDC systems used them to provide 400Hz power to their computers.

But also, whilst you have eliminated external noise, you have not isolated noise generation internal to the building. And moreover, it has not addressed the core part of the design - avoiding induced currents on the ground leads of the equipment. As clean as your power from the UPS is, it is still capable of inducing hum.
We keep coming back to the core point. The balanced power delivery system is not a power conditioner. It is addressing a separate problem.

I've dealt with 20kva systems that cost around 10k. More importantly, I've also dealt with multi million dollar 100Gb carrier grade aggregation devices that have been impacted by literal free radicals. This is not a joke.

If a device is that sensitive and has ZERO issues on a UPS like that, then no audio gear would ever require anything "better". Oh, unless the audio gear is complete crap of course...

Proper installation and bonding of everything, regardless of what's downstream, or the building itself, is irrelevant if done correctly.
 

michaelahess

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Sorry, not compared to this snake oil. Get a good unit for 2k, how's that expensive??? You don't need the UPS to take the load, so why go big, just get one that does it's job, filtering accomplished. The battery backup is literally just a bonus.
 

Cuniberti

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Sorry, not compared to this snake oil. Get a good unit for 2k, how's that expensive??? You don't need the UPS to take the load, so why go big, just get one that does it's job, filtering accomplished. The battery backup is literally just a bonus.
I was referring to a multi-room recording studio with a 10k a month power bill, not a home HiFi or a few offices with computers.
 

michaelahess

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I was referring to a multi-room recording studio with a 10k a month power bill, not a home HiFi or a few offices with computers.

Understood, as was I. Put the sensitive devices with noise issues on the UPS(s). If everything is that sensitive it seems like the hardware truly sucks, maybe that's the industry standard in the recording industry, I don't know.

What I deal with is absurdly more complex and sensitive than audio gear, so this seem completely batsh*t crazy to me. :)
 
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