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Please buy safe audio gear

jhaider

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Aside from ATI, does anyone offer Hypex or Purifi-based amplifiers in safety-certified housings?

NAD's Hypex based amps have NRTL certification. That's a step better than ATI.
 

adc

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I've seen several different locking types, but only in datacenters. I always thought the point was availability protection -- some PDUs seem especially poor at plug retention, so much so that we sometimes resorted to torquing the ground blade slightly with pliers to increase friction. In light of the above, maybe safety was part of the reason for the locking requirement as well.
 
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Count Arthur

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I've always thought that the UK 13amp plug and socket was well designed:


He's absolutely right ahout the nasty habit the plugs have of lying on their backs, pins facing skywards ready for you to step on - guaranteed to bring a tear to your eye and illicit a few choice utterances.
 
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amirm

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I've always thought that the UK 13amp plug and socket was well designed:
I think it is way too bulky in this day and age of miniaturization. Hate travelling with UK adapters and was pleased years ago to see hotels put in US plugs in their rooms.
 

Count Arthur

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I think they were originally designed in the 40s and even when I was younger most electrical goods were supplied without a plug fitted, just a bare flex, you had to purchase a UK plug and fit it yourself. It was probably fairly large so that it wasn't too fiddly for your average ham-fisted buyer with a toolkit that consisted of 1 screwdriver - for fitting plugs.

Now, nearly everything has a plug pre-fitted, so it probably could be miniaturised without those concerns. However, that would involve changing millions of sockets all throughout the UK plug using world. :oops:
 

mansr

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I think they were originally designed in the 40s and even when I was younger most electrical goods were supplied without a plug fitted, just a bare flex, you had to purchase a UK plug and fit it yourself. It was probably fairly large so that it wasn't too fiddly for your average ham-fisted buyer with a toolkit that consisted of 1 screwdriver - for fitting plugs.

Now, nearly everything has a plug pre-fitted, so it probably could be miniaturised without those concerns. However, that would involve changing millions of sockets all throughout the UK plug using world. :oops:
It would be nice if they adapted the sockets ever so slightly to accept the flat "Euro" plugs.
 

Thomas savage

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In my tear down articles, I routinely emphasize safety factors which are often missed. In reviews I also note at times when equipment has regulatory certification or not.

Often the retort is when was the last time something had gone wrong with electronics this way. So I thought I share a recent experience on this front.

I went to hook up a passive speaker to my Purifi amplifier on my desk. As I hooked up the wire, I am hearing sparking sound. I immediately think the speaker terminals are shorted but quick glance indicates they are fine. No spark is visible and at any rate, the amplifier is still off. Yet the "buzzing" and clear and loud sparking sound continues. I immediately reach for the power strip and hit off and the noise goes away.

Guessing that it may be the IEC cable, I touch that and realize that it was not inserted all the way. I pulled it out and smelled it and indeed it smelled like burnt rubber. Pushed it all in and it was fine. The amp is in standby mode and with its switching supply being on all the time, it was causing that sparking.

The reason to tell this story is that it is not the scenarios we can think of that are unsafe, but the ones we can't! I would have never thought of such a fire risk before it happened this way. Imagine if I were not home and this thing was sparking this way for hours on end. And the cord was a non-name one with no fire or safety rating (UL, CE, CSA, etc.).

So please, unless you really have to, buy audio electronics with proper safety regulations. I can't tell you the exact scenario they may be unsafe. What I can tell you is that it can manifest itself per above when you least expect it.

Now I have to go and check to see if that outlet was on Arc Fault breaker and still did that.
A reminder, never sleep in the camper van Amirm wired up himself...
 

Berwhale

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I wish those things had a locking version

It's quite common for the IEC sockets used in data centre equipment to have a cable retention clips like the ones on this PDU...

1581810853497.png
 

pozz

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Thomas savage

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Hasn't he placed the lithium cell pack under the mattress? A way to get sparks flying in the bedroom I guess... ;)
One must assume he has a power hungry device there that requires a direct connection to source.

The mind boggles.

Maybe he's preparing to go away with 7 of 9.
 
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amirm

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Hasn't he placed the lithium cell pack under the mattress?
That's exactly where it is! And I sleep on it, not my wife. The darn cells like temps that people do. Too cold and they can get destroyed if you charge them. So they live inside. Like a pet would. :)

Fortunately their chemistry (LiFePo4 ) is extremely stable. As a result, they don't have thermal runaway issues as the nasty cells used in EV cars. They use them because they are denser still but boy, do they love to catch on fire or explode.
 

March Audio

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I think it is way too bulky in this day and age of miniaturization. Hate travelling with UK adapters and was pleased years ago to see hotels put in US plugs in their rooms.

Compared to the flimzy Oz plugs its a work of art. Most Oz plugs have the cable come out perpendicular to the wall which is such a space wasting and untidy PITA. US plugs are pretty much the same.

Not to mention the lack of fuse. Fuses are to prevent cables from overheating so why do no other countries apart from the UK fuse when changing cable size from the larger size in the wall to the smaller size in the lead ? Curious.

1581825061515.png
 
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Soniclife

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UK plugs also have a remarkable ability to act as an excellent grappling hook whenever you want to pull a cable through from behind a piece of furniture.
Not just me that does that then.
 

wwenze

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My company once recalled an entire batch of laptop power adapter IEC cables because they were burning up

I myself had a similar experience as the opening post. It went a rhythmic pop like once every second with constant interval, then popopopopopopopop bzzzzzzzzzzzz *white smoke*

The power brick is still ok. I threw the IEC cable.
 
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