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Rec Studio Qs - Wall Outlet vs Power Strip

NoobScienceKazoo

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What's the difference between connecting 'direct to wall outlets', and connecting to a standard power strip from the wall outlet?

The electrical wiring is all 1 cable/line into the room, where the power is then shared across the wall outlets(?)

So what's the difference between having more wall outlets vs. a couple of wall outlets with loads of power strips?

The power strips have high amp load e.g. 16A each power strip (from a 15A or 20A circuit).

When people say to "connect direct to the wall outlet" (e.g. amps), this is essentially the same as connecting to a standard power strip then?

I'm getting a dedicated circuit into a studio production/mix room - should I for some reason get tons of wall outlets vs. a few wall outlets (as normal) and loads of power strips for lots of audio gear?

Standard power strips vs
Tacima 6-way surge protectors?

for recording studio use with tons of analog synths & outboard gear.

I was thinking about getting a single/dedicated circuit/electrcial system for the studio only (new wire from the ourdoors mains pole) with a Emerson SolaHD Transformer CVS Voltage Regulator (as was recommended) - they have them up to 500kVA

Have acquired a ginormous amount of audio gear - loads of old synths, preamps, EQs, compressors, limiters, tubes, Pultec, FX units (about 70 units).

What's the power recommendations of ASR for recording studios with tons of gear, vs an audiophile set up?

I've got grounding / ground loops, balanced audio, cable separation (audio from mains), DC block (for old toroidal transformer units) - covered (I think)

Many thanks
 
Hello, Welcome to ASR!

What country are you in? What is your mains voltage? Have you added up all the power needs for your equipment in Watts?

There are many, many discussions on ASR you can search for power protection filtering surge and so forth.

When planning a new room power, each country will have regulations for electricians. In the US, it is the National Electrical Code. I'm an engineer and have read much of that. It is oriented to safety, not electrical noise.

Recording studios, hospitals, and scientific research laboratories have special needs beyond code. A big variable is your earth ground, a metal conductor rod embedded, usually 2-3 meters, in soil. Some recording studios will bring a seperate earth ground with a low resistance path into the room. That is expensive. Then there is a lot of engineering on how to use that.

Placing all your recording studio circuits on a sub-panel isolated by transformer, like a Sola will reduce HF noise coming off the pole or the rest of the building. Somewhere close by is a utility transformer, on a pole, pedestal or elsewhere converting the 10-40KV power to 110/240V. All the customers sharing that transformer share power line noise. The Sola filters that out.

Running all the power conductors in grounded metal - metallic sheathing, to metal outlet boxes can reduce noise pick up. A separate surge protector in the recording studio breaker panel is not expensive.

If you have a lot, lot of money, you can make your room a Faraday cage by placing grounded screen in the walls, ceiling, and floor. We did that when we had an upper floor transfer studio and interference from HF radio transmitters - taxi, dispatch, police, and other transmitters. Unless a neighbor has that or is an ameteur radio transmitter, it is probably not a problem.

Today in a recording studio we have a lot of digital, and a lot of more efficient switching power supplies, and we have computers. Are you familiar with spectrum analyzers and the Fourier transform? The square waves of digital devices produce a long sequence of harmonics. Some of the lower frequency ones are unwanted audio interference. So if an outboard box produces them, there is usually a line filter between the fuse and the power supply that sends high frequency interference to the chassis to then be conducted by the line cord ground to the RF-filtered power strip or the wall box.

I would imagine the technical specs of the Tacima are similar to the TrippLite, also an Eaton product. You can compare them. You could put the Tacima/TrippLite in each rack to manage all the mains cables of outboard gear.

You might consult these sources if you want to go beyond the above and use a separate earth ground for your room https://www.google.com/search?q=electrical+grounding+for+recording+studios+book

Keep us informed about the solution you build and how it works!
 
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I have one of these behind the rack...

It gets close to a single point Earth.

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My thoughts:
a] the ground rod in Planet Earth has nothing to do with day-to-day AC power quality. It's there for safety during thunderstorms or high voltage accidents.
b] some say to connect big power amplifiers to the wall outlet or power strip, rather than thru a power conditioner. Because some power conditioners do strange things to AC power.
c] There is no difference between a wall outlet and a power strip connected to that outlet. The only way an outlet strip can limit current is by tripping it's circuit breaker.
d] systems with RCA interconnects are much more sensitive to how the components are connected to.....
I'll be back later.
 
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