Tacima Extension Lead

[Deleted member 9286]

Here in the UK, there is an extension lead that can be purchased for about £30 which claims to have noise filtering capabilities. I’ve had two I picked up cheap in a sale for a couple of years. I never noticed any improvement and never expected any to be honest but they are fairly well made so a worthy purchase I would say. I haven’t used them in my system for ages and just stumbled across them in a cupboard. They reminded me that I never did find any test or analysis of what they actually did when I last looked online. We know that any well designed electronics will do all the filtering required but I’ve always wondered if they did actually do what they claimed. I don’t know if they were available more widely than the UK or perhaps rebranded but below is a couple of pictures. One is a close up of the components. Has anyone ever read about or tested one of these? Or can anyone hazard a guess based on the image below? Just curious.

 

[egellings]

I see three MOVs, 1 gas discharge tube (GDT), a common mode choke and 3 caps. The GDT is for lightning surge suppression; the MOVs are for lesser voltage spike suppression, and the rest minus the toroid forms a low pass differential filter to keep out HF garbage. The toroid reduces common mode HF noise.

 

[Wes]

I see a moat.

It works to reduce noise in the signal according to the principles outlined in the DownTone black paper

- you can see the moat in the pic - it's the area between dark and light

 

[amirm]

The MOVs have no fuse. So when the big surge comes, they short out and then proceed to catch on fire! Even if they did try to do their job, they are so far away from main's earth that they can't shunt anything. What they do then is to spread that surge into the ground connectors throughout your home.

The filtering is all for high frequencies well above 1 MHz. So no effect in audible range.

 

[egellings]

I do not see a fuse either. The MOVs have tubing around them to help contain flames if they do short out. I agree about the filtering, but RFI can indirectly interfere with SS equipment operation, even though it cannot be directly audible. It could be that the power strip this protector is in has a circuit breaker type of power switch.

 

[Deleted member 9286]

Thanks all for responding, I had forgotten all about this post! So what’s the verdict then, does it provide any value above a standard extension lead?

 

[Clive of Sweden]

I have a few of these I love them. I was dubious at first but I done an a b test and using one on a digital TV box via antenna I noticed a 25% improvement in signal strength and signal quality visible via the osd, and it cured a problem that I had. Basically if I opened the fridge sometimes the TV box would lose it and after plugging it into the tacima it fixed it.But don't use them on amplifiers it tends to kill the dynamics a bit, plug all your low powered digital stuff in and enjoy.
The movs have a thermal fuse next to them so if they get really hot then the movs will be taken out of the circuit for good.