
Audiophiles in Japan Are Installing Their Own Power Poles - tlrobinson
https://www.wsj.com/articles/a-gift-for-music-lovers-who-have-it-all-a-personal-utility-pole-1471189463
======
neonate
[https://outline.com/pBJfhG](https://outline.com/pBJfhG)

------
bayindirh
I don't understand _this type_ of audiophiles. I also have a fairly high end,
vintage audio system at home, but I'd never do anything like that in the name
of audio quality. There's a quote I love about these people:

    
    
        A normal person uses the audio system to listen music, while an audiophile uses music to listen to his audio system.

~~~
walrus01
One of the things I truly will never understand about "Audiophiles" is their
willingness to spend money on products that are, from a technical basis,
indisputably categorized as snake oil. For instance:

[https://www.amazon.com/AudioQuest-Diamond-feet-Braided-
Cable...](https://www.amazon.com/AudioQuest-Diamond-feet-Braided-
Cable/dp/B003CT08E4)

It's an HDMI cable! The video signal has CRC in it and is packetized, it's
either going to make it or it isn't. The quality of video delivered at, for
instance, 2160p 60fps 10bit color to an expensive 80" 4K TV is going to be
literally indistinguishable from the same video delivered by a $16 Amazon
house brand HDMI cable.

Or this, it's a $340 cable for 1000BaseT Ethernet:

[https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2015/07/gallery-we-tear-
apar...](https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2015/07/gallery-we-tear-
apart-a-340-audiophile-ethernet-cable-and-look-inside/)

People actually make the claim that their FLAC "sounds warmer" when
transferred through this. How, exactly?

That's not enough? How about the $10,0000 1000BaseT Ethernet cable?
[https://arstechnica.com/staff/2015/02/to-the-audiophile-
this...](https://arstechnica.com/staff/2015/02/to-the-audiophile-
this-10000-ethernet-cable-apparently-makes-sense/)

I can _sort of_ understand methodology and expensive equipment modifications
to separate AC power from amplifiers, and shield AC power lines and such, keep
AC power runs away from speaker wires, etc. That has at least some basis in
technological reality.

~~~
lmz
I've always wondered whether I could sell audiophile SATA cables for those who
listen to music from their hard drives...

Edit: a commenter below has a link to an actual audiophile SATA cable.

~~~
CharlesW
Yes, you can absolutely sell "HD SATA" cables. To paraphrase, "There's a new
audiophile born every minute".

[https://jcat.eu/audiophile-sata-cable/](https://jcat.eu/audiophile-sata-
cable/)

~~~
rubito
huh, besides the BS, isn't the file loaded into RAM first anyway?

~~~
nathanlied
You know what's next - sell audiophile-grade RAM. Gold-plate everything.

~~~
agumonkey
full stack audio grade computer, 40000USD

~~~
tlrobinson
Aim higher. That's cheap compared to the $90,000 DAC you need to buy
[https://darko.audio/2015/11/the-select-dac-ii-msb-
technology...](https://darko.audio/2015/11/the-select-dac-ii-msb-
technologys-90000-da-converter/)

------
IAmGraydon
I think that you can consider extreme audiophilia to be an expression of
obsessive-compulsive disorder, and therefore the audiophile industry is
predatory in that it preys upon the mentally ill. I’ve seen it all - including
$1,000 aftermarket wooden knobs that were said to dampen sound-corrupting
vibrations in your power amplifier. The people who sell these items know
exactly what they’re doing, and I hope more people will see them for what they
are - common con men.

~~~
thaumasiotes
How do $1,000 aftermarket wooden knobs (with no detectable physical effect)
differ from, say, a $1,000 bottle of wine (which cannot be distinguished in a
blind taste test from a $5 bottle)?

They're just class signifiers. The difference I see is that audiophiles are
less prestigious than oenophiles, but I don't see how you get from there to
"audiophiles have a mental illness".

~~~
hwillis
> say, a $1,000 bottle of wine (which cannot be distinguished in a blind taste
> test from a $5 bottle)?

Well for one thing, that's wrong- _distinguishing_ wine is easy. Even people
who are just pretty into wine can identify different vinyards etc. and actual
sommeliers can nail wine down to the year it was bottled and the conditions it
was stored[1].

The thing you're referring to is that when you line up regular people and give
them $5 and $1000 bottles of wine, they will rank them in essentially random
order. That should be no surprise at all. People have their own favorites.
When you line up experts, they can differentiate cheap wine from expensive
wine, but inside a broad category (say $200-$1000) they will rank essentially
randomly. Again, that shouldn't be surprising at all, because "quality" itself
isn't what's being paid for or looked for. Each wine is developed for a
_taste_ , not for some abstract quality metric that is the exact same for
every wine.

Normal audiophiles will typically aim for objective metrics like THD, but the
extreme guys are often aiming for subjective/vague things like timbre, color
and soundstage. That leads to some esotericism. They also tend to have gobs of
money to throw at this stuff, so a $1000 knob may be more about getting
_exactly_ what you want, or even just prestige. Both rational choices.
Regardless, its inherently way more absurd than wine because even audiophiles
with the most virgin ears will get nothing from .001% THD (very high end) vs
<.0001% THD (verging on a lab setup), and virtually all will get nothing from
<.01% THD. On the other hand, wine fanatics who have found their favorite wine
will be able to recognize it quite accurately.

[1]:
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qZQc0wfkU7I](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qZQc0wfkU7I)

~~~
hansjorg
Oenologists can't even distinguish red from white in a blind test:
[https://www.realclearscience.com/blog/2014/08/the_most_infam...](https://www.realclearscience.com/blog/2014/08/the_most_infamous_study_on_wine_tasting.html)

~~~
cheeze
> The two wines were actually the same white wine as before, but one was dyed
> with tasteless red food coloring

Yes, Oenologists assumed that the wine which was red was actually... red wine.
This study is always quoted and is a sham IMO. What this is saying more than
anything is "the placebo affect does work." which is totally true.

But IMO it doesn't say a whole lot about wine tasting being BS.

~~~
Nullabillity
Then how would you do a blind test instead?

~~~
lobotryas
By actually making it blind so the color of the wine dies not predispose your
expectation for specific notes or mouth feel.

------
reaperducer
_The 82-year-old lawyer already had a $60,000 American-made amplifier, 1960s
German loudspeakers that once belonged to a theater, Japanese audio cables
threaded with gold and silver, and other pricey equipment._

Meanwhile, my wife plays her Dean Martin records through her own personal
15-watt AM radio station in the closet, picked up on vintage tube radios
scattered around the house so the music sounds like it was intended by the
audio engineers of the day.

There are all kinds of audiophiles. I don't understand any of them.

~~~
sjwright
At least your wife's perspective makes sense—it's treating music as deeply
experiential and contextual.

~~~
hwillis
Not to mention that any recorded music is going to:

1\. sound quite different because it was recorded by several point microphones
instead of your actual ears

2\. Already have distortion introduced by the microphone and recording
equipment.

That distortion will obviously be quite small, but higher end audiophile
setups will often be easily smaller. It does not make sense to spend $XX,XXX
to get to .03% THD from .03000001% THD.

------
andrewvc
Even if you buy into this theory, how is this cheaper or better than using
batteries to power your gear?

~~~
tlrobinson
Good question. Sounds like a great opportunity to sell overpriced batteries to
audiophiles.

~~~
foobar1962
Heavy metal batteries. Classical batteries.

If only there was a genre of music called “deep cycle” we’d be on the gravy
train for life. (Ref: HHGG)

~~~
agumonkey
solid state pop

~~~
kn0where
(sound of capacitor popping)

------
vortico
I work in the audio industry, and I can say two things: 1) most everything
they do is audio mysticism (i.e. complete BS), and 2) they are very profitable
customers.

~~~
hermitdev
As a trained EE, non-practicing, I would think it would be far easier to
install filters/conditioners on the line to normalize the voltage and current
(e.g. performing phase correction). Also, if you had a local AC->DC->AC
conversion, could probably get a more uniform power source frequency. Not
sure, been a long time since ive studied this, but I think a lot of thw high-
end audiophile stuff is snake oil. I've been able to listen to a couple of
high end audiophile installs. The electrostatic speakers are amazing, but I'm
not going to appreciate enough to justify a $120k install over my $2k
commodity home theater sound.

~~~
matwood
You can ML electrostatics for much less than 120k. They do sound great, but
are still too much for me :)

I'm happy with my 10 year old Paradigms. The next speaker purchase I make is
going to get something smaller instead of floor standing. I'm at a point now
where I want good sound for music and home theater in the smallest package
possible.

~~~
jgalentine007
I like the Martin Logan Motion series (with the folded/ribbon tweeter) better
than the electrostatics. I have the LX16 bookshelfs and they are amazingly
clear and diminutive and were like $250 each from Crutchfield.

------
ekianjo
What I like about this article is that they just find a few weirdos in Japan
who actually end up doing that, and you get a blanket statement like
"Audiophiles in Japan" while the proper headline should be "A few crazy old
rich people". Journalism at its best.

~~~
erikpukinskis
If you parse a sentence that begins “Audiophiles in Japan...” as making a
claim about every Japanese audiophile or even most of them, you will find the
world a confusing place. These sentences are everywhere. “Men are pigs”,
“tacos are awesome”, etc.

Only two exemplars must exist for any such sentence to be true. Once you
understand that, you will understand a lot more of what’s being said around
you.

------
rixrax
I always wondered how people selling some of these audiophile gadgets can
justify to themselves over long run what might appear as a scam to many
outsiders. But then I was explained that this is little different than
my|your|their wife spending $$$ on some ridiculously expensive
Bottega|Hermes|Burberry|... handbag. Which after all is functionally about the
same as $1 handbag.

Some people choose handbags, or cars, and I guess them audiophiles choose
thick cables, and concrete poles. Each to their own.

~~~
kuratkull
Handbag producers don't claim their bags contain magic. The audiophile stuff
producers do. The are making false claims.

~~~
albertgoeswoof
Luxury / designer products basically advertise by saying “if you buy this
you’ll look cool / more beautiful / stylish / whatever”

It’s the same thing

------
zw123456
Tubes, cables now this. It seems more like religion or superstition than
technology IMHO.

If you want to take it to the limit, hire someone to come into your home and
perform live for you, then you can eliminate all the sources of distortion.

Not only would you be hearing the ultimate perfect sound, you would be
providing employment for artists.

Seems like a win - win to me :)

~~~
ada1981
And perhaps at a fraction of the cost ;)

~~~
zw123456
So true, a friend and I had a holiday party at my house and we talked about
having a DJ but instead we went online and got a piano player instead for less
money and honestly way classier and BTW, it was fun and nice, sort of a cool
thing really.

------
Izmaki
When I'm playing music on my stereo from my PC through USB, turning off the
lights on my bathroom on the other side of the wall will momentarily kill my
USB driver and as a result Spotify stops working.

Electromagnetic interference is no joke.

~~~
eigenvector
I had an old Dell laptop where I could "hear" an external USB hard drive
spinning up in my headphones, but only if it was connected to a USB port on
the same side of the laptop as the audio jack.

~~~
aidenn0
Dell is terrible about this; On my last 2 workstations I could hear my mouse
moving if I plugged my mouse into the USB port next to the headphone jack.

------
Johnny555
I wonder if a battery-inverter setup would give cleaner power for less money?
For less than $40K you can buy a couple powerwalls along with a top-rate
inverter/charger.

~~~
CaliforniaKarl
That’s a double-conversion UPS: AC to DC, a small siphon for batteries and
control hardware, and then DC to AC out.

I imagine an audiophile would say that the sine wave generated by such a setup
wouldn’t be smooth enough. They’d want something like a double-rotary
converter, so that a spinning generator is making the final sine wave.

~~~
ianhowson
But the amp converts that AC back to a flat DC anyway!

In any case, PSRR
([https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Power_supply_rejection_ratio](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Power_supply_rejection_ratio))
is a real, measurable thing.

~~~
sjwright
Such audiophiles don't believe in real, measurable things. And they certainly
don't understand how power supplies really work.

------
jhallenworld
When marketing a product one must consider the four basic segments: the smart
rich, the stupid rich, the smart poor and the stupid poor.

Obviously you are not going to make any money selling to the poor, so strike
them. Good luck trying to separate the smart rich from their money- they tend
to save. Thus we are left with the stupid rich. High end audiophile products
are a perfect fit for this lucrative segment.

------
newnewpdro
> he realized that electromagnetic interference from his neighbors’ appliances
> was propagating through their shared power lines, reducing the quality of
> the sound he was getting.

This actually seems a lot more reasonable to me than the monster cable level
of absurdity audiophiles are famous for.

When I last visited family my sister's home's electricity exhibited all sorts
of overload artifacts. Her lights would dim when the neighbor's AC or
refrigerator compressor ran. I convinced her to contact ComEd about it as it
suggested there was an overloaded supply shared across their homes making
voltages sag under load.

They sent someone out to just look around her house and act like they did
something, then said nothing's wrong. Of course they're not interested in
actually fixing the infrastructure when it involves costly work.

She's had an exceptional number of electrical appliances fail over the years
she's owned the home as well, which I presume is related.

But I figure with this audiophile guy he could just run the system off a UPS
using the mains just to top up the batteries.

~~~
sigstoat
> I convinced her to contact ComEd about it...

the power companies accurately assume that most people calling them don't know
anything about electricity.

have a trustworthy electrician inspect the situation, and then they can figure
out what the problem is, where the problem is, and convey said problem to the
power company if it is actually their fault.

~~~
Dylan16807
I'm not sure what you mean by "if". If it goes between houses, the blame is
pretty certainly on the power company, isn't it?

You could argue that the voltage is still within acceptable bounds, so it's
not something that needs to be fixed, but that wouldn't change whose fault it
is.

------
amluto
I suppose these folks don’t want to know that utility transformers transmit
noise both directions, so this doesn’t do much. It may help isolate from noise
that comes from the audiophile’s house, though — nasty current waveforms will
cause noisy voltage drops in the house’s wiring, and that will cause nasty
voltage waveforms in the house (and everywhere else on the block, but less
so).

A much better approach would be to buy a motor-generator pair with a decent-
sized flywheel.

But this is all silly. The noise in question might cause audible noise in the
power supply, but the power supply can go in a different room. As anyone who
has listened to a problematic audio system can attest, the noise that really
matters is the 50/60 Hz AC hum, and none of these hacks will help.

~~~
airbreather
A utility transformer is an extremely effective low pass filter, any noise you
are getting will be from the secondary side only.

------
pasta
Once a producer told me that they mastered at 16bit 44.1kHz and then pressed
records and CDs from those masters.

Ofcourse the records sold better because they sound much better...

~~~
kazinator
Of course the records will sound better; they will have their dynamic range
squashed to fit the medium. Compression sounds nice: all the quiet parts are
so clear, yet the transients are cleanly articulated.

Compressed audio, like from a record player, also works better with a cheap
back end. Protecting the record player's needle from skipping out also helps
the amplifier and speakers.

~~~
mrob
Don't confuse the sound of compression with the sound of music being louder.
Compression can help with poor quality equipment or noisy listening
environments (e.g. cars), but it also adds audible distortion and is tiring to
listen to for long. Most dynamic range compression in music is there to trick
people into playing it louder (see "loudness war"), and louder music sounds
better. Of course, you can get the same benefit without the distortion by
turning the volume up yourself.

But despite vinyl being poorly suited to high dynamic range, the vinyl release
sometimes has higher dynamic range than the CD/download release. This is
probably because vinyl purchasers are thought to be more discerning customers.
This isn't always the case; the most popular dynamic range measurement
algorithm (see [http://dr.loudness-war.info/](http://dr.loudness-war.info/) )
is fooled by all-pass filtering, and vinyl record players do this, so the
measurements will be falsely high for vinyl. Often the supposedly higher
dynamic range vinyl release is actually from an identical master.

~~~
kazinator
> _Most dynamic range compression in music is there to trick people into
> playing it louder_

That's a relatively new phenomenon, together with the distortion.

Compression doesn't add audible distortion, except if it is used in an extreme
way to boost the signal so that it sits at close to maximum volume.

Compression is a tool that can combat distortion. Reduce the transients;
reduce the clipping.

Compression can be used to obtain more consistent distortion on purpose over
longer envelopes of the signal, like in a common configuration in guitar
audio: compressor followed by distortion effect.

Obtaining more consistent distortion can mean consistently _less_ of it, not
only consistently more.

~~~
mrob
Audiophile grade equipment doesn't clip transients at normal listening volume.
I agree that compression can help with poor quality equipment, but at the cost
of permanently harming the sound on good equipment. Nobody complains about
acoustic live music having too much dynamic range. The proper place for
dynamic range compression is in the playback equipment, not baked into the
audio data (DVDs/Blurays get this right with AC3 DRC). And compression used as
an effect on individual instruments isn't what "loudness war" is referring to.

~~~
pas
What's the dynamic range of vinyl? Usually 70 dB, whereas 16bit PCM is around
90 dB. That's what OP was probably referring to. Since the master was done for
the CD then compressed for the vinyl it sounds softer/cleaner.

~~~
mrob
CDs do have superior dynamic range, but when modern mastering squashes
everything within a few dB of full scale it hardly matters. But I disagree
that vinyl releases[0] typically have lower dynamic range than CD releases
(most often it's the same, sometimes it's higher, and only very rarely it's
lower), and I disagree that lower dynamic range sounds better on good
equipment.

[0] Talking about popular music only. I don't know enough about classical to
say how it's done there.

~~~
pas
I have no actual data about the musical signals present on the discs
themselves (be they made of any kind of plastic with grooves or pits), I just
mentioned the technological limitations of them. ( see also
[https://wiki.hydrogenaud.io/index.php?title=Myths_(Vinyl)#My...](https://wiki.hydrogenaud.io/index.php?title=Myths_\(Vinyl\)#Myth:_Vinyl_has_greater_resolution_than_CD_because_its_dynamic_range_is_higher_than_for_CD_at_the_most_audible_frequencies)
)

However, as far as I know the loudness wars is coming to an end finally:
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Loudness_war#2010s](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Loudness_war#2010s)
"Analysis suggests that the loudness trend may have peaked around 2005 and
subsequently reduced, with a pronounced increase in overall and minimum album
DR (crest factor) for albums since 2005."

------
remcob
$100k in equipment, but I bet none of that went to an oscilloscope to actually
quantify the problems they are imagining.

~~~
AndrewUnmuted
I bet you some of those dollars went towards the acquisition of some Brilliant
Pebbles [0]!

[0]
[http://www.machinadynamica.com/machina31.htm](http://www.machinadynamica.com/machina31.htm)

~~~
gpderetta
This must be satire, right?

~~~
api
There is no stupidity limit. Research flat Earth!

~~~
gerdesj
Actually it is quite fun to do thought experiments on what a flat earth would
be like. I think (not a physicist) that the sea and atmosphere would end up
dome shaped, centred on the centre of the disc. Non symmetric continents would
cause instability so can't exist. I wonder what is on the other side?

For even more fun why not (re)read Sir Terry's oeuvre. Pissing yourself
laughing is good for you.

------
nayuki
Gonna toss a related idea out there: Converting single-phase AC power to DC
requires treating a lot of ripples. Maybe an audiophile should convert three-
phase AC power to DC to ensure higher power quality?

~~~
codewritinfool
A motor-generator is a better solution. Preferably with a big flywheel.

~~~
lostlogin
Funny you should mention this. I’m concerned about how clean the feed is to
his power pole. A dedicated line is definately needed, shielded etc all the
way back to its own power plant.

------
nabla9
Since audiophiles are so gullible I wonder if you could sell even more stuff
for them. For example:

* plastic surgery for ear lobes (Ferengi audio Inc.)

* ear wax removal and ear hair trimming services

~~~
samatman
You joke but there is no a priori reason that improvements in cochlear
implants have to plateau at human-normal hearing.

This is an implant I would actually consider having done.

~~~
nabla9
Hyperspectral cochlear implant would be cool thing to have.

When I had my ear wax removed by a nurse first time, it was really awesome
experience. I had no idea how much it helped. For example when I was walking
on the street, I heard strange rhythmic sound just behind me. Every time I
stopped the sound stopped. Finally I figured out that the sound was coming
from my backpack that was chafing against my jacket. Habituation removed the
hyper-hearing sensation in 3-6 hours afterwards.

------
edoo
Does anyone remember the tests they did where 'serious' audiophiles couldn't
tell the difference between the $200 cable and a coat hanger?

~~~
squarefoot
I do, here's some info.

[https://www.engadget.com/2008/03/03/audiophiles-cant-tell-
th...](https://www.engadget.com/2008/03/03/audiophiles-cant-tell-the-
difference-between-monster-cable-and/)

------
aristophenes
I'm interested in the playlists of these guys. What are the songs that are
worthy of being played on your $100K+ setup? I had never heard of that Queen
song before, wonder what his top 10 songs are.

~~~
Rjevski
I'm not sure they have playlists. They probably spend more time tweaking their
system than actually listening to music on it, negating the need for a
playlist.

------
azinman2
Seems like it’d be easier, cheaper, and more “accurate” to put conditioners on
the input to the equipment directly... by doing this to the transformer you’re
still including your whole house and any noisy equipment (like lights) on your
power line.

------
Animats
Now to sell them a motor-generator set.[1] Total isolation from power
fluctuations. The only connection between input and output is a rotating
shaft.

I once worked in a mainframe computer installation which had one of those.
Before switching power supplies, many mainframes used them for power cleanup.
Cray used them to convert to 400Hz, so the power supplies had smaller
transformers.

[1] [http://acim.nidec.com/generators/kato-
engineering/products/m...](http://acim.nidec.com/generators/kato-
engineering/products/motor-generator-sets)

------
kazinator
I have a power amp whose transformer hums once in a while, for periods of a
few seconds. Then it goes quiet just as abruptly as it started humming.
Someone is unbalancing the power in the building, causing a DC offset.

------
pkaye
After getting tinnitus, none of these things matter to me anymore.

~~~
jsjsoaofnfn
Has there been any development that goes beyond masking?

------
FraKtus
Most of the time the room where those high-end audiophiles have their
equipment is just not designed to listen to music. The room around you is as
important as the equipment. I remember making speaker tests in the anechoic
chamber of my university, and it's just mindblowing, even with average
equipment.

------
locusm
These guys need to do the Richard Clark 10K challenge. Richard posited that
when compared evenly, the sonic differences between amplifiers operated below
clipping are below the audible threshold of human hearing. No-one took the 10
grand in 15 years if my memory serves me correctly.

------
unsignedint
So he installed a pole to prevent perhaps fairly subtle common mode
interference from his neighbor's appliances. Wouldn't a ham (or any potential
EM source) in the proximity that he cannot control ruins his installation
easily? Maybe he is lucky to not have them nearby...

------
white-flame
If their stereo equipment is so high end, then why are their input power
electronics so crappy at producing clean voltages? Filtering and isolating
against common noisy power lines seems a pretty obvious design consideration.

I love throwing that point at situations like this.

~~~
tgtweak
You could just use a proper sine wave filtering UPS which actually runs
everything through the transformers internally to produce cleaner voltage.

I'd be inclined to make a battery powered mechanical AC generator with a big
old flywheel on it to sell to these audiophiles :)

Regarding the equipment, most of the "audiophile" grade gear is analog, using
very little input cleaning circuitry if any at all. Whether this is desirable
from a sound quality perspective or not (assuming the input power is clean) is
debatable. Would be interesting to see what an electrical engineer in the
audio field says about this.

I'm sure there is some method to the seemingly mad claim that having your own
"pole" could make a difference in your audio quality through your amplifier.
If you consider that the coils on the other transformers that are positioned
on the same medium voltage lines (running the other houses on the block for
example) act as attenuators which partially soften out any harmonics from
devices under them (like switching power supplies found in any computer), then
effectively by installing your own, dedicated transformer (not actually just
having your own pole) you would be isolating to some extent potential noise
from those neighbors (noisy neighbors in the real sense), to only devices in
your own home. If you think of electrical harmonics like sound waves, they
would lose amplitude when traveling through the coils of a transformer. There
are also ways for transformers to be built so that it prevents these harmonics
from carrying upstream (see zigzag winding, isolated or "harmonic mitigating"
transformers) but this would do nothing for the noise on the low voltage side
coming from neighbors on the same transformer. This would be the power line
equivalent of sharing a single broadband connection with your entire
neighborhood while trying to play a latency sensitive game with no QOS.

It would have been really interesting to see the ocillosope before and after.

------
pseingatl
The "can" attached to the pole is called a "pot." At least in the U.S., four
homes are normally attached to a pot. But sometimes, you might have as many as
eight. When eight are attached, you will have power drops, momentary losses of
electricity. Without a UPS, your desktop will turn off. Or your stereo system
will--flash on and off. Intolerable. The solution is an additional pot. Or
this man' solution, a pot of his own. It's not so crazy, in areas where
electricity is affected by a tropical climate or... not enough pots. I learned
this while struggling with electricity issues after surviving Hurricane Wilma
and talking to the repair crews.

------
LinuxBender
Commercial power is noisy and sloppy, especially in my neck of the woods. I
use a double conversion UPS (always on) to clean it up. I can feed them with a
generator and the output is still a nice steady clean sine wave. Beyond that,
I use line conditioners and rf chokes to clean up the noise a little prior to
reaching the ups.

Double conversion ups are not cheap. They start around 15x what you pay for
the AVR UPS that you can find in electronic stores. My power is so sloppy that
AVR UPS catch on fire after about 10 months.

------
confounded
A tangent, but seeing as this thread has awoken the HN audiophiles: What
should I look for/avoid in a DAC? Does it really matter if my source device is
an iPhone/iPad?

Reading blogs and review sites talk about the personality of DACs has started
to grind on me. Surely it’s just a question of accuracy which can be
summarized in a metric?

(I’m currently probably going to get a NAD D 3045 integrated amp/DAC, mainly
for the specs, and fond memeries of being a teenager with a 3020).

~~~
jd20
There's a sharp curve of diminishing returns, for DAC's especially. The super
cheap units you find for like $10-20 will usually have serious shielding /
noise issues, which is immediately apparent upon listening. Beyond $100-200,
the design and components are usually pretty competent, and what you are
mainly hearing is just how the implementation was "tuned" by the manufacturer
(not necessarily better or worse).

Playing from an iPhone or iPad is perfectly fine. Make sure EQ and Sound Check
are turned off. Most music streaming formats are nearly impossible to
differentiate from lossless (i.e. Apple Music, Tidal, Spotify), so I wouldn't
sweat that.

~~~
zzzcpan
> The super cheap units you find for like $10-20 will usually have serious
> shielding / noise issues

That's not true if even possible (because dac and amplifier are on a single
cheap). I've tested like five different DACs, from $2 to $150, even those for
$2 that play distorted sound and don't bother putting output capacitors for
headphones have no noise/shielding problems.

~~~
jd20
Not sure why it's not possible, though I could've had a defective unit.
Specifically, I had a Fiio D3 ($20) which had bad background noise, even when
not playing. I always assumed it was a power supply or shielding issue. The
audio output from it actually sounded decent, just I could always hear the
background noise. Don't think it was a grounding issue either, because it was
the only DAC I ever had that consistently did that, no matter what system I
plugged it into.

I've played around with the DAC built-in to the Raspberry Pi 3 as well, and
that one was more of a distorted output problem, similar to what you describe
with the $2 DAC.

Other DAC's I've tried (from around $75 and up) I've never heard noise /
shielding issues, so again rapidly diminishing returns once you get past the
super budget options, in my experience.

~~~
zzzcpan
If you hear high frequency noise it's just means the amplifier has too much
gain for your headphones and doesn't automatically mute when there is no
signal (many do). But all amplifiers have noise. If you use the line output
though, it doesn't go through the amplifier and of course doesn't have its
noise.

------
simon_acca
Even if noise in the power signal were to influence audio quality to an
appreciable amount, this way of solving the problem is rather curious for the
uncompromising audiophiles.

Why would you install your own secondary transformer when you could just
rectify the current, accumulate it and then use an inverter for a fraction of
the price? Or even better just store the current and use it to power the audio
equipment with direct current, skipping AC entirely.

~~~
dustycat
Audio amplifiers already contain transformers, large capacitors, and
rectifiers.

------
pcurve
"It’s completely beyond my understanding,” says his wife, Reiko, 57. “But if I
take it away from him, he will lose the motivation to live.”

LOL! I love it. God bless his wife.

~~~
naikrovek
The thing about that is that it isn't beyond her understanding. It's beyond
_his_.

------
xrd
“It’s completely beyond my understanding,” says his wife, Reiko, 57. “But if I
take it away from him, he will lose the motivation to live.”

My telephone pole keeps me going...

------
kazinator
The thing is, that power upgrade is likely much more meaningful than the $60K
amplifier or the stupid gold cables.

Clean power + $399.99 amplifier > dirty power + $60K amp.

~~~
ianhowson
A $60k amp should have a phenomenal PSRR, making power quality irrelevant.
Then the amp quality becomes the differentiating factor, and one would hope
that a $60k amp sounds better than a $399.99 amp.

------
heyjudy
Wow. That's next-level not understanding Nyquist bandwidth "records are
better" extremism. I also get why Nakamichi or early Mark Levinson audio gear
was outrageously expensive: they were like modern Apple but in the 1980's...
ridiculous engineering and design. Hipsters should love 'em too. :)

------
xfitm3
I read through this and I’m surprised at all the negativity. Audio is
subjective, and even if it’s just placebo good for them.

In my limited experience audio is all about component matching. Sometimes you
want distortion, like what you get from a tube amp. The right mix of
distortion is what makes things sound good to some ears.

------
burfog
If you want to get something legit of this nature, keep the AC power entirely
away from the audio room. The wires in the walls can give off AC hum. Run DC
over shielded twisted pair cables. At this level you'll also be doing
something about noise from aircraft, wind, trucks, birds, and everything else.

------
fb03
I believe the law of diminishing returns kicks in realllly fast in terms of
'ultra high quality audio'.

I have an external usb dac (Yamaha AG06), a pair of good studio grade monitors
(Yamaha HS8's) and that's it for me. Exquisite listening quality without
having to sell a kidney.

------
CaliforniaKarl
Gizmodo’s source: [http://www.wsj.com/articles/a-gift-for-music-lovers-who-
have...](http://www.wsj.com/articles/a-gift-for-music-lovers-who-have-it-all-
a-personal-utility-pole-1471189463)

------
Nition
> There’s a debate among audio enthusiasts about whether personal poles make
> any meaningful difference. Audiophiles, though, “live in a kind of no-
> compromises world,” says Mark Bocko.

Plus the requisite "no blind A/B testing" world of course.

------
rhacker
It would seem simpler to just put in a lot of batteries and a pure-sine wave
inverter.

------
msisk6
Geesh, I just sold my ranch last year that had its own transformer at the very
end of a distribution circuit. I could have gotten extra for it's "audiophile
grade electricity" if only I knew that was a thing!

------
vilaca
I am not to be a jerk with this comment but he spent 60k on an amplifier and
40k on his private power pole.

For that kind of money he could hire professional musicians to be playing real
instruments in his living room.

------
intopieces
(2016)

------
Ice_cream_suit
Sad. The naive and gullible fall victim to these scams and fads.

------
blattimwind
At this level of fanatism I'd probably hold back with criticising them,
because they might actually stab you if their lunacy bubble pops.

------
Havoc
Top end audiophiles seem bat shit insane, but if it makes them happy then I’m
all for it

------
resters
Maybe try some common mode filters before investing in a private line.

------
throwawaywhynot
can someone explain why my phone and laptop both produce an annoying noise in
3.5mm jack when connected to AC? Is the lack of a grounding pin in the charger
or the source at fault

------
hagreet
My only question is why BS like this has 169 points on HN.

~~~
masklinn
Upvotes don't necessarily mean "this is a good idea".

------
seletz
DC i could understand. But AC ...

------
dang
Url changed from [https://gizmodo.com/obsessed-audiophiles-in-japan-are-
instal...](https://gizmodo.com/obsessed-audiophiles-in-japan-are-installing-
their-own-1785291714), which is cribbed from this.

------
monochromatic
The amplifier converts the AC to DC anyway. Any marginally competent amp is
going to include plenty of power filtering to reject noise. Surely with a
$60,000 amp, it makes no difference whatsoever if your input waveform has some
ripple.

------
ferongr
At what point does it stop being a hobby and turn into mental illness?

~~~
CaliforniaKarl
“The difference between a collector and a hoarder is a display case.” -John
Hodgman

~~~
tzs
Does that mean that by definition it is not possible to hoard display cases?

~~~
andrewflnr
No, you have to put the display cases inside another, larger display case for
it to not count as hoarding.

