Thread: Power to the people! An affordable way to heaven...

I was in the process of renewing the wooden floor in the living room. And since they had to break it out and the room had to be empty for some days I thought why not combine it and update / upgrade my power for the audio.

In the end I decided to even build a new wall hanging audio cabinet and the easy replacing the floor became a two week redesigning and restructuring the living and kitchen area of my 1927 built house.

Now from a first principle I think it is better to start clean than to clean-up . filter something that is dirty. Now I could cut the space for new pipes and wires so I decided to build a completely new and dedicated switchboard for audio and video. In The Netherlands we get 3 phases offered to the house in case yo have some 400 Volt 3-phase applications. In normal situations they connect the three phases randomly in the switchboard and each phase gets a few rooms. You will never use the full power of each phase. This was my starting point. I separated 1 phase from the original switchboard and connected all groups with the existing two. The third is going to my new switchboard including a hospital grade thick earth wire.

In the new switchboard I have 6 fuse groups. Two dedicated for the high-end with dedicated AHP auto switches with audiophile grade fuses.


One of these goes to my preamp and streamer. The other feeds my two mono amps. For the rest I have real fuse groups (better than standard auto-switches). One group for video, one for my network utilities (NAS, network switches, UPS) and one for my active speakers in the kitchen /eating room.

Of course I have installed special audio grade wall sockets and renewed the cables.

The theoretical achievement is that with the dedicated line (phase) I have separated the noise that comes from light dimmers, LED lights, washing machines and all other factors in a normal household.

With the dedicated groups (fuses) I have reduced the power influences multiple devices on one group have on each other.

The extra thick, extra ground cables should improve the signal quality and they say it guarantees darker backgrounds.

And of course the upgrades of cables, wall mounts etcetera won't hurt either.

Yesterday I went live with the new power supply in my edited living and I can say the result is stunning! This is not just a subtle improvement but a big step up! Like you have just purchased a higher level amps or speakers. You can listen to all your music and hear it it a complete new way.
The first thing I've noticed: incredible transparency. I was already fortunate enough to have a set-up where the speakers are virtually not there. But now my room disappeared too! And the presentation is even more relaxed than before. Completely free of stress. I still miss a few elements in the rooms that might change the acoustic presentation but boy what a great improvement. I new I would have some improvement but not like this in my wildest dreams.
Total investment in the electrician, the hardware and the cables and plus: around 3000 Euro. A cheap trick to get plenty more. Very recommendable.

I will post some photos when I can find more time.

Alright. This is probably a very boring thread. No reactions at all

To me the result of these actions is amazing. It is a good as upgrading your gear to the next level. Clean power is making a big difference in high-end audio. Here is a photo of the extra switch box I have installed in the basement:


Maybe it looks all very technical so here is a photo of where it is going to. I have installed the beautiful stainless steel LeGrand floor units and modified to 1 electrical outlet and one WBT RCA line connector. And of course the cabling here is very good!

Very nice Glareskin. Always important to get the foundation for a system right and there is no more important aspect of the foundation than addressing clean incoming power. Beyond the new panel, audiophile fuses in the switches, and audiophile grade power receptacles, are you using any power conditioning and audiophile grade power cords?

Thx for sharing

Wow, the end result looks fantastic and if it sounds better, well that's good too! Nicely done. How about a bigger picture of the whole room?

Originally Posted by cmalak

Very nice Glareskin. Always important to get the foundation for a system right and there is no more important aspect of the foundation than addressing clean incoming power. Beyond the new panel, audiophile fuses in the switches, and audiophile grade power receptacles, are you using any power conditioning and audiophile grade power cords?

Thx for sharing

Thanks Cyril!
No I don't use any conditioners. As I wrote I believe if you connect to the power net like this you will have clean power as it is (at least in The Netherlands).
As you can see in this photo in more close-up I have very audiophile cables and plugs. You can also see I swap cables regularly to get the best result.

I don't use hospital grade wall mounts (I guess that is what you mean with receptacles right?) but audiophile grade.





Also the power plugs are SinnOxx audiophile grade with rhodium contacts.



The cable itself is coming from AudioQuest.

Originally Posted by sharkmouth

Don't know how I missed this. This makes me envious, great job. I am thinking it will be a very worthy & well thought out addition. 3 thumbs from me.

Thanks Kev! You should really try it. It is my best investment in sound upgrade since years!

Originally Posted by dlb2

Wow, the end result looks fantastic and if it sounds better, well that's good too! Nicely done. How about a bigger picture of the whole room?

Thanks Doug! Here you go:
It is not fully ready with all the decorative elements in place but the floor and the basic stuff is back....

Wow Hans. Totally impressed!

I was talking last week to Michael Mudra of mudra-akustik.de who makes conditioners/regenerators and when I said that usually Europe has much better power delivery than typically in the US, he agreed, but said that even with all that, we still use dimmer switch lamps and high freq equipment that pollute the power lines in the house, hence we need treatement here too..

Well you trumped that by isolating your power from the nasties and released all the benefits by so doing. Nice!

I would love to see if adding a phase flipper box would add to your improvement cycle...as you know, even individual components can be wired with reversed phase and they still work fine. However when all components in a chain are fully phase aligned, you should see a nice snapping into place of the SQ. Admittedly , EU type plugs force us to only plug in equipment one way, BUT, we somethings have the skinny 2 prong plugs on smaller components and also the wiring on a given component can just be reversed even without us knowing.

PS, you listening room is gorgeous.

I was waiting for the next installment to see what you were using for plugs, receptacles, conductor and how it emerged in the listening area.

This is not boring at all!

Nicely done!

Originally Posted by wisnon

Wow Hans. Totally impressed!
I would love to see if adding a phase flipper box would add to your improvement cycle...as you know, even individual components can be wired with reversed phase and they still work fine. However when all components in a chain are fully phase aligned, you should see a nice snapping into place of the SQ. Admittedly , EU type plugs force us to only plug in equipment one way, BUT, we somethings have the skinny 2 prong plugs on smaller components and also the wiring on a given component can just be reversed even without us knowing.

Thanks Norman!
Yes I realize that phase perfect connection is very important. Of course I use AudioNet AMP and DNP amplification and all their gear is informing this on the display when switching on:
(Picture is not my amp but from the internet..)

Originally Posted by wisnon

PS, you listening room is gorgeous.

Thanks! I am expecially proud of the hanging cabinet that I have made myself

Originally Posted by Yamaki

This is not boring at all!

Nicely done!

Thanks Michael!

Dont you just love it when a plan comes together!

Originally Posted by wisnon

Dont you just love it when a plan comes together!

Yes I do!