Checking the AC polarity of your amplifier

On some components with advanced power supply designs, "balanced power" will lower the performance quite noticeably. Before investing in such a device, you should check with the manufacturer of each component to find out if is suitable for use with such a device.

Here's a post i made about Noise, Hum and AC Polarity a few years ago. It may explain a few things to those that have questions or are confused about what to do. Sean
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Neil, as long as it is below 32 volts I am unconcerned. There also is little current.

Sean, while balanced power does seem like a great idea in reducing noise, I do think many crafty designers, assuming unbalances power, can result in users with balanced power having problems. I was one.

One of my friends was using a preamp that i was very familiar with. We discussed a few things over the phone and i told him that he had the polarity reversed on the preamp. I told him how to verify this and once he checked it, it was reversed as i had suspected.

After changing the polarity and listening for a while, he told me that he had never heard that big of a difference when playing with the AC on any component before. The reason why the differences were so obvious? This specific product has a built in noise trap / transformer damping circuit that requires specific polarization to work properly. Without the proper polarity OR using balanced power, that circuitry is completely negated and the preamp will never work or sound nearly as good as it can.

This is why i said that one should check with the manufacturer of the gear before investing big money in what could be a major step backwards in their AC systems. It is also the reason why i've touted high quality isolation transformers, as they will only strip away the noise without altering the polarity of the signal. Sean
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Sean, my experience with asking manufacturers about using ac filters or transformers is that they always say it is better plugged directly into the wall. I have often found they are wrong, however.

Until I got the IsoClean transformers, I had always found transformers smeared the sound and slowed the transients.

Tbg, I wish you would expand on your 3/1 comment, which I found very interesting. Exactly what could be some of the problems that might arise if balanced power were used inappropriately?