Power Strip Question - PLEASE HELP

Jferreir, there are basically two surge control technologies - MOV and non-MOV. You can read up on the methods on the Brickwall or SurgeX web sites. Some claim that MOVs will degrade the sound. MOVs are used in many power control units like those from Monster and Belkin.

I've found that the outlets in a strip or conditioner can have a large impact on the sonics. I think the main reason the Wiremold is often recommended is that it has decent brass outlets. In general I find that I prefer the sound of good brass outlets to those that are nickel plated.

You might wish to note that Naim generally recommends no power conditioning, and advises the use of power strips with high copper brass outlets. For your non-audio use power strip the outlet quality probably isn't very important.

Since you're on a limited budget, I'd suggest you go ahead and get the Wiremold L10320 for your audio gear, and another strip like those from Tripp Lite for non-audio use.

Try it and see how it sounds. Later on you could always try to borrow a fancier power conditioner to gauge its effectiveness. If you're worried about surges just unplug the Wiremold when you are not listening.

If he can't move furniture, what makes you think the owner of the place will let him hire an electrician to rewire the house? And what electrician will run new cables for less than $100?
I would say if it sounds OK, leave it alone. Try a conditioner from a retailer that will let you return it if it doesn't improve anything. Maybe BestBuy or some local shop, or try one of the mail-order houses. Check their return policy first. You will probably end up paying shipping at least one way if you return it.

Buy a power strip that has an on/off switch and plug all non audio stuff in it. When listening to music, turn it off. Then, experiment with various combinations of strips and splitters for the best sound. I would start out with the digital stuff on something with a filter and the analogue items in the other socket without filtering.

I'm not exactly sure about this but I think you can have battery supplies made to power your cd player, pre and phono. I have always been given good reasonable advice from Chris Hoff at BPT (http://www.b-p-t.com). He could tell you about battery power supply possibilities among other solutions.

I recently had a similar problem. My system is on a dedicated line. I was running non-audio gear--TV, DVD player and equipment lamp--from a separate socket on a separate line. This stuff plugged into a switched mass-market power strip. The power strip's cord was back of my rack, running past my audio AC cabling. When I unplugged the strip, the music sounded clearer and livelier.

I had to find a way to keep the ancillary gear's power bar from affecting my audio. What I did was use some leftover parts to make up an outlet box. I used Belden 12-gauge shielded cable, about $20 worth, a $10 hospital-grade Leviton outlet and a metal outlet box.

Maybe a plastic box would be better, but the plugged-or-unplugged sound test, using this box, shows no appreciable difference. My conclusion is that it is the shielding on the cable to the box that really makes the difference. An unshielded AC cable running past my audio gear's power cords has an audible effect. This is true even if I run the wires so they all cross at right angles.

Jferreir, if you were nearby I could lend you this wonder wire and you could try it out. You could run an extension cord to a separate outlet for this if you wanted, but it might not make much difference if the separate outlet weren't on a separate circuit. Anyway the point is moot because you're probably not nearby. I'm in Montreal myself.

So my point is that shielded wire to the outlet is a Good Thing, and you can do it within your budget.

I have one more point. A shielded wire to your outlet strip will keep interference downstream of the socket to a minimum. However If you want to keep ancillary gear on the same outlet as your music system from affecting your audio by feeding grunge back into the *upstream* AC, you need to isolate something. Either the audio gear or the ancillary gear.

The ancillary gear isn't picky about isolation quality and it doesn't draw much power, so given your budget I would isolate that. You should be able to find an isolation transformer ( 120V in, 120V out ) rated at about 500 VA on eBay at a price that keeps the whole project within budget. Plug the tranny into the wall, plug your new power bar into that and I think you will solve the problem.

Note that isolating the audio gear would do the same thing and it would very probably improve the system's sound a lot into the bargain. However you'd need a really big transformer, more than your budget allows at this point.

1) If the non-audio electronics are plugged into a separate power strip, but are not operational (i.e. off), will they still cause interference and degrade the sound quality of my system?

2) If I use an extension cord running from a different duplex outlet to power my non-audio electronics, will this resolve the issue?

The answers are yes, and possibly.

Have you evaluated all the elements that are on the same circuit as the outlet you are using? It's easy to test. Just turn of the breaker switch that controls that outlet and see how many other outlets and light switches are affected. If other outlets are affected whatever is plugged into those outlets could cause noise pollution on the circuit. Ditto if there are dimmer or high noise light switches controlled by this circuit.

If you do the extension cord tweak, and it seems to be your best option as far as I can tell based on your budget, you need to make sure you select an outlet that is as isolated as possible. In my scenario I have my gear plugged into two outlets on the same circuit, none of which has any light switches controlled by it and the unused outlets on the circuit have nothing plugged into them.