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I agree the HiFi choice price is a rip off.
I would never use anything like this on an interconnect, as it is
almost certain to "slug" the sound; the same could apply to the power
cable of any device with an analogue output. The only place I have felt
comfortable using a clip-on rfi filter is on a cd transport. Whether it
stops garbage getting in to the transport and causing data jitter,
or out onto the mains and polluting the rest of the system, is debatable.
Adding one to the power cable of my cd player worked wonders, but I have
seperated the power feed to the dac from that of the transport - the
filter is on the transport cable. Does the cd sound better because
because rfi isn't getting in, or because transport-generated rfi isn't
getting out? I dunno, I can't prove it either way; you work it out.
Dave
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| I agree ! I also notice that HiFi news are offering the TDK flavour of
RFI clips . Still more expensive. I use a TANDY one on the Transport to
DAC cable. Over Xmas I'm going to experiment with an old isolating
transformer for Transport/DAC or Both. This has the same number of
turns on the primary as the secondary, the theory being that only an AC
signal (i.e. mains) should pass through, irregular signals (i.e.
interferance ) should not. The CD player/transport I use (Marantz) has
only Live and Neutral mains connections anyway which makes life easier.
On a related matter I posted a note in the audio notes conference
asking what people made of the Audio Alchemy Clearstream thingy which I
noticed KJ West One are plufgging at the moment. We shall see
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| re .3....
I'm not surprised at what you've found, especially as you are using a
low o/p MC cartridge; if you were using a MM cartridge the effect
wouldn't be so pronounced. Putting one of the Tandy gizmos around the
mains lead of your CD player, as close as you can get to the player, may
allow you to leave the CD player on without it polluting the sound of
the rest of the system. You may need one on your preamp power cable
too.
The reason this happens is because although your MC input cable
screens go to earth, that earth is only effective at audi frequencies
and below. At the sort of high frequencies, often into the VHF band,
that circulate within CD players, that earth ain't earth at all. With
line stages, the voltage induced with respect to the wanted signal is
too low to be of consequence, but with MC inputs, whatever step-up you
use, these levels are high enough to cause audible pollution of the audio
signal. The routes for this are several, but are usually via signal
grounds, mains, radiated rfi from the CD player, or rfi re-radiated
from the other places it gets into.
It may be worthwhile checking your system grounding at all points, and
ensuring your house mains earth, at all the places you can get at it,
is clean and tight. Connections that are OK from a safety angle may can
still act as entry points for rfi pickup. This may also provide sonic
benefits regardless of whether your CD player is on, off, in or out,
when listening via an MC input; don't fool about with the house earth
unless you have enough elementary electrical knowledge to avoid
electrocuting self/family/cat/dog or burning the house down, though.
"Set mod/hat=on"...on a different subject....
Please try to deselect upper case characters unless you need them for
grammatical reasons. Apart from making a note less easy to read on a
screen, the extended use of upper case is construed as shouting in
VAXnotes etiquette! I know how easy it is to get enthusiastic about
these apparently wierd tweeks.....
Dave
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