Atypical Noise Harvester Story

Power Components
1

Hello:

I purchased the PS Audio Noise Harvester about a year and a half ago. My house was recently rewired about 8-10 years ago. So line noise is not horrible, but it can be very inconsistent. Occasionally the harvester would blink rapidly, but rarely. I tried it all over the house, but I never could tell if I was getting my money’s worth. PS Audio DirectStream Power Plant regenerators costs a fortune and your first born, so I own a PS Audio Detect AC Power Center. I would plug the harvester into that on the rare occasion I had an empty plug available. But that was about it.

I used to use powerline networking all over my house. I could stream a 4K movie or TV show at maximum quality without any dropouts. But when I got heavily back into 2 channel HiFi, I dragged ethernet cable through my filthy attic and stopped using it. Better sound. However, I still used powerline networking in my detached garage gym. Worked greats. Much more reliable and consistent than WiFi. That is, as long as I did not turn on the overhead fluorescent light fixture. It would cause so much noise on the line, it knocked out the powerline networking connection. So I purchased some modern LED T8 bulbs, thinking that would certainly solve the issue. Nope. Less noise from the bulbs, but the fixture itself was just too noisy. Messed with the powerline networking connection.

So I purchased some string LED lights as my primary light source. I put them on the wall above and behind my old Panasonic 720p plasma. Worked great. I continued to get my ass kicked by Shaun T without any video dropouts or picture degradation. But I always hated I could not use the overhead lights when I wanted or needed. Then I remembered the PS Audio Noise Harvester. I got a step ladder and plugged the harvester into the ceiling socket located just above the noisy light fixture. BOOM! That got it. It would absorb the noise and I could once again use the overhead lights AND stream my workouts to my TV without issue.

The Noise Harvester turned out to be a worthwhile purchase after all.

Happy listening,

Byrdman

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2

Power line networking is truly evil - between that, and adsl/vdsl (prevalent in UK thanks to the single British Telecom network’s ubiquity), the short wave amateur radio bands are all but unusable in parts of the UK.

It is dead useful sometimes though :smiley:

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