I inherited a CinePro PowerPro 10 balanced AC power unit and had never heard of balanced AC power before (note this is not about XLR balanced interconnects or sockets, this is AC).
I thought that when I first got my P3 it had no hum. Now, I have some rather audible hum in my PSA P3 regenerator and was thinking maybe the CinePro ahead of the P3 might be a good way to eliminate the hum? Balanced AC is supposedly designed to cancel hum.
Seems like putting this ahead of the P3 would be a good solution: help the P3 do its work better?
Hum is either in the gear or a ground loop, right? You’re gonna have to dig deeper. Typically, do not feed your P3 anything but a cable straight from the outlet…as I’ve read the pros here say. Correct me if I’m wrong, please.
No your are correct, as PS Audio would say do not do it as it will most probably increase the impedance, and thus could restrict current flow when demanded by your system. That said, as you already have it in hand give it try. Play some acoustic music with plenty of soundstage, dynamics, and drive with and without the CinePro. Could be a fun experiment if you have the time and inclination. Looking it up it is a balanced transformer and is a rebadged Furman IT-1210, if that helps.
A balanced transformer must be large for it not to negatively impact your system. Its job it to remove the distortion picked up as the power comes to your house.
The worst thing you can do is go too small. When you draw high current at low power factor loads you get increased distortion.
Precisely, and the turns ratios tolerance between each half must be very tight, otherwise the advantage is lost. A quality balanced transformer is a rather pricey proposition. But as kukur9 indicated, he already owns it, so giving it a go is worth a shot. I’d also try it without the P3 just to see what the impact would be.
Thanks all. Well, I’m not terribly inclined to try things without the P3 as it definitely delivers value, even if it’s terribly expensive just to front a DAC. But then again, what else is there nowadays besides a turntable and streamer? Anyway. I will try some other combinations. Maybe the preamp doesn’t need to be on the P3 and maybe I’ll just fashion a ground to some metal behind the rack.
I was hoping that PSA’s regenerators would be the solution for this kind of thing but reading since I’ve posted tells me electricity remains ever mysterious IRL. Thanks again.