Build every Hifi and High End Audio system on the optimal foundation: The power connection
We see it happen often. Customers who keep switching all sorts of expensive equipment (devices and cables). With one cable it sounds too warm, so they want to replace the cable with a brighter-sounding one. That does sound a bit more lively afterwards, but suddenly unrest appears in the sound image. So they replace the speaker with a quieter-sounding example. But once it's set up at home, it turns out to sound a bit too dull. So they replace the power amplifier with one that has more life and dynamics, but then the treble turns out to be restless. And so on. This way you can endlessly keep swapping speakers, power cables, interconnects and accessories. At Ohm-Audio BV we say: Stop! First get the foundation of your system in order, and only then start building with components and cables. That foundation, that's what we're going to talk about now: The power supply.
In theory, power is simply the 230 volt connection for your lamps, refrigerator, microwave, phone charger, and so on, but it's also the connection that powers your hi-fi system. Power is power, you might say, but unfortunately that's not the case. First of all, the power cables in your house often run through all sorts of interruptions (terminals in junction boxes for example) from the fuse box to the outlet where you're going to plug in your audio system. These terminals cause weakened supply and disturbances in the power supply. There are also poor quality switches in the fuse box. Furthermore, we have many transmitters nearby, Wi-Fi, 4G, 5G, DECT, smart meters, mobile phones and so on. These all emit radiation, and in principle every wire is also an antenna. These signals are thus picked up by all cables, including power cables, and that causes pollution in the 230-volt network. A lamp or a microwave won't suffer from this, but an audio system, and for that matter also a video system, will. The picked-up signals and damage from the feed-through terminals enter your sensitive audio/video devices which then make you hear and see that in the form of unrest. It doesn't sound nice, and the TV picture is also restless. That's the reason we recommend a good and pure power connection, and then a high-quality power distribution. In terms of cost, it's many times more economical to set up the power circuit properly than to constantly buy new and different cables and components. Of course, setting up a good power circuit isn't very worthwhile for a small system costing a couple of hundred euros, but once you have a serious audio system worth several thousand euros, or a large 4K TV, then this is the most worthwhile investment you can make. The investment in the perfect basic power circuit costs 800 to 1000 euros and a high-quality power cable or interconnect also costs that much. Always do it, set up a power circuit, if possible.
Power inlet
Every house has a central power inlet. The place where the thick power cable from Enexis enters your house or apartment. Some houses have a single-phase system, and some houses have an expanded three-phase system. The single-phase system is sufficient for small households that don't have heavy electrical equipment. The three-phase system is the industrial power system and is intended for households that need a lot of power, such as a cooktop, heavy oven or an EV charging station.
Somewhere in your home, the Hifi or High End audio installation is connected to the power supply. It is important that this connection is realized as well as possible, so it is strong enough and not interrupted by all kinds of clamps and bypass points.
We look at the following power components in logical order:
Earth leakage switch > Power switch > Power cable > Outlet > Power distribution with filter.
That is the basis of every Hifi and High End setup. Later we will also look at the Powercords themselves, the cables that run to the devices to power them.
Single Phase or Three Phase
The single phase cable is a thick cable with 3 wires inside. The colors of these wires are Brown/Black, Blue and Yellow. The first wire is the brown or black wire, and that is the phase wire and it carries the 230 Volt current inward. You must never touch this wire, as you will get a huge shock. The second wire is the blue wire, and that is the neutral wire. There is no current on it. The current flows through a connected electrical device from the phase (brown) to the neutral (blue) and that is how electrical devices work. There is also a third wire and that is the yellow wire. The yellow wire is the earth connection. This yellow wire is directly connected to the earth pin that most modern houses have driven into the ground.
The three phase cable is a thicker cable with 5 wires. The blue wire (neutral) and the earth wire (yellow) are the same as with the single phase connection. The difference is in the phase wire, because there is not just 1, but there are 3. Each wire delivers 230 volts, but these three 230 volt wires have a shifted phase (you can forget about that again). By means of this shifted phase, the 3 wires together make 400 volts. That is why it is often also called a 400 volt connection, but it is therefore a 3 × 230 volt connection, intended to be able to deliver more current. Each of these phase wires is therefore an ordinary 230 volt wire, and each phase can be used for your audio power circuit.
The thick power cable (single phase or three phase) emerges from the ground in the meter cabinet. In the meter cabinet, the thick power cable from Enexis first goes through the main switch. You can switch off this main switch if work needs to be done on the distribution cabinet. After the main switch, the thick power cable runs through the power meter (usually a smart meter). This measures the energy consumed in order to charge the user for it. The thick cable then continues upward to the distribution cabinet.
The earth leakage switch
First, the 1 Phase wire or 3 Phase wire runs through a Residual Current Device (RCD). The RCD is located in the distribution board and is a pure safety switch that prevents people from receiving a shock if they accidentally touch a live wire. This RCD measures the potential difference between the live wire (brown) and the earth (yellow) relative to the neutral (blue), and "detects" if current is leaking, then switches off the power extremely quickly. The RCD has nothing to do with overload, but is purely for the safety of people. After the RCD, the power continues to the distribution board. This distribution board divides the power among the various circuits in the house. For example: Bathroom, kitchen, living room, study, bedroom and so on. Each zone in the house has its own circuit breaker. These switches are for technical safety. In the event of overload, such a switch cuts off the zone that has a problem, for example a short circuit. Standard distribution boards contain a cheap and simple RCD. This does its job well, but also disrupts the power. What comes out is slightly lower quality than what goes in, in other words, such a cheap RCD affects the signal. There is a better solution and that is the Hifi Tuning Supreme RCDs, the best sounding RCDs we know of. Not cheap, but worth every penny. There are audiophiles who bypass the entire RCD installation. They tap the power before the RCD and completely circumvent the RCD. In this case, you don't suffer from a poor quality RCD, and you don't need to purchase a Hifi Tuning Supreme RCD. However, this is officially not permitted, and moreover, you would then have no leakage current protection for your audio system. If, for example, a child were to insert a paperclip behind the distribution board, or a live wire comes loose in a device, that could have disastrous consequences.
Short Circuit and Overload
What happens with a short circuit or overload? Suppose we have a 16 ampere circuit breaker in our distribution board. Such a switch can then deliver 16a × 230v = 3680 watts (Watt = Volt x Ampere). The lower the resistance of a device, the more current flows. But with a short circuit, the resistance is zero or nearly zero ohms. The circuit would then demand 10000 watts or more, which is not possible, and the power wires would become very hot, even catch fire. The same happens if you demand too much power from a circuit, for example connecting and switching on 4 heaters of 2000 watts to 1 circuit. To prevent overload or fire, the switch trips, or the fuse melts, and interrupts the circuit. The entire circuit has no power. You will first need to find and resolve the cause, otherwise the switch will trip again immediately. First disconnect the 4 heaters from the outlet.
The overload switch: Fuse or Circuit breaker? In most modern homes, circuit breakers are used. You can simply turn them back on after a short circuit or overload without replacing a fuse. In some older homes, fuses are still installed. Both fuses and switches have their own characteristics and functions. In a standard meter cabinet, there are usually cheap standard meter cabinet switches. These have a simple wire conduit, and contain an interrupter (contact point) that switches off the breaker when current demand is too high. You switch it back on and if there is no short circuit, it stays on. These switches have moderate conduction quality; they only meet short circuit requirements. We have a better option, namely the ultimate Gigawatt G16A 2P switch, an audiophile-grade switch. However, some modern homes also have an audiophile switch, such as from Klankmoduul. That is not a switch, but a device with a fuse (live conductor) and an iron rod (neutral conductor). Now the fuse is a problem. Just look inside a fuse, break one open. Then you'll see, even in expensive audiophile fuses, a minuscule thin wire, a few cm long and often not even 0.1 mm2 thick. All the current passes through that wire. And the more current passes through it, the greater the resistance becomes, and thus the hotter the wire gets. When at some point more watts are demanded than the wire can handle, it becomes so hot that it melts. Once melted, the current is cut off and you will need to replace the fuse. The problem with the minuscule wire is the high resistance. We consider these fuses unsuitable for a power circuit. Audiophile power cables are often thick, 2.5mm2, 4mm2 or thicker, and what's at the very beginning...is a fuse wire of 0.1mm or thinner. You hear that back in the sound, and that shouldn't be there. There you are with your nice and thick power cables. An audiophile circuit breaker is really a much better option, and you hear that directly. The Gigawatt switch Gigawatt G16A 2P is the best solution we know of. This audiophile switch has 2 separate conduits, neatly separated from each other. Each conduit has a minimum cross-section of 4 mm2. The interrupter is an OFC copper contact of about 30mm2. This OFC copper contact is then polished and silver-plated. The polishing ensures that the contact points press perfectly against each other. Even slightly skewed, and the contact is no longer good. The silver plating ensures that the contacts remain perfect. Silver does not rust, but it can oxidize. Fortunately, silver oxide is even a better conductor than silver itself, so the switch theoretically keeps getting better.
If all is well, we now have power treatment suitable for a serious HiFi and Ultra High End audio system in the meter cabinet. In addition to the standard technical residual current device and a whole row of standard switches, there is now proudly a Gigawatt G16A 2P audiophile switch and a separate Hifi Tuning Audiophile Residual Current Device. Now the cable must be laid from the meter cabinet to the audio system. For this we have 2 solutions. We have the best cable in the world, the Gigawatt LC-Y Evo installation cable, on the left of the image. This cable is technically superior to all other cables. Solid Core OFC copper of 3 × 4mm2, vibration damping, foil shielding, and an extra earth wire for the foil shielding. However, this cable is very stiff. No problem for straight pipes, under the floor (the cable can be laid in water), or gentle bends, but with a 90 degree bend, you won't pull it through. If this is the case, we recommend the Gigawatt Powersync power cable. This cable is semi solid core, so the wires are twisted. Not with 1000 mini-wires, but with 7 wires per conductor, 2.00m2 total per conductor, plus the same shielding and extra earth wire. The Gigawatt LC-Y Evo cable sounds super stable, transparent, fast and dynamic, and the Powersync cable sounds largely the same, just a bit more relaxed. It's a matter of taste and application possibilities.
Connecting the power cable in the meter cabinet
It is important to mention that both cables have a direction. This has to do with the way the power conductors are drawn. Furthermore, the connection at the meter cabinet is different from the connection at the outlet side. In the meter cabinet you connect the phase (brown) and neutral (blue), and also the earth wire (yellow) with the insulated extra earth wire. The insulated earth wire makes contact with the shielding foil along the entire length of the cable. The entire shielding is thus connected to the earth, and works optimally. On the other side, at the outlet (wall socket), you connect everything the same way, except the unshielded earth wire. You cut that off. If you don't do that, potential differences can arise, because the earth then runs over the earth wire (yellow) but also over the shielding foil. That can cause hum, so cut off the extra earth wire (without insulation).
Ok. So you have laid the power cable from the meter box to your setup. Of course, this must be connected to an outlet, the socket. Gigwatt also supplies this. The Gigawatt G-044 wall outlet, made by Mertens for Gigawatt. This socket has a double 6mm2 connection per wire. So you can feed in the power and optionally pass it on to a second socket. As a rule, 1 x Gigawatt G-044 socket is sufficient. Our advice is to connect all your equipment, including the power amplifiers, to 1 circuit group. So not sources on outlet 1 and power amps on outlets 2 and 3. No, everything on 1 group. That sounds best. The absolute requirement is that you use a top quality power distribution device from Gigawatt, Axxess or Ansuz Acoustics, or perhaps another good brand, and connect this power distributor with the best and most powerful power cord you have in your home. If the power distributor is of poor quality, or the supply power cable is not good enough, you will hear that.
