The Power of Power

We blogged about power cords a little bit back. To reinforce this we wanted to relate how the electrician made the audio system sound better.

In our appointment only showroom here in Portland we're busy working on acoustic treatments. One problem we've been wrestling with is a very annoying high frequency. Even with a custom graph of the room and digital EQ correction we couldn't get rid of that frequency which was above 18K. Its enough that it would make the reproduction annoying unless you rolled everything off.

As we deliberated about solutions the electrician came and put in the dedicated lines and ground for the audio wall plugs. When he finished we fired up the system to continue working.

Except there was a problem. The problem was gone.

That high pitch was carried on the lines regardless of whether what it shared was turned off or not the lines carried it. Tubes that we liked while in play yet too noisy when music wasn't playing suddenly went quiet. The soundstage was more natural, deep and open.

If you're in the Portland area we can recommend our electrician. But those of you outside of Portland think about investing in your electricity before you chase cables, conditioned etc. We have very good conditioners but with power issues there are frequencies that can sneak through. Once the power is right all the audio toys will make that much more of an impact.

To emphasize the point. All the power in this place was completely redone only 3 years ago. So audio grade power and proper house power is very different.