DIY 'Hydra' mains lead

[YNWaN]

Inspired by an impending shortage of mains sockets I have recently made myself a one to six 'Hydra headed' mains lead(s)* and thought it may be of interest to others. I actually already use a one to four Hydra lead that I made up may years ago, but these days I need eight leads just to play a record! I have four sockets on my dedicated hi-fi spur (though it is probably a dedicated ring rather than a spur) and these are fully taken up. By adding this six way Hydra and using another double headed lead I have previously built I will end up having two spare sockets and rationalise the whole wiring. In my personal experience I have not been a fan of mains filtration or smoothing and I'm not yet convinced by mains regeneration. I could have built an extension block with plugs and sockets but I chose not to for a number of reasons. The Hydra way of wiring ones mains lead used to be recommended by Naim and I did find it to sound better with my Naim amps when I built the four way Hydra all those years ago. Back then I just used standard unshielded mains cable but this time round I thought I would try shielded and used a combination of Belden cables**

* One mains lead splitting into six others.
** All the cable and the MS HD mains plug came from Mains Cables R Us (MCRU) who are very efficient and competitively priced.

Below is a synopsis but more detail is here: http://www.audioflat.co.uk/phpBB3/vi....php?f=7&t=621

I made a block to neaten up the termination where the six cables become one:





It's a sandwich of 18mm birch ply and 5mm acrylic. The ply is finished with a melamine lacquer that was given a satin finish with a Scothbrite pad.

For cable I used Belden 19364 for the tails that go to the equipment and the much stiffer Belden 83803 for the short tail that feeds the whole lot.

Previous experience has taught me that a lot of 'normal' IEC plugs and mains plugs are not really designed to be used with very thick cables like the 19364 or very stiff cable like the 83803 - as a result I decided to use an 'MS HD Power' mains plug***

The IEC connectors I used were these:



I got them from eBay (£5.00 each) and I must say they are really rather nicely made - like the MS HD mains plug they are very easy to wire thick cables to and the wires clamp very securely to the terminals.

*** This is not a cheap plug by any means at nearly £30.00 for the standard copper one (which is what I used) but it is much better, in a mechanical sense, if you are going to use thick or stiff cable. The wires clamp in a really secure way, the cable routing is easier and the strain termination is really secure and well thought through. I'm not saying it's impossible to use an 13A MK plug but it is a lot more difficult and fiddly to do a neat and safe job.

Here is an inside shot after soldering all the wires together - insulation tape was wrapped around the bundles and then epoxy potting compound was poured over the whole lot to keep it all secure (more was added after this):



Below is a pic taken whilst I was in the process of fitting the IEC plugs:



The rather brightly coloured Belden 83803 was covered with some 8mm mesh hose and heatshrink at the ends - the other Belden is black anyway and didn't need any further disguise.

Because of the lovely weather I haven't actually plugged any of this in yet so don't know if this project has had any impact on the sound - the options are 1/ no difference, 2/ some difference for the better, 3/ sounds worse - will report further once it is tried .

[Marco]

That looks very interesting, Mark, and a great job as usual! I'm sure you'll hear some subtle sonic improvements from installation of the Hydra, but nothing drastic, as one would expect from an already well-sorted system.

Look forward to reading about your impressions in due course

Marco.

[YNWaN]

Thanks Marco, I suppose any benefits would be down to a lower impedance cable to the power amps and/or the shielding (which most of my power cables didn't have before). I must admit I'm not expecting much (if any) difference, but we shall see - I'll definitely report back whatever the outcome.

[brian2957]

Very nice work Mark . Thanks for posting this with pictures . I'll stick my neck out and say you will get a very nice improvement in SQ , particularly in the bass
Got a link to the IEC plugs please ?

[YNWaN]

here you go:

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/2616066566...%3AMEBIDX%3AIT

The ones above are rhodium plated - if you don't want any plating I see you can get the same thing for only £4.00 each!

Edit: I notice some of their IEC plugs have Oyaide embossed into the strain relief.... all look exactly like the ones I bought.

[brian2957]

Thanks Mark . I've just ordered a couple as they're handy to have in the old spares box
I'll be watching this thread with interest .

[YNWaN]

I'll stick my neck out and say you will get a very nice improvement in SQ , particularly in the bass

I'm not so sure Brian as the bass duties are handled by a separate amp and that already had a Belden shielded mains lead feeding it. You never know though .

[brian2957]

Aye you never know in this game Mark . Just thinking , would silicon not do the same job as the epoxy compound ?

[YNWaN]

Hmm...yeah, it may do, but I already had some of the epoxy to hand (I had bought it for something and not used it - can't remember what now).

[brian2957]

Nice one . I'm thinking of building one of these . Won't be as nice as yours cosmetically though .