Mains Distribution Unit

[Qwin]

I finished the job with a decent mains lead, I will make up a short one for my living room, this one is 10m long for bake offs etc. It has pleanty of Copper, I used 2.5mm sq and its a flexible rubber jacket, I hate PVC, especially in cold weather. I put an IEC Locking connector on one end so it doesn't pull out of the unit under the weight of the cable, and a heavy duty IP66 (Weatherproof) UK 3 pin plug on the other (Clipsal # 56P313). I need a rear entry plug as some of my mains outlets are close to the floor and the thick cable wouldn't take the tight turn, plus these are very well made and a joy to wire up, even with the thick jacket and 2.5mm sq copper wire.

These Clipsal Series 56 plugs are difficult to get hold of in the UK, they are popular in Australia etc.
I got mine from an "Audio" seller on the bay, more snake oil than I could stomach, Cryogenic treated, slow buffed pins, Deoxit and a Silver plated fuse. Plain, as it comes, would have done for me.
I bought it because it was available in the UK and at £20 plus delivery was the cheapest rear entry plug I could find, they are usually HiFi plugs and £70+.

Strangely enough, there is an Italian seller on the Bay selling a Russ Andrews version of the Clipsal plug for £50 (Used). I would hate to think what he paid for it new, but hey, it had Silver plated pins. The #56P313 plugs can be bought direct, min qty 100 from China FOB price $7.01 USD each and for $6.00 if the qty is higher. I hate being ripped off and that is just taking the proverbial. There are a couple of UK, Trade only, electrical wholesalers that stock them, but you need an account to see the prices. These will be the plain plugs without any added serpent lubricant, so google the part number if you have a friendly electrical trader that will purchase them for you. They also come in Grey with a clear middle, which is the most popular version with the Audio outlets.

That just about winds up this exercise.

Edit: Tried the lead out on the unit last night, at 4:00pm the voltage at mine showed exactly 240v

[Qwin]

I tried the Furman unit in my system last night as a dry run for a couple of bake off's that are coming up.

Aauughhhhh!

Sounds bleedin awful. I had to double check I had everything connected correctly.
The midrange sounds clean and transparent, but I have lost all the dynamic range.
The description, that these things just suck the life out of the music seems appropriate.
Left it running for 24hrs, in case something needed burning in, but it made no difference.

I am now in the process of bypassing the filter circuit board so the box will then be just a straightforward distribution unit, which is all I needed in the first place. My advice would be to buy a case, a switch and some IEC outlet strips and make a basic distribution unit yourself. A proper balanced supply is a different prospect, but I certainly would not recommend these filtering units.

Oh well, nothing ventured and all that.

[Ammonite Audio]

Some years ago I was tempted to buy an Olson 'Sounds Fantastic' distribution block that incorporated an inline filter module and a screened input cable. Guess what? It sounded awful - very much reflecting your experience here. So, I ripped out the filter, replaced the inout cable with an old unterminated Kimber Powerkord that was lying around, and while I was at it, replaced the internal wiring with solid copper stripped out from ordinary twin and earth and insulated in teflon tubing. Result? Dynamics were back and the music with it.

This made me think that any form of inline mains power filtering is musically destructive. I've heard Isotek demonstrations where they went from no filtering, up the range to very extensive designs, and in every case I heard a progressive sweetening of the sound but with a progressive penalty in dynamics and musical interest. A few years ago I bought a Belkin PF30 following forum enthusiasm and it did the same - awful squashed effect on musical dynamics, but it did work well on the telly. A Tacima block was worse, and now powers my home broadband setup, in the hope that it will stop some or all of the switching PSU noise from squirting back into the rest of the house supply.

For anyone with mains problems, my advice would be to experiment with simple plug-in parallel filter devices; and if the problems are really bad, do as Gazjam suggests and look at balanced mains solutions, or for the wealthy a PS Audio Power Plant.

The annoying thing is that, according to objective electrical theory, none of this should make a difference, but sadly my experience is that it does.

I tried the Furman unit in my system last night as a dry run for a couple of bake off's that are coming up.

Aauughhhhh!

Sounds bleedin awful. I had to double check I had everything connected correctly.
The midrange sounds clean and transparent, but I have lost all the dynamic range.
The description, that these things just suck the life out of the music seems appropriate.
Left it running for 24hrs, in case something needed burning in, but it made no difference.

I am now in the process of bypassing the filter circuit board so the box will then be just a straightforward distribution unit, which is all I needed in the first place. My advice would be to buy a case, a switch and some IEC outlet strips and make a basic distribution unit yourself. A proper balanced supply is a different prospect, but I certainly would not recommend these filtering units.

Oh well, nothing ventured and all that.