Equi=Tech Wall Cabinet System; whole system power solution.

Mike Lavigne · Jul 27, 2010

i've finally pulled the trigger on something i planned on doing when i first built my room back in 2004; i've ordered an Equi=tech 10WQ Wall Cabinet System and it could arrive as soon as the end of next week. it will have 3 of 10 circuits with the EMI/RFI filter option and the OFC (oxygen free copper) option.

it will replace my existing wall panel which is a high quality generic panel. my room is wired with #10 gauge Romex with Oyaide R-1 outlets and WPC-Z covers. there is a 'home run' (a 70amp, 3-phase run) from near my electrical meter in my house to my panel in my barn (the barn is 75 feet from the house) and a double-ground rod already installed. the 10WQ should be the final piece to that chain.

this should lower my already very low noise floor and significantly improve microdynamics. it will also significantly tighten the bass.

it should bring that 'late night magic' 24 hours a day.

in my room development path this is pretty close to the final touch. i'm excited to have made this move.

recently i had been in Bruce Brown's studio a couple of times. Bruce has the 7.5kv version of this same panel and he now has the same speakers in his studio that i have. i can 'hear' what this panel brings to the table in performance and it's not subtle.

Steve Williams · Jul 28, 2010

Congrats Mike

It will be great to hear your report.

Bruce B · Jul 28, 2010

Congrats Mike... just make sure your electrician brings a team of good strong backs. Mine had to go buy 2 hydraulic car jacks!!

Mike Lavigne · Jul 28, 2010

Bruce B said:
Congrats Mike... just make sure your electrician brings a team of good strong backs. Mine had to go buy 2 hydraulic car jacks!!

thanks Bruce.

i did see that it weighs 327 pounds (yours weighed 310 pounds). at least in my situation it's on the ground floor near the door so we'll be able to wheel it on my piano dollys into the room. good suggestion as far as the jacks; i may borrow/buy a couple for the job so my contractor does not want to kill me. the plan is to mount it approx 40 inches above the floor at the bottom of the cabinet.

MylesBAstor · Jul 28, 2010

Mike Lavigne said:
thanks Bruce.

i did see that it weighs 327 pounds (yours weighed 310 pounds). at least in my situation it's on the ground floor near the door so we'll be able to wheel it on my piano dollys into the room. good suggestion as far as the jacks; i may borrow/buy a couple for the job so my contractor does not want to kill me. the plan is to mount it approx 40 inches above the floor at the bottom of the cabinet.

Hope you take good care of your contractors

FrantzM · Jul 28, 2010

Mike

Congrats... AC Power is one of these things on which I insist... This will bring your system to another level... Of that you can be sure...
Indeed the late night magic you are referring,is due in part to cleaner AC to your gear ... Prepare yourself for a revelatory experience

ack · Jul 30, 2010

If it matters, Equi=Tech is the only power solution I would ever want to plug into my system as well...

JonFo · Aug 1, 2010

Agreed Equitech balanced power is a must have as the ultimate in A/V power supply.

I created a totally custom power sub system around an EquiTech 5KVA box.

Mike, Look forward to hearing how you like your new setup.

Mike Lavigne · Aug 4, 2010

JonFo said:
Agreed Equitech balanced power is a must have as the ultimate in A/V power supply.

I created a totally custom power sub system around an EquiTech 5KVA box.

Mike, Look forward to hearing how you like your new setup.

Jonfo,

i looked over your 'custom power' on your website. i really enjoyed your website and system(s). i must admit to not understanding the electical schematic but none the less i'm impressed by your attention to detail. i'll bet it sounds great.

my 10WQ panel should arrive early next week. i'm working on lineing up my contractor now for installation asap.

Martin from Equitech has offered to 'hand-hold' my electrician to make sure i get optimal performance.

Mike

Mike Lavigne · Aug 10, 2010

the Equitech panel is now sitting on the floor of my Garage, strapped to a pallet. it took 5 guys to lift it into the back of a Honda Ridgeline so i could get it home. the delivery truck had no lift gate for delivery to my home (not cool) so they had to drop it off at my business.

it looks huge sitting there.

i've got my electrician and contractor lined up and hopefully it will be installed with in a week.

did i say it's huge? hard to imagine that beast hanging on the wall.

on Thursday night i'll have a PNWAS Club meeting at my house with 15-25 attendees, so i can get some 'before' perceptions. then i can get a few to return after the panel is installed for some 'after' impressions. supposedly the panel takes about 2-3 weeks to burn in and attain it's full effect.

FrantzM · Aug 10, 2010

Mike Lavigne said:
<snip>
on Thursday night i'll have a PNWAS Club meeting at my house with 15-25 attendees, so i can get some 'before' perceptions. then i can get a few to return after the panel is installed for some 'after' impressions. supposedly the panel takes about 2-3 weeks to burn in and attain it's full effect.

My views on burn in are known by now ... I can almost guarantee you it won't take that long ... When grunge and noise is removed from the AC the effect is clear and repeatable ...That is one of the few areas of puzzlement to me: AC Power .. Not the power cords but the quality of the AC feeding a system ... I would have though that the huge filters in most audiophile power supplies would take care of that..... No! In my experience, the cleaner the AC, the better the sound ..

AC is an area that audiophiles uncharacteristically skimps on ... with often the misguided idea that a simple "dedicated" line or expensive power cords are all they need for their power amps or their system ... Good move Mike, I repeat you will be pleased and that, the second you turn you system back on

MylesBAstor · Aug 10, 2010

FrantzM said:
My views on burn in are known by now ... I can almost guarantee you it won't take that long ... When grunge and noise is removed from the AC the effect is clear and repeatable ...That is one of the few areas of puzzlement to me: AC Power .. Not the power cords but the quality of the AC feeding a system ... I would have though that the huge filters in most audiophile power supplies would take care of that..... No! In my experience, the cleaner the AC, the better the sound ..

AC is an area that audiophiles uncharacteristically skimps on ... with often the misguided idea that a simple "dedicated" line or expensive power cords are all they need for their power amps or their system ... Good move Mike, I repeat you will be pleased and that, the second you turn you system back on

I will tell you that it took three weeks for the system to sound right after installing dedicated lines in my room. During the initial period, the system was unlistenably bright that toned down after three weeks.

YMMV....

FrantzM · Aug 10, 2010

Myles

It took three weeks for your hearing to accept the system new sound. That much I will grant you... I don't believe much in dedicated lines as the best solution, that I have made it abundantly clear in this forum and other we both frequented...

I find your experience rather unique: Most audiophiles who have gone to dedicated line report immediate improvement ..

My first reaction to my system with better AC.. when I moved (by necessity) to a Double conversion Telecoms grade UPS (which by the way survived the whole thing ) which provides much better AC than Anything from the commercial grid ... with a THD of less than 3% under 150% load and absolute voltage stability +or - .5 % deviation from 120 V at full load and capable of delivering 15 KW continuously not KVA .. Kilowatts .. completely isolated from the EMI, RFI the commercial grid from any country has to be subjected to ... The first thing I knew immediately was that my system was much different. Bright? No. Unlistenable ? Absolutely not ...
I am sure it takes a while to accept certain things, including better system, so used and even addicted we often are with some of our systems faults.

Bruce B · Aug 10, 2010

I didn't get to listen to mine initially because it was part of the build. It had been on about 5mo. before I got to officially do any critical listening. I swear by it though. I have 2 "regular" outlets in my studio and if something gets plugged into them by mistake, you can immediately tell. You don't need DBT for that.

vinylphilemag · Aug 10, 2010

Just out of curiousity, what sort money are we talking about here? I'm considering some electrical upgrades to my music room, so now is the perfect time to think about the Equi=Tech stuff... I'm guessing it ain't cheap!

Steve Williams · Aug 10, 2010

And as an adjunct to Rich' post how do you decide what size unit you need

Bruce B · Aug 10, 2010

Well our whole studio runs on a 7.5QW system. The biggest hogs are the 3 Pass Labs amps, mixing board, 8 active speakers and mastering console. We've come no where near the potential of this unit. Not a circuit breaker has tripped.
Our box was about $7k. We've also got 800ft. of JPS in-wall cable at $15/ft and all Oyaide R-1 outlets. Labor was about $5k

Steve Williams · Aug 10, 2010

Bruce

How was the 7.5 QW system decided upon

Bruce B · Aug 10, 2010

Steve Williams said:
Bruce

How was the 7.5 QW system decided upon

We added the amperage of every single piece of eqipment we had in the studio, and doubled it.

Mike Lavigne · Aug 10, 2010

vinylphilemag said:
Just out of curiousity, what sort money are we talking about here? I'm considering some electrical upgrades to my music room, so now is the perfect time to think about the Equi=Tech stuff... I'm guessing it ain't cheap!

he is a price list. scroll down to Model Q. mine is the 10WQ. then i added OFC copper and three filtered circuts for my digital player and digital amps on my bass drivers of my speakers.

if you figure how much power conditioners can cost; and the fact that likely every component just got upgraded....it is cheaper than many upgrades that are less effective. and it improves every piece of gear you will ever buy.

i choose the 10WQ simply to allow as much head room as possible. the additional cost to buy the most capable verses the problem of ever having to get a bigger one made my choice easy. what if i want to have a couple of Gotham's someday? a 7.5kv would suddenly be marginal.

going bigger than 10WQ gets not only expensive but then you have 2 huge boxes. and these transformers are rated very conservatively.

Equi=Tech Wall Cabinet System; whole system power solution.

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