How important is constant voltage

LL21

Well-Known Member
Dec 26, 2010
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Spirit had a lot of voltage problems. Got to check with LL21. A guy living down the road from me is fine though.

Fortunately, when my amp was converted, the manufacturer adjusted it for uk as opposed to eu. Same for my earlier gryphon which used to have the voltage on the front panel...and it did show well over 240 sometimes fwiw. I don't know how accurate that was meant to be, but I had seen it go to 250 I believe.
 

Speedskater

Well-Known Member
Sep 30, 2010
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Cleveland Ohio
In the US over the past many decades we have seen the nominal line voltage drift. At one time it was 110V, then 115V, and on to 117V now for the past few decades it's been 120V, but it's moving towards 125 Volts! The NEC code book has it at 125V and many new products are rated at 125V. Over the past 6 months at my home in the city, I have seen it at a low 111.4V and a high of 127.6V for period of time when the weather was rather normal and no other apparent influences .
So if you have a component with a budget power transformer that was designed for a much lower voltage than you presently have, you could have problems.

"Piltron : Measuring Acoustic Noise Emitted by Power Transformers"
http://www.idc-online.com/technical...MEASURING_ACOUSTIC_NOISE_EMITTED_BY_POWER.pdf
 

bonzo75

Member Sponsor
Feb 26, 2014
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London
Fortunately, when my amp was converted, the manufacturer adjusted it for uk as opposed to eu. Same for my earlier gryphon which used to have the voltage on the front panel...and it did show well over 240 sometimes fwiw. I don't know how accurate that was meant to be, but I had seen it go to 250 I believe.

So it will still be fluctuating. If your dac, CD, and pre are designed for that, then fine. Not sure what function your power isolator does, does it keep the voltage constant or cleans up the current
 

spiritofmusic

Well-Known Member
Jun 13, 2013
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E. England
I'm in a lot of contact w/Bonzo, and have recommended him to go balanced. UK voltage is 230 nominal. Barry just outside London is in the late 230's. When I ran my Burmester 948 conditioner solely, from 2005, the readout was never 230, more like second to second swings ranging btwn 235-255!!! I live in a HIGHLY mains polluted area. Now since 2014 I'm running the Burmester 948 from my Westwick Audio 8kVA balanced power transformer, and the voltage readout is a rock steady 245, w/occasional fluctuations 243-247. And music sounds so much better.
I really don't know what this all means for 230 rated equipment, but in my area at least the chance to set the transformer at 245 makes sense. Where I to move to Barry's area where the figure is more 235, better to leave at 230.
Does equipment have the facility to be actively set at 220 Europe or 230 UK or 245 UK? And reset in due course?
 

Chuck Lee

Well-Known Member
Feb 5, 2015
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Back in 1987 I moved into a newly built home in an older subdivision.

I also had the 100 watt Meitner mono blocks that worked fine in the winter but shut down in the summer. I sent them back to Ed twice.

Ed told me to check the voltage, so I bought a cheap Radio Shack unit and it measured that I was well below the norm.

I informed the good folks who never complain when they are paid for the use of their power, but who are a bit reluctant to think that something could be less than acceptable in the delivery of that power that I was having problems with the voltage.

When the hydro man came to the house he asked what I used to measure the voltage, he chuckled and said that he would do a print out reading using his professional measuring device and come back after the weekend to check the readings on the print out wheel.

On Monday he stated that yes, the voltage was too low,and then asked me to check with my metre.

Guess what, almost spot on with his.

In short time the power utility put up a brand new transformer on the pole outside my house, and I never had an issue again.

My take is that unless you complain about voltage swings nothing will be done and you'll pay the high cost of electricity all the while not getting all of what you pay for.

Power companies are reluctant to put any of our money back into upgrading the delivery to our homes, which are using more power than ever.

I would assume that most transformers are in need of an upgrade to meet with the increased demands.

It wasn't just the inconvenience of the Meitner amps shutting down,it was the fear that the low voltage would take out my motors in the AC , fridge and freezer.

My point is that we shouldn't have to buy any kind of voltage regulators.

We should get all the power that we are paying for.
 

bonzo75

Member Sponsor
Feb 26, 2014
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Good point and good initiative, simple, but we lazy people don't think of that. I will call them up soon.
 

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