I have read with interest http://www.soundonsound.com/sos/aug99/articles/wiring.htm as I am about to try to make sense of the horrible tangle of cables powering my stuff, I seem to have 6 power boards connected and I cannot remember what goes where and so-on. It look like there are more plugs than actual bits of kit!

First question do wall warts need surge protection ? 2) I have 2 external HHD that have transformer power supplies do these need to be protected ?

I had considered creating a kind of sub ring for the power to my home studio, as I have an outlet at each end of my work-station. In my workshop at the end of my garden I have run a lead, fed about 10 outlets then back to the house and back into the mains, works a treat, would a version of this be a bad idea for my studio workstation ? or would it create problems ?

Has anyone deployed anything like THIS

I should mention that I am not experiencing any big problems with hum or anything, I just want to get it neater and as safe as I can.

the kit involved is as follows

1x imac 27
1x monitor (2nd screen)
1x Focusrite pro24 (buss pwr)
1x DMP3 dual pre amp (wall wart)
1x Roland GI20 (wall wart)
2x HDD external (mains powered)
2x Fostex PMO5 active monitors
1x printer
2x 12v lamps (internal transformers)
Router (wall wart)
USB hub (wall wart)
Phone (wall wart)

Any advice would be appreciated

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Strictly an amateur with some nice toys,

First of all you do not generally need any form of filtering/spike suppression on UK mains supplies (ok, if you were one of 3 cottages on a pole pig miles from a sizeable sub' maybe but in that event a UPS might be a good idea any way)

My shakey arithentic gets me that you need 7 outlets for audio purposes and I include the usb hub in that? 8 way diss boards are readily available (often with built in hubs, Ethernet and phone conns!) The printer* router, lamps, pnone can be run from any other convienient outlet.

One point: That SoS article says not to run "boards from boards"? That is not inline with the usual "star" feed system. I can see where cable rating might be thought an issue perhaps but at these watt levels it is certainly not a problem.

*Printer will connect to the computer of course but funnily enough I have never read of a printer causing any noises?

Oh! And you will hardly be able to buy a NON "surge protected" diss board these day but pay a decent price for it!

(personally I just buy 19mm MDF and a rake of 13A surface mount skts and roll my own)
Dave.

Edited by ef37a (11/06/12 09:45 AM)

As Dave says, there's no need to bother with surge protection in the UK.

Personally, I would run all the low current stuff from a single 13A socket. I have a decent quality Olsen 8 way distribution board running from the main socket and I then connect further distribution boards to that so that each rack has its own distribution board.

The monitor amplifiers and any other high current audio devices (like the 2" multitrack) go to other 13A sockets on the same ring.

James.

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JRP Music - Audio Mastering and Restoration.
http://www.jrpmusic.net

Thanks guys. Looks like a simple approach then. I do have some surge protected outlets so will probably use them. Has UK mains power supply changed then to make such devices redundant ?.

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Strictly an amateur with some nice toys,

" Has UK mains power supply changed then to make such devices redundant ?."

Not in my lifetime (DOB 1945)but kit has improved, one thing I recall is that there were a lot more brush AC motors about when I was a lad. Mum was a hairdresser and one dryer in particular would wipe out Uncle Mac of a Saturday morning. These day most motors are shaded pole induction types or for bigger loads, washing machines etc, caps start/run (I remember the Hoover Keymatic had a clever centrifugal switch.)
Noisy kit can also have ferrite inductors and caps have improved in efficacy and economy by a 1000fold? Microwave ovens (should!) have some serious in the mains filters for example.

Then, and I am no power engineer but I think our distribution system has a lot to do with it? You are never more than a few streets away from a substation and those are Big Mothers and must I think be very overengineered? Never heard of one popping short of the IRA!

Putting everything underground must also surely be a Good Thing?

Dave.

Quote DAGGILARR:

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Has UK mains power supply changed then to make such devices redundant ?.

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The UK supply has always been pretty well engineered and relatively clean -- added to which the things that used to put nasties onto the mains, like big motors, arc welders, and high-current switches, have themselves been improved no end over the yeras to minimise the noise they can generate.

Properly designed equipment is precisely that: equipment designed to cope with the likely external forms of interference. I can honestly say I've never had any problems with mains noise in many decades of working with audio, and I don't bother with 'spike protection' plug boards or any of that nonsense.

If you live out in the country on the end of a long overhead mains supply or something, then it might be worth having some protection against brown-outs. That happens a lot where I am and so I use a UPS for the most sensitive things (computer, NAS, etc).

I've only known one thing to be taken out by a voltage spike, and that was a lightening strike that took out my broadband router -- but the damage came in via the broadbnad line itself, not the mains supply!

Hugh

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Technical Editor, Sound On Sound

Quote Hugh Robjohns:

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I've only known one thing to be taken out by a voltage spike, and that was a lightening strike that took out my broadband router -- but the damage came in via the broadbnad line itself, not the mains supply!

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We had some thunder and lightning last autumn so I unplugged my broadband router just in case, and when I reconnected it my line speed had dropped significantly and has never risen back to its previous value.

I wish I'd let the router take its chances now


Martin

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YewTreeMagic

The list you've got there can easily be powered from a single wall socket, and as others have said there is no need for filtering - unless you happen to live next door to a farm where they like to do their own welding

If you're going for the more normal twin-gang wall socket then a six or eight way strip in each will do the job. It's nicer if you could get the whole lot on one strip but I've not seen them that long, except in industrial stuff. You definitely do not want any kind of ring, that's asking for earth loops!

If you do happen to get earth loop problems, it's often worth looking for replacement wall-warts that are double insulated. In a perfect world only the computer would be earthed.

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It wasn't me!
(Well, actually, it probably was)

Martin, I don't know who your ISP is but having had a 3 year battle with BT and broadband speeds at times little better than dialup my advice would be to start complaining hard and fast.

I bet your modem is fine but demand a new one anyway. BT et al probably don't pay more than two quid for them.
Get them to send a guy out to check the speed at the line into the house. Whenever I managed to get something done (for the speed would Jodrell up and down week in week out)the speed ONLY came back up when the tech did something at the exchange.

I am now with TalkTalk and the day I was switched my speed went up by nearly 2M downld to 6.9M and my upload speed doubled to nearly 0.7M ????

Give 'em hell Mart!

Dave.