Andrew Betteridge:

The objection raised  to having MCBs and RCDs was that they contain coils that caused sound quality issues, but surely a fuse is just a piece of wire?

Frankly that's absolute rubbish. If the sound equipment power supply smoothing and bulk capacitance isn't good enough to completely isolate the sound system from anything that happens on the ac side (whether interference or supply impedance) then it's a badly designed sound system in the first place, and tweaks like that are answering the wrong question.


If a complex professional studio can be installed to the wiring regs, which it can, then a simple self contained home sound system definitely can and we mustn't let people get away with dangerous and potentially illegal installations.


The only area where I might have some sympathy on the mains side is if the user wanted a clean earth. But even then really well designed equipment should allow for separation of the safety earth from any functional (interference screen) earth - although I'll bet most, if not all, audiophile equipment doesn't. I'm sure others on this forum know far more than I do about how to supply a clean earth whilst still staying compliant to the regs.


Thanks, Andy 

Andrew Betteridge:

The objection raised  to having MCBs and RCDs was that they contain coils that caused sound quality issues, but surely a fuse is just a piece of wire?

Frankly that's absolute rubbish. If the sound equipment power supply smoothing and bulk capacitance isn't good enough to completely isolate the sound system from anything that happens on the ac side (whether interference or supply impedance) then it's a badly designed sound system in the first place, and tweaks like that are answering the wrong question.


If a complex professional studio can be installed to the wiring regs, which it can, then a simple self contained home sound system definitely can and we mustn't let people get away with dangerous and potentially illegal installations.


The only area where I might have some sympathy on the mains side is if the user wanted a clean earth. But even then really well designed equipment should allow for separation of the safety earth from any functional (interference screen) earth - although I'll bet most, if not all, audiophile equipment doesn't. I'm sure others on this forum know far more than I do about how to supply a clean earth whilst still staying compliant to the regs.


Thanks, Andy