Product suggestion

Might be a little late all things given.
But, what, to me, would be a good thing, (and perhaps not too hard to implement) would be a double PSU-1, capable of feeding a Reflex/Exp combination or a Phono stage/Solo combination.
The two PSU-1 internals to be fitted in a nice alloy case matching the other units and with an IEC socket input.
Also, given the comments elsewhere re RFI - would it be worth while using a shielded cable for the power connection between the supply and phono stage?
Seems Trichord Research think so with their fancy (and exxy - gulp) connector for their upgrade PSU.
Just a thought.

Just wanted to say I wasn't being nasty in the reply above although it may look that way.

The trouble with doing a dual PSU1 is not actually making it but the 10,000 GBP it would cost in having it approved, without which it could not be sold in some countries. Mind you, some manufacturers get away with it...

TG, I am grateful for your suggestion. It is a very good suggestion and if I were to be allowed to make it without having to spend more than it could make in profit over the next five years I would.

My response isn't aimed at you or any of my customers, but is aimed at those that make some of us do things by the book while they allow others to do anything they want.

I am talking about the great divide between the haves and have nots - those who have made it big to such a degree that their distributors are willing to risk their businesses to sell more of the stuff, compared to those who are still rather small (like us) who's distributors flatly refuse to break their countries respective safety laws for a smaller profit.

Money is used throughout the world as an incentive to do illegal or unlawful things, or put another way - if the stakes are high then it's considered a good risk to break the law.

For example - Canada: It is illegal in Canada to sell any mains powered item that does not carry a CSA or Canadian UL approval. Such an approval costs western manufacturers in the region of 10,000 GBP, but is surprisingly cheap for far eastern manufacturers to obtain. However, their is another cost involved which is the cost of designing the item and by that I mean designing it to fit the law. It is relatively easy to design most things, but to comply with the law they must be designed to a particular standard...

The PSU1 had to be redesigned to CSA (IEC) 60950 to be able to sell legally in Canada, back in 2003. That involved buying the standard at over 200 GBP, and then reading the near-on 400 pages.

Each part of it had to be redesigned to comply. For example, the plastic case, although it had always been flame retardant failed the temperature test, and under an extraordinary "one in a million" situation of the transformer being slightly overloaded causing the fuse to blow only after the transformer had reached a very high temperature after a number of hours, would have caused the case to soften to such a degree and have become hot enough to have caused severe pain to anyone picking it up in that condition.

Yes, that is just one of the many tests it had to pass to obtain certification which meant designing a platform having the right temperature stability to spread the heat load away from the case bottom. If you take one apart it is simply a piece of glass fiber laminate that looks as if it serves no purpose at all.

Another example is the circular surround under the input socket that looks a bit drab or naff but was required because there was no other way of getting round the mains cable pull-out test. We did wire it with a high quality power cord, but in the confines of the internal positioning of the transformer could not provide the necessary cable  retention the standard requires. The only solution was to use a mains connector instead and use an accessory mains cord (the one olli_1963 calls a joke elsewhere on this community - he should try designing to 60950...), but that left a gaping hole where the mains cable used to enter, and that hole was part of the moulding, and to have a new mould done would cost about 100,000 GBP today (no it's not a joke!). Therefore I had to design a cover that looked half decent that also met the standard for temperature.

And so we now move on to the "joke" called the mains cord. Because there simply isn't the room for a 3 pin IEC connector, plus fitting one would have meant the unit failed because various countries rules stipulate you cannot use a three wire connector on a two wire double insulated class 2 product, we could only fit the figure eight connector. It is impossible (you may know different) to get a rewireable figure eight, so we have to supply it with a stock moulded cord.

Now there are products from supported manufacturers, and by supported I mean those that receive endless press praise and praise from the forums, that don't meet such standards, but because of the grease called money - like I said above - get stocked by the masses in large quantities regardless of the law.

For example - The Tom Evans Microgroove phono stage uses/used a power supply in exactly the same moulding as the PSU1, but carried a larger transformer and a direct wired mains cord. Evaluating it against the standard (60950) it would fail on all counts.

Now on to the "bell wire". Now, people will spend over a thousand GBP on bell wire dressed up to look like rocket science, and believe all the bullcrap, but when we do an honest thing and leave it as it is, and sell it as part of a reasonably priced product, some call it a joke!

It is not an interconnect. It is a DC supply cord. Can it pick up RFI? Not normally, in fact very seldom. To be precise it would be one in ten thousand and that's based on facts gathered over the last 9 years of manufacturing our products. It would have to be very close to a powerful transmitter.

It's source is a very low impedance voltage regulator and two capacitors (one electrolytic - one film foil). To any frequency above a few hertz it is a dead-short, and if you shorted an interconnect no signal could appear across it, and that includes RFI. But some people still insist it can pick up RFI.

The very same people will believe Nordost's claims that an unshielded cable works as an arm cable when using moving coil and rush out and buy one! The fact is that a moving coil cartridges impedance rises with frequency so is an open circuit at RF! But Nordost and the likes are always right and I'm always wrong?

I set up this community to be supportive of our customers and by support I mean sharing engineering truth with them. Unfortunately I can see it is failing because most people, and tg, I don't mean you, have been brainwashed by pretend science.

I can tell this is the case because I have to write an essay to explain myself whereas those that deal in pretend science just spin a brief load of garbage that makes my life's work look a load of tosh, and hence, although my products deliver such a fantastic musical experience in their words, it is done using techniques that are a joke?

Edit:

Perhaps, as one dear friend suggested only the other night, I should tell lies, because, to use his reasoning regarding the hi-fi industry, people believe lies and lies make money.


Edited by Graham Slee - 27 Feb 2008 at 10:54am

Thanks for your understanding Tony 

I do find that the vast majority of our customers are well informed like your good self, and wish to reassure you that my ramblings are aimed at (hopefully) a wider audience, in a bid to enlighten them regarding some of the untruths being bandied about.

I would like to encourage and make members here feel confident that by making suggestions they will not be "shot down in flames" as it can be elsewhere. And if it felt like I was doing that to you in any way, please forgive me.

And if it could be properly identified that any of our products or parts thereof do actually cause a real problem, then it would be foolish of me to ignore it. I do take all comments on-board and they do get acted upon or researched further, and even though today's science says what it does about things like the DC cord, new (real) discoveries are being made all the time and any new findings will be explored.