It’s the time of year for saving money!
Regular Audiophile Review readers know I’ve been on a sabbatical during a move from Boulder, CO to downtown Denver, CO. The move has not gone as smoothly as I had hoped (what move does?) Fortunately all the issues have been problems I can solve, but problems nonetheless.
My new home was built by David Weekly Homes, who usually build only in subdivisions. But my wife convinced them to try a “custom build” on a lot located approximately two blocks off Federal in an area known alternatively as Villa Park, Sanchez Park, or my newly coined SOCO (for south of Colfax). It’s within sight of the Denver Broncos football stadium and I will have a nice view of downtown from the upper floor windows. The new house is also about 50 yards away from an elementary school. For those into real estate the final cost was right around $185 per square foot.
Unlike my home in the mountains, where I was able to specify wall structure including materials and the installation of special 3M interior wall treatments, I had no control whatsoever in the construction particulars or materials used in the David Weekly home. The result is the new house’s interior walls aren’t as well-damped as my old abode. I can hear a cavernous boom when I knock on some of the walls. In my old house when I did the same thing all I heard was a thud. That could be (and probably will be at higher volumes) a problem.
The second primary audiophile issue in the new house is the electricity. I designated a dedicated 20-amp line for my primary listening room, so that is covered, and the house has an all-house surge-protection, which is a good thing. But when I tested the AC noise level using my trusty Audio Prism Noise Sniffer device, the amount of noise it detected was shocking. I have never, in all my years of using this device, heard as much noise on an AC line. That is bad.
The next step will be trying out every AC noise reduction device I have on hand to see which ones could knock down, filter, or reduce all the crap I’m hearing on the AC circuits. The noise was consistent on ALL circuits, including the dedicated audio line. I should mention that nothing has been moved into the house in the way of electronics yet. The AC noise is not coming from anything electronic inside the new house because there’s nothing in it yet. It is still empty. I tried turning off all the house’s circuits, one-by-one, but the noise didn’t change or diminish. Once I’ve moved in all my electronics, which is still at least a week away, the first thing I’m going to do is test, test and test some more. I suspect the PS Audio Power Plant AC regenerator will be the best solution, but I have at least a half dozen other AC devices I’ll also try out, including the Chang Lightspeed, Synergistic Research Tesla Powercell, APC S15 Conditioner, and a bunch of “noise eating” devices from PS Audio and Audio Prism.
I let you know in a couple of weeks which one works the best for my particularly noisy AC environment. I’m crossing my fingers that something will work…
