Clean your electricity

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I'm going to buy some hi-fi stuff tonight. I don't want to pay a fortune, but I want someting half decent.

The web sites tell me to get a special filter to "clean my electricity". I ain't convinced - surely electric is electric isn't it? WHat's the deal with this?

― Johnney B (Johnney B), Wednesday, 16 February 2005 12:06 (twenty years ago)

OH NO AND MAKE SURE YOU COVER UP YOUR PLUGS SO THAT THE ELECTRICAL MIASMA DOES NOT LEAK OUT DURING THE NIGHT!!!

― Kate Kept Me Alive! (kate), Wednesday, 16 February 2005 12:09 (twenty years ago)

Sarcasm is not an admirable trait, you know.

― Johnney B (Johnney B), Wednesday, 16 February 2005 12:10 (twenty years ago)

I'm not being sarcastic. I went to an electrical demonstration at the Royal Institution (or was it the Royal Academy? I get academies and institutions mixed up) and apparently this was a genuine concern during the early 20th Century.

― Kate Kept Me Alive! (kate), Wednesday, 16 February 2005 12:11 (twenty years ago)

well, i assume that they mean the current (?) coming out of your mains socket isn't always as constant and you'd expect, every now and then you'd get spikes of a surge of current at once and that can mess up your electronics, but to be honest that normally don't happen so severely that it'd blow anything.

sometimes they switch sources of where your electricity come from.. that's why sometimes around 5pm or something you'd notice your lights dim a little for about half a second when the switch occurs.

i'm guessing that's what that magic "filter" is supposed to be for.

― ken c (ken c), Wednesday, 16 February 2005 12:13 (twenty years ago)

Ask your question here:-

http://episteme.arstechnica.com/eve/ubb.x/a/frm/f/67909965

Go on. Please.

― why must we cut onions? (Lynskey), Wednesday, 16 February 2005 12:15 (twenty years ago)

Audiophiles are funny, they hav decided that the powersupply to your stereo makes a difference to the sound of the stereo, so there exists a market for power filters and line conditioners etc, in reality these things make no real difference.

Ken that's a surge protector which is a wise investment if you have dodgy power.

― Jarlr'mai (jarlrmai), Wednesday, 16 February 2005 12:16 (twenty years ago)

xpost Oh, sorry Kate. Tee hee!

AH, but they didn't say anything about it blowing the electronics. It was on the Richer Sounds website, and they were saying that the quality of the sound coming out of the speakers would be worse if you had dirty electricity going into it.

― Johnney B (Johnney B), Wednesday, 16 February 2005 12:18 (twenty years ago)

Right, so the web has lied to me? World; crumble.

― Johnney B (Johnney B), Wednesday, 16 February 2005 12:21 (twenty years ago)

The quality of the transformers inside your hi-fi equipment is almost certainly more important that the quality of the electricity going into them.

― caitlin (caitlin), Wednesday, 16 February 2005 12:28 (twenty years ago)

Man, these hi-fi types think of such tedious things to obsess about their electricity. Let's get some real Tesla-stylee electrification of the ethersphere going on instead.

― Kate Kept Me Alive! (kate), Wednesday, 16 February 2005 12:29 (twenty years ago)

Get thee to Alaska and the HAARP project!

― caitlin (caitlin), Wednesday, 16 February 2005 12:34 (twenty years ago)

Now this is DIRRRRRTY electricity:

http://flyingmoose.org/truthfic/tesla.jpg

― Kate Kept Me Alive! (kate), Wednesday, 16 February 2005 12:36 (twenty years ago)

These are too big to link to, but they are great!

I'm not afraid of electricity!

― Kate Kept Me Alive! (kate), Wednesday, 16 February 2005 12:38 (twenty years ago)

When you get yr new stereo you should never play Van Der Graaf Generator on it, as the static thereby generated will impair the sound quality.

― Liz :x (Liz :x), Wednesday, 16 February 2005 12:39 (twenty years ago)

My ex-boyfriend wanted to have a Tesla coil in the living room. I refused to let him. But then again, all the music he listened to sounded like scratchy static anyway.

Joe's dream house:

http://www.unmuseum.org/teslaseated.jpg

― Kate Kept Me Alive! (kate), Wednesday, 16 February 2005 12:40 (twenty years ago)

Sarcasm is not an admirable trait, you know.

On ILX? Since when?

― Curious George Rides a Republican (Rock Hardy), Wednesday, 16 February 2005 14:32 (twenty years ago)

Heavy electricity!

― Masked Gazza, Wednesday, 16 February 2005 14:36 (twenty years ago)

You didn't want a Tesla Coil in your living room?! Jeez, that's my next project after I master the musical saw.

God, that would be awesome.

― sugarpants (sugarpants), Wednesday, 16 February 2005 14:39 (twenty years ago)

The web sites tell me to get a special filter to "clean my electricity".

It's almost certainly balls. The audio market is awash with such nonsense (usually based around a kernel of genuine science so it carries the whiff of authenticity or else only possibly useful in a really unlikely scenario) and dozens of products which make your stereo sound better cos, well, how could it not after I spent all this cash?

As Caitlin says, if the transformer in yr amp is doing its job properly, a little AC line noise isn't likely to find its way audibly into your playback sound.

However, I know - through bitter experience - there are thousands of people out there who violently disagree with this and can offer Genuine Firsthand Accounts of the irrefutable value of these devices. A look round the back of my hi-fi will demonstrate my own gullibilty in these matters.

― Michael Jones (MichaelJ), Wednesday, 16 February 2005 17:19 (twenty years ago)

Haha "The Man Who Cleans His Own Electricity" by Myles na gCopaleen

― Tracer Hand (tracerhand), Wednesday, 16 February 2005 17:24 (twenty years ago)

-- Johnney B (john.barlo...), February 16th, 2005 4:18 AM.

"Those are speed holes. They make the car go faster."

― Sasha (sgh), Thursday, 17 February 2005 00:35 (twenty years ago)

there are thousands of people out there who violently disagree with this and can offer Genuine Firsthand Accounts of the irrefutable value of these devices.

That's what I mean - it seems like rubbish, but there are so many people who swear by them, and all the hi-fi sites say it's real, it's awfully confusing. It seems mad that the critical concensus on these gizmos has the same validity as dowsing.

― Johnney B (Johnney B), Thursday, 17 February 2005 12:14 (twenty years ago)

ILXors who've quit in the last week (DO NOT CLICK UNLESS YOU LIKE WATCHING JON WILLIAMS AND KATE ST CLAIRE MASTURBATE OVER EACH OTHER)

― Fat Anarchy on Airtube (ex machina), Thursday, 17 February 2005 12:29 (twenty years ago)

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