[dBe]

Recently there was a minor controversy about my products having an inherent safety hazard.  I think you all are aware of it and the poster has since recanted and acknowledged his error.  I applaud his humility in doing so, but there is still a cloud of suspicion concerning this issue.  I have had order cancellations and email and phone calls about this.  It seems that rumor and innuendo spread faster than facts.

Oh, well.

My offer to remove the neutral to ground capacitor from the circuit for anyone that owns one of the BUSSes stands.  Also, my offer to ship a circuit tester to anyone with a concern as to the safety of their house wiring is on the table.  A very generous AC member saw the thread and has agreed to give me a discount on testers and I will be getting some soon.

Please, if you have any concerns, let me know.  I think that you all know that your best interests are what I call part of customer service and that is THE most important thing to me.

Be well and above all, be safe!

Dave

[jtwrace]

A very generous AC member saw the thread and has agreed to give me a discount on testers and I will be getting some soon.

Dave

Very cool of him or her.  If they sell test equipment, they should post it.

[dBe]

Yes, it is. Without his permission I won't reveal his (Yup, a Dude) name, but I do appreciate his generosity and will tell you that he is affilliated with Harbor Freight.

Go buy stuff from Harbor Freight!!!   How's that for a shameless plug?

Also, Jason, thanks for sending me this link on grounding written by someone that tells it better than I can: 

http://www.peavey.com/support/technotes/safety/shockhazard.

I encourage EVERYONE to read this that has an A/C powered system.  Good info here.  Like you said, especially the last two paragraphs.

Here is a little more info on grounding:

http://www.epanorama.net/documents/groundloop/why_grounding.html

************************************************
Grounding in wiring
Today's modern (US.) mains cable consists of three separate wires: black, white, and green. The green wire is always connected to the large ground pin on the plug, and the other (green) end connected to the chassis of the equipment. The black wire is always considered to be the "hot wire," and as such, is always the leg which is connected to the switch and fuse. The white wire is always the neutral or common wire.

European coloring is a little bit different. The ground wire is here green wire with yellow stripe. Neutral wire is blue. Live wire in Brown (additional colors for the live wires used in 3 phase systems are black and black with white stripe).

Any modification of the above 3 wire mains system completely eliminates the protection given by the three wire configuration. The integrity of the separate ground path is also directly related to the quality of the receptacle and the wiring system in the building itself.

The neutral (grounded conductor) must be solidly connected (bonded) to the home's ground system at the first disconnect (main panel). This keeps large voltage differences from developing between the neutral and ground.


Currents in grounding wire
Ground wires should not carry current except during faults. If the ground wire carries any current there will be a potential difference between different grounding points (bacause the current flowing in wire causes voltage drop because wire resistance). This is why a common wire which works as neutral and grounding wire is very bad thing.

When there is separate wiring for grounding you can't still completely avoid the current flowing in grounding wires ! There will always be some capacitive leakage current form the live wire to the ground wire. This capacitive leakage current is caused by the fact that the wiring, transformers and interference filters all have some capacitance between the ground and live wire. The amount of current is limited to be quite low (limited to be between 0.6 mA to 10 mA depending on equipment type) so it does not cause dangers and big problems. Because of this leakege current there is always some current flowing in the ground wire and the ground potentials of different electrical power outlets are never equal.

The leakege current can also cause other type of problems. In some situations there are ground fault detect interrupter (GFCI) circuits in use the leakage current caused by many equipments together can make the GFCI to cut the current. Typically GFCI circuits are designed to cut current when there is 30 mA or more difference in currents flowing in live and neutral wires (the difference of those current must flow to ground). Some GFCI circuit can cut the mains feed even at 15 mA leakage current which may mean that if you connect many computer equipments (each of them having 0.5 to 2 mA of leakage) to GFCI protected power outlet you can cause the GFCI to cut the power feed.


Ground wire resistance
In europe it is not important how much ohms the grounding is but the maximum current before the unit switches off is important. So a grounding of 230 volts and a safety of 24 volts. We say it must be less then 30 mA in our body. So for 16 amps and 24 volts it is 1.5 ohms. This means that the maximum voltage on the case is 24 volts even when all current is flowing thru the grounding wire. In places where even this 24V is considered very dangerous (for example in hospitals) the ground resistance must be made lower to make sure that there is never dangrous voltage present in the case. For example in Finland the grounding resistance for medical room outles must be less than 0.2 ohms to be considered safe.

The above is the objective, and all the crap around it is just to make it difficult. Ground means something connected to the surrounding and it must be less then x ohms measured with AC and the wire must handle the short circuit current present in the circuit without overheating.


Sources
Frequently Asked Questions on Electrical Wiring by Chris Lewis and Steven Bellovin
Grounding article from CodeCheck.com
Shock Hazard and Grounding by Jack Sondermeyer from Peavey (web document which is no longer available)
Other useful grounding links
Why Ground ? - from Q & A Electrical from CodeCheck.com
The shocking story of grounding
Two Modern Power Quality Issues - Harmonics & Grounding from Copper Building Wire home page
Residential Wiring and Grounding Guidelines from Power Clinic
The Hows and Whys of Isolated Grounding
United States Practices to Protect People and Equipment Against Lightning from Power Quality magazine


***********************************************


Dave, out for a while........ I'm taking time off from the forum.   My brain hurts.

[satfrat]

Dave, you've always gone out of your way to treat your customers right and do the best by them. It's a pity the AC competition had to do what he did to try and discredit you and your products but I'm fairly confident that your present customers know better and won't soon forget the source of these unwarranted attacks on your credibilty.
 
To those who would cancel orders because of unsupported safety concerns, it will indeed be your loss. You need only ask any present owner of the "Buss's" such as myself and ask for their opinion as I have just given mine. 
 
While I understand why both you and this other business individual both want to step back from posting for awhile, I would hope this'll just pass soon for the both of you and the 2 of you can continue to provide helpful technical info to AC members. I wish you both the best for the future & betterment of AC! 
 
Cheers,
Robin 

[vinyl_lady]

Dave, you've always gone out of your way to treat your customers right and do the best by them. It's a pity the AC competition had to do what he did to try and discredit you and your products but I'm fairly confident that your present customers know better.
 
To those who would cancel orders because of unsupported safety concerns, it will indeed be your loss. You need only ask any present owner of the "Buss's" such as myself and ask for their opinion as I have just given mine. 
 

While I understand why both you and this other business individual both want to step back from posting for awhile, I would hope this'll just pass soon for the both of you and the 2 of you can continue to provide helpful technical info to AC members. I wish you both the best for the future & betterment of AC! 
 
Cheers,
Robin

+1 x 10

I own both a Uber and a Majik and they are terrific products that do everything they are suppossed to do. The Uber has given me the lowest noise floor I have ever had--very black background allowing the music to come through with great clarity, detail and tight bass slam. The Majik noticeably improved the quality of my HDTV picture immediately--brighter colors and a more realistic picture. I have recommended Dave's products to friends and they have thanked me.

After having several email exchanges with Dave, I know the Source of his character and strength, which is beyond reproach. I never gave a second thought to the allegations. The Uber & Majik have taken up permanent residence in my listening room.

Laura

[golfugh]

Ditto x 10!

Mark

[KCI-JohnP]

Dave,

I never caught the thread-nor do I care to. And to those of you that may still have a few concerns let me just say that after speaking and dealing with Dave for quite some time I have absolutely no doubt of his character and I have full faith and trust in him and his work/products. You are in good hands. 

John

[dmccombs]

I have 3 of these busses in my audio room, and I live 5 minutes from Dave.  I could easily drive them over for this change Dave is offering.  I see no need despite how easy it would be for me to do.

I think it is great that Dave is offering it though for those that are concerned that there may be an issue.  It speaks volumes of Dave's integrity and customer service.   

[mchuckp]

Just got a Majik Buss demo unit from Danny.  Here's a question.  I have quite a few things to plug in for video, audio, and other (modem, router, phone).  I have all my audio gear in a PS Audio Quintent and all my video gear/other in a Monster conditioner (forget the model).  I've read references that say I would be best off to run the surge protector out of the wall and then into the MB.  Is this right?  If so, do I simply plug the MB into just one outlet on the Quintent and then plug my gear into the MB? 

The easiest set up for me and the one that gives me the most outlets is to run the MB into the wall and then the Quintet in the MB with all my gear in the Quintet.

If I did do Quintet>MB, is that too much stuff to be running on a single outlet of the Quintet?  Am I choking any power since my gear is not spread out?

I'm sure I've confused everyone but I appreciate any thoughts or your own personal experience.  With only a short listen far, I was pretty impressed with the MB>Quintet set up.  When I switched them, I felt a bit of clarity was lost and bass went downhill a bit.  One thing did happen that made it not an even comparison.  My Pangea power cord on my DAC stopped cooperating and I had to go back to the a stock power cord.  I have a hard time believing that pretty cheap Pangea PC made the difference.  Like I said, it was a very short comparison to I'm not holding much faith in my initial impression yet.

BTW, for anyone wondering, I haven't tried any video stuff into the MB.  Mainly an audio guy and have tried to keep all that stuff as separated as I can.  I've read some folks comments about in helping their video quality.  I'll try it at some point, I'm just not that worried about it.

Thanks again.

[satfrat]

The easiest way to implement the MajikBuss would be to plug the Buss into the wall and plug both conditioners into the Buss, 1 in each duplex so's to isolate them. I have my whole A/V system plugged into 1 2400 watt BPT and I plug the BPT into my Uberbuss to good effect for both audio and video,,, very good effect I might add. In your case, you're a step ahead of me by fully isolating your audio and video. The 2 duplex outlets of the Buss are isolated from each other so you're not losing anything, just gaining cleaner power for both conditioners. 
 
I also demo'd the MajikBuss in the same configuration as I'm doing with the UberBuss and had very positive clarity gains. I had 17 power cords running thru the MajikBuss via the BPT then with no problem. I decided to go with the UberBuss cuz I wanted more of the same,,, NOT because the MajikBuss wasn't up to the task. 
 
Cheers,
Robin

[vinyl_lady]

I agree with Robin. I have my UberBUSS plugged into the wall (the outlet happens to be a PS Audio Soloist Premier), then my amp is plugged into one of the isolated circuits in the Uber and my PS Audio Power Plant Premeir is plugged into the other isolated circuit of the Uber. All of my source equipment is plugged into the PPP. I also use a MajikBUSS with my HDTV. The Majik is plugged into the wall, a PS Audio Duet into the Majik and the TV & cable box into the Duet.

[dBe]

Just got a Majik Buss demo unit from Danny.  Here's a question.  I have quite a few things to plug in for video, audio, and other (modem, router, phone).  I have all my audio gear in a PS Audio Quintent and all my video gear/other in a Monster conditioner (forget the model).  I've read references that say I would be best off to run the surge protector out of the wall and then into the MB.  Is this right?  If so, do I simply plug the MB into just one outlet on the Quintent and then plug my gear into the MB? 

The easiest set up for me and the one that gives me the most outlets is to run the MB into the wall and then the Quintet in the MB with all my gear in the Quintet.

If I did do Quintet>MB, is that too much stuff to be running on a single outlet of the Quintet?  Am I choking any power since my gear is not spread out?

I'm sure I've confused everyone but I appreciate any thoughts or your own personal experience.  With only a short listen far, I was pretty impressed with the MB>Quintet set up.  When I switched them, I felt a bit of clarity was lost and bass went downhill a bit.  One thing did happen that made it not an even comparison.  My Pangea power cord on my DAC stopped cooperating and I had to go back to the a stock power cord.  I have a hard time believing that pretty cheap Pangea PC made the difference.  Like I said, it was a very short comparison to I'm not holding much faith in my initial impression yet.

BTW, for anyone wondering, I haven't tried any video stuff into the MB.  Mainly an audio guy and have tried to keep all that stuff as separated as I can.  I've read some folks comments about in helping their video quality.  I'll try it at some point, I'm just not that worried about it.

Thanks again.

My comment about the wall > surge protector > BUSS is not really applicable to the Quintet AS LONG AS the AC/MOV input module in the Quintet is OK.  These are quite robust and should not need replacement unless your power source has been subjected to multiple extremely high energy surges like lightning strikes.  Use it that way.

I also have a multiple outlet filtered extension in the works. 

Believe it that the Pangea cord can make the difference, especially on digital sources.  Digital is incredibly sensitive to power.

Regards,

Dave