[PT914]

Paul,

"Evaluation" ... this sounds like an assignment.  No, really this has been fun.  Can't believe caps completely outside the box; cd, pre-amp, and crossover, makes a bigger difference than ones inside.  My goal is to have a system that will present the music as if it were "live".  The ASC cap gets me there.  The noise that is not part of the music is attentuated so there is more blackness around notes.  I love the CD Beauty and the Beast track "Home".  When I play it, she is almost standing there in front of me sing with all that emotion of not being home.  I also enjoy Earl Klugh, he has violins follow the melody guitar line.  In his CD "Kool" the first track "Movin On", you can hear the violin on the intro.  Then for the first one or two lines the violins can barely be heard.  I can hear them better with the ASC caps.  So the ASC caps separate instrumental parts better than the Aerovox.
This has been a very worthwhile project.  Cheaper than Vcaps and probably bigger impact on sound.
Haven't tried felicia on individual components, just did it on all three at once.
Haven't tried any other conditioner.

Having fun,
Philip

[PT914]

Hi,

A little correction.  The bypass Auricaps values are:
.47 uF, .1 uF, and .01 uF.
Just as Larry had suggested.  I grouped the .1 and .01 caps on one spade and thought of them as one.

Philip

[ctviggen]

I'm trying to think of a way of determining how well a particular Felecia works.  I'm thinking that you put in a sine wave at a frequency, then measure the output.  You sweep the sine wave from near DC up to however high you'd like to go.  You could measure RMS voltage at the output.  Ideally, I would assume that you'd want zero RMS at every location save 60Hz, when you would want about 120V (depending on what your line voltage).   You could use something like this:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=97198&item=7525073480&rd=1&ssPageName=WDVW

Hmmm...When I get time and build my own Felecia, I might use this technique.

[Occam]

I'm trying to think of a way of determining how well a particular Felecia works....

First, you steal a chicken..... After the chicken soup is done, you taste it. You can then invite your friends over and have them bring their verisions of chicken soup....
A double pole, double throw switch allows one to switch between different soups on the fly.

I too would like an in depth technical analysis of various filtler topologies and implementations, but I'm not going to spend the $2k for a Fluke 43B. If anyone would like to lend/give me one, I'd be more than happy to report the results. Power quality analysis requires evaluation of the residual with the fundamental present, but removed, i.e. much like a THD analysis, the fundamental must go through the DUT, and be nulled out via a notch filter @50/60hz, and the efficacy of that filter is the resultant residual (crap that extends into the MHz range). Audio Electronics had a 'simple' notch filter project for THD measurement that might be applicable. Trying to look at noise on an oscilliscope that is swinging 120 x 1.414 p-p simply hides the noise. Evaluation the power factor correction capabilities is worse....

[Russtafarian]

Here's my Franken-Felicia (no disrespect meant to the original project's namesake).  I built this for a friend in exchange for another piece of gear.  







This power conditioner is for my friend's home theater system so I put it together with that gear in mind.  His HT rig is a melding of cutting edge and vintage gear: DLP RPTV, top of the line DVD player and HT Receiver, DirecTV receiver, Tube monoblock amps for the left and right speakers, tube preamp, and vintage FM receiver.  I wanted to provide individual filtering, isolation, and sufficient current for each component.

Using the Ikea box that Occam recommended, I mounted five AC double outlets to one of the side panels along with a standard 15A IEC inlet.  One double outlet is an unfiltered GFCI that serves as an on-off switch and circuit breaker.  Each of the eight remaining AC jacks are separately filtered as described below.  All the filtered outlets are fed by the GFCI.  I used Lowes 12 gauge THHN wire throughout, twisting or braiding wherever possible.  Everything is star grounded to the GFCI.  

For the low current gear I put together four separate Felicia circuits; one each for the DVD player, DirecTV receiver, preamp and tuner.  I used the BG Micro transformers and Amrad 14uF caps.  I bypassed each Amrad with .15uF 400v MKPs that I had on hand.  Each Felicia is double fused (one on each leg) with 1 amp fast blows.   The transformers and caps are mounted to the bottom of the box while the fuse blocks are mounted to the inside front panel next to the AC outlets.

The TV, HT receiver and tube amps obviously pull more current than the Felicia can handle.  For each of these I used 10 amp Kobiconn RFI/EMI filters (Mouser.com # 437-10CA1).  I used an additional 10 amp Kobiconn filter to feed the four Felicia circuits.   The Kobiconn filters (chrome boxes in the pictures) are mounted to the inside back panel of the box, above the tops of the transformers.

I sanded and stained the box and used black AC outlets and plates to dress it up a bit.  Close inspection will reveal my rudimentary woodworking and finishing skills.  But from across the room, it doesn’t look half-bad.

Before I plugged any gear into it, I triple checked continuity and voltages for all outlets.  The GFCI and Kobiconn filtered outlets all measured ~120vac across the outlets, ~120vac from hot to ground and 0vac from neutral to ground.  The Felicia outlets all measured ~120vac across the outlets and ~60vac from hot to ground and neutral to ground.  On my first measurement I got nothing out one of the Felicias.  Further inspection revealed that I had inadvertently clipped one of the transformer leads.  Once that was resoldered, it measured fine.

So how does it sound?  I tested it by plugging the PC directly into the wall and plugging my CD player (Sony NS999ES) into the PC.  Everything else remained plugged into my Equitech 2Q.  I rotated between an unfiltered GFCI outlet, a Kobiconn filtered outlet, and a Felicia outlet.  My music selections were the Floristan Trio SACD (chamber), the Telarc Dukas SACD (orchestral), a Tierney Sutton CD (jazz), and a Joe Satriani SACD (techno-noise).  Other than the Floristan disc, none of these are reference recording for me, but it was what I felt like listening to.

Unfiltered GFCI:  Not bad, but I could definitely tell the sound quality had taken a step back from what I’m used to hearing with the Equitech.  Flat, constricted soundstage. Sloppy bass definition.  Digital crispies surrounding key instruments/voice.

Kobiconn Filter:  Nice, noticeable improvement.  Soundstage began to open up and deepen.  Better pitch definition in the bass region.  Smoother, more liquid presentation.

Felicia:  Wow!  Where did all that energy and information come from?  I was now listening way into the soundstage.  Subtle accents and melody lines previously buried were now weaving their way through the music.  Detail and delineation galore, deeper, wider soundstage AND that magic sense of organic musical flow.  Very impressive!

Finally, I compared the Felicia to my beloved Equitech.  It was really close, but I have to say that the Felicia did a better job of conveying the organic flow of the music than the Equitech.  I’m not gonna ditch my Equitech because of its high current capabilities, but I will be building up some Felicias for my CD player and preamp.  My friend should be quite pleased with this PC.

[JoshK]

Very coolio Russ, let us know how you set it up, what config, etc.

[Occam]

Russ,

Very, very nice! I'm amazed you could fit 4 Felicias inside that Ikea box, and that the thin bottom could support the 8 transformers. In my Felicia triplex, I ended up gluing a 3/8 plywood reinforcing rectangle (allowing clearance from the sides) to provide strength. I assembled in on the sandwiched bottom, and with much cursing put the sides on after testing.
Echoing Josh, so how does it sound? Whats with those additional hermetically sealed filters?....

Looking forward to your comments.

Felicitations,
Paul

[Russtafarian]

I apologize for my lame digital photography.  The shot of the front panel is supposed to show a black GFCI outlet in the center, an IEC inlet below it and black quad outlets on either side.  Except for the GFCI, The top row of outlets are wired to Felicias, the bottom row to the Kobiconn filters.

[Occam]

Russ,

Your digital photography is quite good. I was actually going to post a photo of my own three way Felicia in that same Ikea box under construction, with the title -
'nekk'd Felicia in a three way' until I remembered for whom I'd named the project... I'll post a pic later with a title that is less prone to have JoshK beat the crap out of me. I'm quite pleased that you consider Felicia, within her power limits, at least the subjective equal of your Equitech. High praise indeed.
When you build you Felicias for your own use, at minimum, consider using the $2 Aerovox from Hosfelt in lieu of the $4 Amrad. The Aerovox unbypassed is IMO far better than the Amrad regardless of whatever bypass you stick on the Amrad. (as a result of Phillip's posts, I have some ASC, GE and some other motor run oil caps on order and will comment after Larry and I have tested them)

Thanks,
Paul

[Occam]

I've always considered myself a thrifty soul, or as my long suffering wife describes me, 'a cheap SOB'. Which is the setup for the following cautionary tale -

Larry(Tianguis) has spent considerable time and efforts evaluating various bypass caps for the different motor run caps tested for use in Felica. Those bypass caps have included silver micas, polyprop and foil, polystyrene and foil, and metalized polyprops. Much to my surprise (but not to Larry, and I assume others), he found that the Auricaps to be substantially better than others. Specifically, he found that a combination of a .47, .1 and .01 uf Auricap in parallel with the main oil cap made everything, in engineering parlance, 'mo betta'. The .47 was prefferable to a 1uf, and amazingly enough the .01 had a major impact on bass definition (don't ask me why ), and leaving the .1 out resulted in a lack of 'coherence'.
But as She Who Must be Obeyed says, I'm a cheap SOB, so I decided that I obviously could get very close by using only 2 bypass caps, a .47uf and either a .047 or .033. Nope, didn't work. Not that this combo wasn't good, it was just that it wasn't nearly as 'mo betta' as Larry's preferred combo. Go figure.
Obviously, one man's massive improvement is another's minor change. It depends on your system and metrics. The comments you heard from those at Daniel's NYRave were based upon Felicia with the original Amrad motor cap. The currently reccomended Aerovox motor cap is IMO substantially better. Even unbypassed, the currently configuration of Felicia has temendous groovosity. But with Larry's reccomended bypasses, its that much better.
YMMV

In my experience, Felicia responds to component changes moreso than any other project I've dealt with.  Its just a frigg'n powerconditioner. It responds to everything. Physical isolation has a major impact ( I think mi-rollers are the bomb on Felicia ). ERS cloth around the oil caps add resolution.  Grounding the metal bodied run caps opens up the soundstage (that actually has sound engineering behind it and is standard practice). The internal wire changes the sound, and hopefully Larry will comment on that. And all of this is really beginning to piss me off, because its turning me into a 'tweek', a genus of audiophile I've previously sneered at.....

Penny wise and pound foolish,
Occam

PS - Felicia powering the Teac LP-7000 tripath amp really works a treat...

[tianguis]

Senor Tweaky and all Felicia-ites:
        Gotta comment. First, Occam and I seem to hear the same thing with component changes, which makes multi-hour sessions amenable to both of us. Today was the third of such in my system, each involving multiple changes and switch-outs. Our "scientific" approach to each of these sessions has primarily involved a single CD, particularly 2 or 3 tracks. Occam originally hated it, but has come to know what it says. I always liked it, but chose it for its dynamic range and frequency extremes. Even my wife, Jane, has come to appreciate the subtleties, although she originally didn't like it, either.
        Occam's new "triple" Felicia uses wire from Volex PC's for the x-fmr to cap wiring runs. My "reference" Felicia used Chris VH 12 AWG cryoed wire. The Volex wire gives better dynamics and sound stage, a bit less detail, a bit more "mud", but a better overall presentation than the VH. However, we're talking about brandy-new everything. I expect it to improve with time and will change my "ref" to Volex internal wire.
        In the Felicia, and several other apps, I've been finding that very small caps (in bypass) contribute significantly to bass reproduction. This seems to go counter to intuition, but I've found it to be true many times in power supplies or conditioning or coupling.
        The Auricaps seem to be the best combo of price vs. performance. Nothing I've tried sounds as good. Can't justify more "boutiquey" caps.
        Kudos to Occam for the triple Felicia. It's a monster. We'll open some ears this week-end.

Larry

[lonewolfny42]

tianguis :

Our "scientific" approach to each of these sessions has primarily involved a single CD, particularly 2 or 3 tracks. Occam originally hated it, but has come to know what it says. I always liked it, but chose it for its dynamic range and frequency extremes.

And which cd might this be....thanks !!![/list:u]
Chris[/list:u]

[tianguis]

Bassfreak:
        I knew you'd ask, so I deliberately didn't mention the title. Would you believe Bad Plus "Vistas"? One track has always been "Flies on my Ass", or something like that. It's a work-out. I've become addicted. So has Jane, 'though not originally by choice. As I improved things, I thought one of my Lowthers had a voice coil rub. Not!

Larry

[lonewolfny42]

    And I was thinking Black Light Syndrome.....

The Bad Plus title..."Keep the bugs off you glass, and the bears off your ass".... [/list:u]

[jdybnis]

Finally, I compared the Felicia to my beloved Equitech. It was really close, but I have to say that the Felicia did a better job of conveying the organic flow of the music than the Equitech. I’m not gonna ditch my Equitech because of its high current capabilities, but I will be building up some Felicias for my CD player and preamp. My friend should be quite pleased with this PC

Did you try the Felicia hooked up through the equitech instead of into the wall directly? I'm thinking the trade-off would be more mains filtering vs. less isolation from the power amp. It may or may not sound better, but it would be interesting to find out.

[Christopher Witmer]

Here's a nice 2KVA 1:1 "noise zero" transformer . . . the price is the equivalent of US$300, however.

[james_b]

Is it recommened to use just a single two-plug outlet for this, or can it handle two outlets, or do you need one for each outlet? Thanks

[Occam]

James - Thats totally up to you. Others have shared a single Felicia (the 2 transformers and cap(s)) between 2 components and it works quite well as long as those 2 components combined draw doesn't exceed about 90watts rms. But a Felicia dedicated to each source component provides better isolation between components and allows more headroom with respect to power draw.
I'm a minimalist sort of a guy and don't actually use outlets on my own Felicias, and simply have each of mine output via a powercord terminated in a IEC female which plugs directly into a component. In those situations where I've demonstrated Felica powering a component with a captive 2 prong powercord, I've simply used a IEC to NEMA adapter -
http://www.stayonline.com/detail~ID~3095.html
But this has simply been an expedient and easy solution, not necessarily the appropriate 'audiophile' solution where an actual outlet might be better. Similarly, if you've specific costly powercords that you prefer to use that you don't want to put under the knife, using your preferred outlets might be more appropriate.
As I've settled on Volex powercords, my 'octopus' approach is cheap and easy and works for me. But there is nothing specific about the Felicia that would preclude you from using outlets, Neutric Powercons, etc....

[Russtafarian]

Speaking of current draw Occam, I installed the Franken-Felicia in my friend's video system, and it totally flopped!  

The reason?  Higher than anticipated current draw from the components.  His Audio Research SP3 preamp (60 watt draw) and Denon 5910 DVD player (80 watt draw for a DVD player!) wouldn't work with the Felicia.  Neither would power up and function correctly.  They worked fine with the Kobiconn filters which did significantly improve the performance of his system.  But no Felicia magic for his gear.

I'm going to rebuild the piece for him with just the Kobiconn filters, and keep the Felicias for me (Marv Albert voice "YES!").

[Fredly]

I'm a lurker, for the most part, but am VERY intrigued by what I've been reading about this project.

I live in Toronto Canada.

Can anyone give me info as to whether a capable transformer can be had up here?

I would LOVE to avoid the pain in the arse it is shipping heavy stuff across the border AND the ridicules additional tariffs I tend to pay.

OR would someone have an idea of what I can expect to pay for shipping for 4 of these transformers, if I were to order from B.G Micro.

Oh, and one last question, I have already built two of the Jon Risch power conditioners (a very nice project I might add), therefore if I were to plug the Felicas in those......would I be able to avoid some of the filtering in the schematic?

I'm a bit confused as you can tell.

Any info anyone could provide would be GREATLY appreciated.

Cheers everyone, Fred in Canada