How To Isolate Components From Electrical Noise from Other Components? Does It Help?  

We use plastic washers on rack screws. On some units that have ****** grounding like Clear Com units we put Gaff tape around them where ever they touch other gear because they will cause some noise. Other than that we pack them in. I can take some pics of some racked gear later today and post them.

Pics

Use a separate zero ground connection for all your a/v gear.

Make coper shelves below each level of your equipment rack and connect those together to your household grounding, not to your a/v gear grounding. If you run cables through walls, ceiling or the floor, use coper pipes arround them and connect these to that same household grounding.

Use good shielded cables of course.

The above is IMO good as grounding plan as well as good for EMI/RFI protection.

Of course, one could also add, stop buying junk.

That may be very telling Chu. At the last three homes we have owned and in many of my gigs I have never had the buzz or hum problems so many here seem to have.

In my home I dont have million dollar gear, my HD1s are the most expensive item I have, and they are hooked up with some cheap azz cables, but they are wired correctly and I have alot of homebrew cables as well.

Again that seems like huge overkill. I just dont see how so many folks here have buzzes. Seems alot of it always goes back to the cable or sat lines they have. Take a look at my pics I posted, there is nothing special connecting all that and we have zero buzz. And some of that gear has some very long runs that go thru standard conduit.

Make sure all your a/v gear is connected to the same earth. Run multiple powerboards off the same mains outlet or, if you have the option, get an electrician to provide you with a bunch of mains outlets all connected together. That way, you are more or less creating what is known as a 'star earth' configuration (where all your gear branches out from a common earth point). This will minimise the potential difference between earth points which is a common cause of earth loops and the associated hums.
Also, as speco2003 has already mentioned, physically insulating the casing of your equipment from each other will help further.

Steve, you are a troublemaker!

Replies from all around the world, and yet no one mentions power line conditioners/regenerators/esoteric crystals.

I'm shocked! (ZAP!)

My only comment for Speco is that I'm surprised that there's not more blank rack spaces between equipment. I do see the large fan at the top of the rack, but usually even with processing gear I throw a blank rack space in, as many of the units' top covers get pretty warm when used normally. Is forced air behind the equipment enough to cool everything?

Cheers!

All that does is prevent the metal screws from marring the finish on your components.

I was assuming that he also puts washers behind the equipment and around the screws, thus isolating the equipment from the rack.

What about having a 5 ton air conditioner 3 feet across from your main rack?

Tell the customer he has a choice: home theater or a cool house.



Actually if the AC feeds are completely separate and the A/C or rack is well shielded, I don't think it's a huge issue.

OTOH, didn't you have a choice beforehand as to where the rack was to be located?

Awww snap somebody caught it.

On Clear Com we will use plastic screws and washers on both sides of the rack ears.

Most as in 90% of all that gear has burned on 24/7 since 2004. The room is a cool 67 all the time. A light bulb only blows after being turned off.

For heavier stuff you can use larger versions of the insulating washers used for TO3 power transistors too and back them with nylon washers between the amp and the rack rails. One touring PA I used to operate and maintain had a rack of Crown 5000's with that setup and it was robust enough for road use.... and those Crowns are HEAVY!! We made up supporting brackets with ventilation holes to go under the higher up amps in order to take the downwards pressure off the washers and to give the rack more stability.
Given the abuse most touring PA's are subjected to, I think this would be more than rugged enough for permanent HT installations

No I don't this is a retrofit situation.

I am quite surprised that no one has pointed out to Steve the efficacy of wrapping his components in tin foil.

http://people.csail.mit.edu/rahimi/helmet/

I thought I had seen it all... is this real?

I guess it depends on what you mean by "real" . The page I linked to is making fun of it - I think the tests may have been real. However believers in the tin foil hats have refuted the studies and their flawed methodologies :

http://zapatopi.net/blog/?post=20060...i_gets_popular
http://zapatopi.net/blog/?post=20051..._effectiveness
http://zapatopi.net/afdb/

I am unsure if the sites above are tongue in cheek - I think they are for real.

You can find instructions to make them here.

http://www.stopabductions.com/

BTW, it's very important not to confuse your tin hats. The foil needed to prevent alien mind probing is completely different than the foil needed to prevent government mind control. Ideally one should use a dual hat to be covered on all fronts.

I just made that up .

I wonder if he showers with that on.

LOL ...... I think

I would love to know how he arrived at those 'statistics'

ROFL
If they steal my thoughts, I am honoured. If they steal my studio gear, they are in trouble!!!

We aren't interested in petty larceny.

Why does Steve even care? Here is the latest quote from him at BSAudios site. And to correct him we are interested in real world measurement and tests which DJ Paul does not do.

Quote"Steve Bruzonsky

Total Posts: 40

Member Since:
August 2002
posted 1/24/2007 10:49:53 AM
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
By the way, by and large, the folks over at AVS Forum do not believe in experimenting, only DOGMA that power don't make a difference. My thread there was hijacked with BS. I'm not bothering to post there on this anymore, its a wasted effort. I've directed a few folks over there interested to this site."

I am beginning to think (perhaps cynically) that this thread is one of those "light fuse, run away" type deals!