Let's Get Juiced.

Oh that crazy electricity. Ever since Tesla and Edison duked it out in the AC/DC wars, electricity has fascinated us and caused many a kid to blow up toasters with a fork.

Tesla might have been, shall we say, eccentric, but not quite as nutso as Edison who electrocuted an elephant to show the dangers of AC electricity. His DC system, of course, was bogus because we all know that DC voltage can't be transmitted very far.

Don't misconstrue DC as being innocuous however. I know all too well what can happen with DC voltage, capacitors and screwdrivers. I don't recommend this, but it can be an interesting experiment to short out a very large capacitor with a screwdriver or other metal objects.  Capacitors store juice for a while and react quite violently when shorted out. Fun, but dangerous.

Years later, electricity continues to be misunderstood. In Canada a lot of out power requirements are met via massive hydro electric projects. So much so in fact that we sell the surplus to New York State in some instances. Sorry Big Apple, but a lot of your juice is from Quebec. If you don't believe me, and you live in NYC or upstate New York, all you have to do is stick your tongue in a socket; you will definitely get a slight maple syrup aftertaste. I once had to explain to a very pretty gal in New York city that hydro electric power does not mean that water is coursing through the wires behind the wall. She never quite believed me, but it's a long story.

I have been zapped more than a few times in my life. Milwaukee used to make metal-bodied drills. They had tendency to short out and send some nice, clean 110 volts AC right through your guts. You didn't even have to hold the tool, holding a metal step ladder for someone using that drill was enough to transmit that juice.

When I was 10 or 11 years a friend of mine decided to have some fun at my expense. It took me a few years to realize this. He told me that if I hooked up a desk lamp in parallel to a speaker output of my amplifier that it would act like a light organ and pulse to the music. It sounded like a cool idea. What actually happened was a very loud bang and a shower of blue sparks. In that brief moment, I learned a about electricity and people being assholes and I was relegated to listening to music in mono for several years until I was able to afford a proper amplifier.

North America uses 110 V Ac at 60 Hz and I'm not sure why. Maybe to be different, probably for the same reason we started driving cars on the right side of the road . When British Columbia was founded, we still drove on the left, but it scared horses or something about avoiding piles of their poop, or something, so we switched. Maybe something similar happened when the big wigs sporting huge sideburns decided on 110V.

Europe is on a 220 V 50 Hz system. This explains the little voltage dials on the back of amplifiers and why your electric shaver blows up when you are on vacation. This also explains why British speaker manufacturers had to change their speaker connections. It seems that British mains plugs and dual banana plugs were the same size. You know at least two or three dudes blew up speakers with was the catalyst to necessitate this change. Same reason a warning is included on the packaging of an iPod Nano stating " do not eat iPod".

Years ago, George Tice understood the vagaries of AC power and its direct effect on the performance of audio components. Those massive Tice Titan power conditioning systems became a benchmark in high end audio. Companies like Blue Circle and Shunyata have upheld this tradition and a good power conditioning is the essential part of a high end system. Except for people who consider it to be some some sort of audio voodoo, and that's when the arguments start.

I won't even think about getting roped into arguments about whether or not the the machine shop down the road is causing weirdness in Beethoven's 5th symphony, or your house being a Faraday cage or maybe an illicit hydroponic agricultural facility in that run down house across the street.

Companies like Linn, Krell and Bryston were vehemently opposed to power conditioning or even upgrading AC cables ( strangely enough, Bryston now makes their own power conditioner).

My old Linn Aktiv LK-85 amplifiers had massive toroidal transformers and, against Linn's better judgment, I plugged them into a power conditioner. They benefited greatly resulting in more detail and blacker blacks in the background. When Linn made the jump to Slimline switching power supplies,  I still wasn't sure if I preferred the sound to good old transformers, but I eventually found that they also benefited from power conditioning.

Also that big-ass utility company that would sell juice to New York was notorious for frequent power failures. The technicians enjoyed sending a surge of voltage through the lines when replacing transformers. Maybe they did it specifically to make me angry. Paranoia aside, I had a fried preamp on my hands after one their blackout parties. Lucky for me Linn has some of the best service around and they repaired it for me ( way past the warranty period). No amount of angry letters to the utility company would make them buy me a new preamp, so that avenue was futile ( that might make them send even higher voltages to apartment).

This close encounter with large amounts of electricity also emphasized the need for good surge suppression and spike protection as well as power conditioning. A good power conditioner will take care of this as well.

I recently attended a Nordost cable demo at a friend's high end audio shop. Only an audiophile would spend a sunny Saturday afternoon cooped up in a darkened sound room doing A/B comparisons with cables. The Nordost Rep was knowledgeable, and all techno-babble aside, I was astounded at the audible differences that could be heard by plugging a high end AC cable. The fact that one cable cost more than a Toyota Yaris is irrelevant.

I live in a rental apartment that suits my needs, but more importantly suits my audio system. The electrical box is located in a little room where the washer and dryer are. It is a frightening rat's nest of wires that looks like it might have been hooked up by monkeys. If I so much as plug in my electric potato peeler ( yes, I'm that lazy) the lights flicker.

I recently found a used Tice power conditioner in a shop that mainly sells turntables to clueless hipsters. It had been sitting for a while, and owing to the obscure use of this mysterious black box, it was difficult to sell. I got it for a decent price, even though I had to run a gauntlet of hipsters and shitty Kenwood turntables.

When I got everything wired up, the end result was astonishing. Black, velvety backgrounds and loads of detail. I needed a few more items to complete the upgrade so I went to an industrial electrical supplier. I am always met by blank stares at these places when I ask for  "Hospital Grade " plugs. I found a technician who knew what I was talking about, but was suspicious as to why I specifically wanted hospital grade. Not like I was asking for large balls of Uranium.

 I replaced the duplex outlet with a hospital grade and the landlord is none the the wiser. The upgrade was complete and it gave me immense satisfaction to stare at the big black power conditioner and the cherry-red hospital grade plug.

I had an old Adcom line conditioner kicking around and I installed a hospital grade AC plug on that. I run my lamp and my clock radio on that unit. It's not like my clock radio is now keeping time as if linked to the vibrations of Cesium atom, I just think it's cool and I haven't been late for work yet. I also made sure I shut off all the breakers before I jammed a screw diver into the wall. I've been juiced enough times to know better.