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earthing arrangements and position of ‘Live’ and ‘Neutral’

Hi all,

I have a question on: earthing arrangements and position of ‘Live’ and ‘Neutral’. May be knowlegdeable inmates know someting about this. Feedback and thoughts on this are very much appreciated.

I used to have a NAIM system (CDX, NAP250, NAC82, 3 HICAPS) and with this system one could hear differences in sound quality when the power plugs had different positions of ‘Live’ and ‘neutral’ on the pins. I found this to be very annoying because one would think that NAIM uses circuit designs that are professional enough not to make such sound quality differences (for me this was another good reason to change too professional recording gear)

But now I discovered that this effect is also there between my 3 PSU’s (the Antec PSU + linear PSU on P4 + linear PSU on picoPSU-150-XT) . :-(
It does matter how the ‘Neutral’ and ‘Live’ 230 Volt positions are for each PSU.

Are there any other inmates with have experienced the same?
And what is theoretically the best way to determine what the optimal 230 Volts positions are between the 3 PSU for ‘Live’ and ‘neutral’?


* Now over too the other side of the PSU (12 Volt output)
There are also very small voltage differences between the (black Neutral 12 v lines) and the ground (earth).
- On the linear P24 PSU the differences between ‘Neutral’ and GRND is 3 mVolt.
- on the linear P4 PSU the differences between ‘Neutral’ and GRND is –20 mVolt.

Those two black ‘Neutral’ 12 volt line both go the mobo and 'meet' somewhere on the MoBo. I think.
- What happens with this 23 mVolt difference than? Is this earthed on the MoBo ?
- Should I ground both black ‘Neutral’ 12 volt lines directly at both PSU’s?
- should I connect both black ‘Neutral’ 12 volt lines together directly at both PSU’s?
- should I do both: connect them together at the PSU's and aerth them there a the PSU

Any suggestions?



Edits: 12/03/09

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