Balance Mains

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ProdigyDe
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#1 Balance Mains

Post by ProdigyDe »

Hi, I read lots about this, some say it is safe but some say there are fault conditions I need to worry about if I go this route, opinions please?
simon
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#2 Re: Balance Mains

Post by simon »

Good question. There are a couple of threads here if you search which discuss it.

Edit - here: http://www.audio-talk.co.uk/phpBB3/view ... nced+mains
ProdigyDe
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#3 Re: Balance Mains

Post by ProdigyDe »

ThAnk you. I will read them. I am confuse because Qualified engineers seem to be on both sides. I am careful because of insurance and risk. There should only be "safe" or "not safe" so I do not yet understand which is true.
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#4 Re: Balance Mains

Post by ProdigyDe »

Thank you for the thread, I think this was what I was looking for:


Post by Ali Tait » Fri Apr 12, 2013 9:42 am

"Should be fine as long as there is protection on both legs of the secondaries IMHO. I used a two pole RCBO, so both legs would be switched in the event of a fault on one, as I could forsee a situation where one leg could go faulty and the other stay live, for instance making the chassis of your kit live. Not good.

The other thing was keeping non balanced powered stuff away from the balanced, as you could have a difference in potential were you to touch both at once, since you have a neutral at 120v. Or maybe it's just me being over cautious. Can't help it, it's my job."

If built this way, are there no possible failures that can harm my home, myself or my hifi? Would insurers be ok?
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Ali Tait
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#5 Re: Balance Mains

Post by Ali Tait »

I’ve been using mine for 4 years now with no issues.

If you use it as I use mine, built in a box and plugged in to a socket, not hard wired in to your house wiring, I would not see any problems with insurance and testing requirements etc.

Of course if you wish to hard wire it into the ring main or radial feeding your system, then it the installation would need an inspection & test by a suitably qualified spark in order to comply with the regs and not invalidate your insurance in the event of a problem.
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Ali Tait
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#6 Re: Balance Mains

Post by Ali Tait »

If you haven’t already, check out Airlink Transformers for some plug and play solutions.
ProdigyDe
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#7 Re: Balance Mains

Post by ProdigyDe »

Thank you for Airlink recommendation. I have seen the name before and they appear good.

I also looked at NVA BMU but I do not know if it is bulid with protection like your one. I worry about my insurance if balance mains fails.

I also see maybe a problem with BMU on Dr Bunsen's forum but has it been removed? So I am left thinking what at was fault with Andy 831s BMU?

- I see Andy831 orders BMU and then posts in the BMU thread when it arrives
- Dr Bunsen quickly delete the entry and replace the content with "taken to PM"
- Then he delete all record of the post
- Then he announce that he have "emergency repairs to do"
- So what needs a repair? BMU, Amps, the über-expensive Tannoy GRF???

Dr Bunsen speaks of seeing "truth" being told and hating "sensorship" and he insist on full reviews "good or bad". So perhaps we will we find out all details when Andy831 gives his review. Perhaps it is something other BMU users should know about?

I will take the DIY route because I am unsure if makers will pay for damage to everything affected by a fault if insurance does not. If I know exactly how it is made, I can be sure of no faults on either leg of secondaries.
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shane
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#8 Re: Balance Mains

Post by shane »

What’s that smell? Thought so. A rat.
The world looks so different after learning science. For example, trees are made of air, primarily. When they are burned, they go back to air, and in their flaming heat is released the flaming heat of the Sun which was bound in to convert air into tree.
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pre65
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#9 Re: Balance Mains

Post by pre65 »

shane wrote: Wed Jan 10, 2018 6:33 pm What’s that smell? Thought so. A rat.
How many manufacturers would openly admit when one of their products goes wrong ?

Richard is no different.
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ed
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#10 Re: Balance Mains

Post by ed »

shane wrote: Wed Jan 10, 2018 6:33 pm What’s that smell? Thought so. A rat.

needs clarification Shane, to what or whom are you referring?
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#11 Re: Balance Mains

Post by shane »

Just seemed to me to be yet another of these people who appear from nowhere, have a go at Richard and then disappear again back to god knows where. Tiresome if so, apologies if not.
The world looks so different after learning science. For example, trees are made of air, primarily. When they are burned, they go back to air, and in their flaming heat is released the flaming heat of the Sun which was bound in to convert air into tree.
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Dr Bunsen Honeydew
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#12 Re: Balance Mains

Post by Dr Bunsen Honeydew »

Because it is just another glove puppet. They all give themselves away with this stink.

It was simple question that only applied to his unit and was not a fault or a complaint. He has over voltage mains and asked for special with a transformer that dropped his mains voltage. The discussion was about the level of voltage he was now getting and how to correctly measure it as it was now balanced. Nothing to do with the forum.

BUT the knob heads will pounce on any opportunity.

NVA BMU is built to Class II double insulated appliance standards, so cannot be anything else but safe, and doesn't need the bollocks of trips etc that have to be hung around a metal cased class I appliance to make it safe and pass CE. It has been tested in all failure condition (as written up in my CE paper) and in every case it failed safe and any fault condition just on one leg of the mains tripped the CU every time.

Per usual there is as much bollocks and lies that can be invented about NVA in past discussions, and everyone of the NVA and Dunn haters (mostly because scared stiff of the quality and price) are watching and hoping for a failure to jump on. They have been waiting for 5 years for something to catch fire after Marco's libel (oft repeated) if attached to an NVA amp, sadly for them nothing. Amps have failed, all amp manufacturers and makers have failures but the levels are very low, but all have failed safe apart from the occasional loss of a bass driver, on average less than one per year where DC has hit the coils before the protection kicks in. This is different it is a resistor that burns out so there is always some smell when an amp fails.

It seems I have to put this every time something like this comes up as there is just so much ignorance out there about appliance safety.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Appliance_classes
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Dr Bunsen Honeydew
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#13 Re: Balance Mains

Post by Dr Bunsen Honeydew »

ALSO just noted "emergency repairs". The expression I used was urgent repairs as I had neglected them in the over work I have on still catching up with Black Friday orders.

Isn't there some way to find these arses before they pollute the forum, they are trying all the time to get access to HFS, they are very easy to spot and refuse membership.
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#14 Re: Balance Mains

Post by Neal »

Only way to block is by IP address or well known public Proxy server addresses
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Dr Bunsen Honeydew
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#15 Re: Balance Mains

Post by Dr Bunsen Honeydew »

It is completely obvious if a application is genuine or a spammer or a troll. At HFS we spot block 9 out of 10 of them. I think that Nick wants to give every joiner a chance. Well as you see at least four in five of them lately are trolls and most of them the same person.
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