6mm cable for a hifi?

[HappyHippyDad]

Evening all.

A customer has asked for a dedicated radial circuit to feed 4 2g sockets.

He has asked for the cable to be rated at 45amps as he said at times the hifi equipment may reach this current. He is very specific that he wants the cable rated at this as a minimum.

He has asked for the 6mm to be terminated into an enclosure by the hifi which then feeds out in 2.5mm 'individually' to each of the sockets which are right by the enclosure (like an old spider circuit for lighting).

My plan was to use a 45A MCB for the circuit as the 2.5mm cable supplying the sockets will not need overload (O/L) protection and fault protection will be offered by the 30mA RCD (TT). Reference method will be 'C'.

I'd be interested in any opinions on this as it is a different style of circuit to 'normal' and those shown in appendix 15, but as stated fault protection is in place, O/L protection in place for the 6mm cable and protection against O/L can be omitted for the 2.5mm cable feeding the sockets (433.3.1 (ii)).

Cheers.

 

[Lucien Nunes]

Indeed, he is the customer after all, and if the system gives him pleasure, all's not lost. A lot of people would laugh their heads off at some of the hardware I listen to, although to the best of my knowledge it's 100% based on valid science. Anyway if someone wants a cooker in the living room there will be a supply ready for it.

 

[davesparks]

Out workshop speakers are Martin audio EM15's since the damned things appear to be breeding on their shelves.
I bet they give a far better sound quality than any super special hifi speaker!

 

[amlu]

Get him to email the specs for the amplifier . It will have a 13 amp plug with a 5 amp fuse inside .

Then ask him why a 45 amp supply is needed for a piece of equipment protected by a 5 amp fuse .

Have a look in some audiophile shops. There will be "power conditioners" with small inductor and capacitor inside, £££ a piece. Gold plated interconnects and ultra pure oxygen free silver braided speaker cable (£££ a metre) .
Amplifiers and speakers may cost above 10k.
I may not hear the difference (and I have some sound engineering experience) but your customer may hear . Perceiving sound is totally subjective to the person.
If they are happy to pay and proposed circuits comply with the regulations, why not?

 

[Adam W]

My first instinct would be that the customer has got his sums wrong.
Even so, I would go along with what everyone else has suggested - get what he wants in writing before he changes his mind again, and do what he wants to pay for.

 

[ruston]

My first instinct would be that the customer has got his sums wrong.
Even so, I would go along with what everyone else has suggested - get what he wants in writing before he changes his mind again, and do what he wants to pay for.

I would too. There is nothing like making someone happy and making a few shillings out of it.
After all you are not doing anything wrong, you are only doing what he has asked.

 

[stevethesparks]

I wonder how often this customer sits listening and swapping tracks trying to convince himself that the last small tweak made a difference.
Having said that, a lot of people haven't heard a decent hi-fi system, and I am proud to say that some of the best is made in Britain - a fair bit from the Cambridgeshire region. But I do think that many audiophiles are a bit over the top.

 

[Adam W]

I wonder how often this customer sits listening and swapping tracks trying to convince himself that the last small tweak made a difference.
Having said that, a lot of people haven't heard a decent hi-fi system, and I am proud to say that some of the best is made in Britain - a fair bit from the Cambridgeshire region. But I do think that many audiophiles are a bit over the top.

Do you mean Cambridge Audio? Is the name of the company you're referring to called "Cambridge Audio"?

 

[stevethesparks]

Last time I was involved with Hi-Fi there were many companies in Cambridgeshire
Mission
Arcam
Meridian
Quad
Cyrus
I'm sure there are others.
Most from the Huntingdon area, although I fear a lot of this may now be made in China, but still to a great specification.

 

[DPG]

The best amplifier I have ever had was from that area. A Quad 405 Mk II. Lovely. Daz

 

[jackhammerJIM]

Have a look in some audiophile shops. There will be "power conditioners" with small inductor and capacitor inside, £££ a piece. Gold plated interconnects and ultra pure oxygen free silver braided speaker cable (£££ a metre) .
Amplifiers and speakers may cost above 10k.
I may not hear the difference (and I have some sound engineering experience) but your customer may hear . Perceiving sound is totally subjective to the person.
If they are happy to pay and proposed circuits comply with the regulations, why not?

I am aware of the snake oil . Having experience with PA systems and sound i would be advising the customer otherwise . His transient response would benefit having money spent on room acoustics and design of speaker than an oversized supply .

 

[HappyHippyDad]

Client now wants 4mm SY cable after speaking to specialist shop!

I shall wait till he has come to a final conclusion!

 

[Lucien Nunes]

Is 6mm² too big now or is it the more finely stranded sound of SY that is wanted? As can be seen from my little fuse experiment in post 16, it will run happily on one strand of 4mm² SY.

This sounds like preparation for a big sell. If they advise to get a special circuit installed and the customer does so, when they try to push a £500 IEC lead they have already defeated the counter-argument that the installation cable is too poor for the special lead to make a difference.

Aha, the penny just dropped, SY sounds more... transparent!

 

[HandySparks]

Last time I was involved with Hi-Fi there were many companies in Cambridgeshire
Mission
Arcam
Meridian
Quad
Cyrus
I'm sure there are others.
Most from the Huntingdon area, although I fear a lot of this may now be made in China, but still to a great specification.

Interesting that some of these are now owned by IAG Group, a Chinese company. (I have an Audiolab 8000A and one of their CD players.)

http://www.audiolab.co.uk/about.php?id=25
http://www.iaggroup.com/

 

[DPG]

Used to have Audiolab pre and power amps - very nice also. Lucien, you have hit the nail on the head with the word 'transparent'. Daz

 

[davesparks]

Client now wants 4mm SY cable after speaking to specialist shop!

I shall wait till he has come to a final conclusion!

That puts paid to your idea of running it outside then!