Power Supplies And Sound Quality

Whether you play with tube amplifiers or transistors, CD players or power amps, the power supply is fundamental. Without a good transformer, the finest capacitors and resistors are wasted. Many veteran audiophiles and DIY experts often say that in the end playing with audio means playing with power supplies. Based on that principle, I traveled from south to north and east to west, connecting my system to electrical grids across the country and conducting comparative tests on how different kinds of electricity affect hi-fi sound quality, eventually reaching an entirely new conclusion.

I. Introduction

Whether you play with tube amplifiers or transistors, CD players or power amps, the power supply is fundamental. Without a good transformer, the finest capacitors and resistors are wasted. Many veteran audiophiles and DIY experts often say that in the end playing with audio means playing with power supplies. So I connected my system to electrical grids all over the country and carried out empirical comparisons of how different power sources influence hi-fi sound, eventually arriving at a brand-new conclusion.

II. Empirical Analysis Of Different Electrical Grids

1. Generation methods and sound quality. Coal-fired electricity gives more drive and a warmer sound, especially on tube amps such as 300B and 2A3 designs. Once you connect them to thermal power, the warmth can practically kill you. Hubei is a major hydroelectric province, relying mainly on the Gezhouba and Qingjiang stations, so local audiophiles often feel their systems sound colder and try to compensate by changing tubes and cables. But during the dry season, they suddenly find their systems becoming warmer and more pleasing, because hydro output falls and thermal power from elsewhere is dispatched in.

   Hydropower sounds colder, but its resolution is high, more like the sonic character of Scandinavian hi-fi brands known for austerity and restraint. Among China’s hydro sources, Gezhouba supposedly has the best tonal character. If the Yarlung Tsangpo project is ever completed, then audiophiles in Yunnan, Guizhou, and Tibet will be blessed, because their electricity will be even better than Gezhouba’s.

   Among thermal plants, the Beilun station supposedly offers the best sound because it burns the country’s finest anthracite coal. That is why there are so many “late-night tube amp lovers” in Jiangsu and Zhejiang: they prefer warm sound. Not long ago, one of the most senior headphone enthusiasts in China was listening to an Audio-Technica AT-HA25D paired with AD2000 headphones. In the middle of the session he suddenly took off the headphones and said, “No point listening today. The water level at the hydropower station must have risen again.” Everyone else was stunned. The next day, floods were indeed reported and the reservoir level of the Xiaofengman hydropower station hit its highest point since 1953. Liaoning’s grid gets only 1 percent of its power from Xiaofengman, mind you.

2. Time-of-day power and sound quality. The time period of the power supply also matters. Comparative listening suggests that the same system sounds slightly colder between 8 p.m. and midnight, but clearly warmer after 1 a.m. That is because peak demand power uses hydroelectricity from other provinces, while off-peak power relies mainly on local thermal stations. Audiophiles are therefore advised to turn on their systems after midnight, when even a rooster’s crow sounds especially vivid.

3. Power grids and resolution. Because of environmental policies, the share of clean energy keeps increasing, and its effect on hi-fi keeps growing too. In Xinjiang and Inner Mongolia, listening to hi-fi can feel muddy and flat. The sense of layering is poor; large orchestral works such as Beethoven’s Fifth and Ninth seem to shrink in soundstage, and the violin, viola, and cello sections blur together. Wind power below 500 watts per turbine tends to sound thin. Whether the current is three-phase or two-phase matters less than overall balance, though three-phase clearly gives large-scale orchestral works more stability. Nuclear power is especially suitable for movie soundtracks such as Transformers, True Lies, and Terminator. Unfortunately, hydro, thermal, wind, and nuclear power are all mixed together in the national grid now, so everything ends up blended together. That, supposedly, is why modern audio systems sound less moving than old tube radios from the 1940s and 1950s. It also explains why old tube radios, especially Western Electric ones, have skyrocketed in price. Solar power, which is still mostly for personal use and not fully integrated into the grid, is said by one household user to sound warm but thin, with a limited soundstage, perhaps because photoelectric conversion efficiency is only around 30 percent.

4. Regional grids and sound quality. One audiophile moved from Shanghai to Guangzhou and found that his equipment sounded much better, mainly because the southern grid relies on Daya Bay nuclear power and hydroelectricity from Guangdong and Guangxi, giving audio both force and clarity. Someone is even said to be preparing to invest in an isolated, off-grid hydropower station fed by alpine snowmelt from the Yarlung Tsangpo, which would supposedly transform hi-fi sound completely. Audiophiles should hurry to move west and support national development while satisfying their ears at the same time. Of course, everyone’s aesthetic preferences differ. One audiophile transferred from Guangzhou to Beijing and said he would rather use coal power with a faint sulfur note than nuclear power, because nuclear-powered cooking supposedly contains trace radiation. He also claimed that soup made with nuclear electricity in Guangzhou always tasted bitter because the tiny radiation destroyed nutrients, leaving his child pale and thin. But after moving to Beijing, coal-fired soup supposedly tasted better, preserved nutrition, and made his son rosy-cheeked within two months.

III. Conclusion

People usually say that in the end playing with audio means playing with power supplies. Is that really correct? That conclusion is narrow-minded and amateurish. After the analysis above, I must proclaim loudly: in the end, playing with audio really means playing with the power grid. That is the true highest state of hi-fi. If you follow this theory in your audio journey, you will have an entirely new experience.

Comments From Netizens

I have tried everything you mentioned and deeply agree.

But recently I found the best electricity of all, and now that I have seen this post, I may as well say it.

My method of power generation combines the essence of grains and the yang energy of heaven and earth. It preserves the strengths of fire, water, and wind generation while discarding their weaknesses. So far I have not yet managed to integrate nuclear power.

Enough suspense. Let me explain the method.

First, I use a water-driven wheel generator, but not with ordinary water. I use urine. Yes, urine.

To combine wind and fire, before generating power you should bury yourself in ice in the middle of winter while exposing yourself to a level-12 gale until you catch a cold. That gives you the wind element.

How do you obtain fire? Very simple: get angry more often and eat spicy, greasy, strongly flavored food until your body becomes overheated. Then you have fire.

To balance the water element, you must drink water. The amount of water is worth studying carefully. If you drink too little, the sound lacks the nimble, crystalline quality of water. If you drink too much, the sound becomes flat and dull. So water intake is a key variable.

As for the nuclear element, which I have not yet achieved, I already have a rough research direction. You may have guessed it already: tuberculosis. However, I have not yet reached the stage of sacrificing my health for music, so I hope a truly dedicated audiophile can test it for me.

The generator itself must not be made of metal, or the metallic timbre becomes too strong. It must not be made of wood either, because that sounds too stiff. Stone is even worse, because it produces a dull tonal character. So the best material is something that is neither metal, nor stone, nor wood.

The material of the water wheel matters too. At the moment I use pig bones, but the sound is a little heavy and clumsy, perhaps because pigs are lazy. Next time I will try tiger bones.