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Russ Andrews - Sawyers Disc Technology

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The spiralling leads to improved oxygenation and flavour release and creates good Feng Shui on the worktop. It also leads to improved rotation of cd spinners due to morphic resonance between current and rotation.
For the optimum cash rduction I can supply Special spring water with induced oxytoxins and free radicals which replicate the shape of digital jitter in the flowform of digital downpour

Oh yes its a design centre classic too so will hold its value - free trial if original packaging returned

AndrewsKettle.jpg
 
I hold a personal letter of apology signed by Russ Andrews. He sent this to me years ago admitting that he gave poor service. He blamed it on “being a victim of our own success”. If you believe this excuse you are likely to fall for his other marketing blurb.

He does write extremely persuasive blurb; but try and get performance specs and technical data on his products from him! (see typical presentation below).

Luckily, I was prevented by this 'victim' from buying something from him all those years ago; I just waited for so many months to do so that I complained. I didn’t really want to buy that thing from him in the first place and have never bought or contemplated buying anything else from him ever again.


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The Silver Reference PowerKord™

SPECIFICATIONS
Our reference Silver PowerKord™ for your system
Silver WATTGATE 350i Ag fitted as standard

The Silver Reference PowerKord™ is
Price £2,025.00 (was £2,250.00)
This item is currently out of stock but will be despatched within 5 working days of ordering.
Burn In info

Quantity

Customer Comment

My first impressions of The Silver PowerKord™ were of an all pervading naturalness across the frequency range. The soundstage and presence of the music in the listening area was a lot stronger and more focussed. After the full burn-in period and depth of bass response increased in weight and tunefulness. The top end was wonderfully seamless and natural without any sense of brittleness.

Middlesex Customer (Name withheld)"
 
Guys

I'm not normally of the habit of either browsing or replying to audio forums, first because the audio business is only a small part of my professional life, and second because they tend (like this one) to be ill informed, ill tempered, and opinionated on the basis of no hard facts whatever.

If you feel moved to do so, try googling my and Ben Duncan's name, which should convince you that neither of us are prone to lend our name and reputation to peddling technical nonsense.

For the record, the wooden tubes (cosmetic only) on the Superkord contain absolutely no magetic materials - in other words they are not ferrite based. There are actually around a dozen passive components in each tube, have a design that is based on electrical network theory, and provide a smooth broadband attenuation (from 1MHz up to around 1GHz) of about 20dB. Why the rather loosly worded "around" and "about"? Because the attenuation changes with frequency, and measurement at the microwave frequency end of the spectrum is subject to modest measurement error.

There seems to be much made of RA products bought by forum members that make no audible difference. That is absolutely fine of course - some things work with one particular system, and some don't. But note that RA has a returns policy:

"If you do not have complete success with any of our products within the trial period, please contact me. I will either solve the problem so that the product works to your satisfaction, or we will give you a full refund. No quibble. No fuss."

So I fail to see what the problem is. Why go to the trouble of selling on eBay when RA will take it back? Why not buy something, try it out and if it doesn't work, send it back within the 60 day trial period for a full refund? Surely it is a no-brainer.

This is my first and last post to this forum - you guys are on you own now. Argue the toss as you wish.

Craig Sawyers
 
I'm not in the habit of sticking up for manufacturers (the exception being ATC who offer exceptional customer service) and I was always a sceptic about cables and the like

However, I tried RA mains cables because they do have a returns guarentee policy. I can say that I have noticed improvements in the cables I've bought (up to the Ref Powerkord - I wouldn't justify spending more) and I'm happy with them. I'm not stupid - nor are my ears any worse than anyone else's on this forum I suspect. So if I can hear an improvement I can hear an improvement. I did try a kettle test and used a Yell0 cable on a kettle which lights up. It lit up more brightly and more clearly. It doesn't make better tea - but the cable must be doing something....

If others want to slag off the cables, or anyone that uses them, then I guess that's what these fora are for. But don't assume that those of us who believe cables make an improvement are all lacking in the hearing dept and just try RA cables and return them if you can't hear anything. It will cost you £4 postage - hardly a big deal among those hifi spenders among you!
 
ex brickie said:
I'm not in the habit of sticking up for manufacturers (the exception being ATC who offer exceptional customer service) and I was always a sceptic about cables and the like

However, I tried RA mains cables because they do have a returns guarentee policy. I can say that I have noticed improvements in the cables I've bought (up to the Ref Powerkord - I wouldn't justify spending more) and I'm happy with them. I'm not stupid - nor are my ears any worse than anyone else's on this forum I suspect. So if I can hear an improvement I can hear an improvement. I did try a kettle test and used a Yell0 cable on a kettle which lights up. It lit up more brightly and more clearly. It doesn't make better tea - but the cable must be doing something....

If others want to slag off the cables, or anyone that uses them, then I guess that's what these fora are for. But don't assume that those of us who believe cables make an improvement are all lacking in the hearing dept and just try RA cables and return them if you can't hear anything. It will cost you £4 postage - hardly a big deal among those hifi spenders among you!
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Don't you think there's a reason for RA and other cable companies pushing the try before you buy thing? Might it also not be to do with the psychology of the thing, otherwise they wouldn't offer it? Also, why waste £4 plus the interest earned while RA has your hard-earned cash? Sorry, if RA send me the cables for free and also the return postage I'll happily try them. Otherwise, I'm not going to be suckered in.

Even the estimable Mr Sawyers is pushing the 60-day thing, not to mention using persuasive terms like "no-brainer". The Romans got it right. Caveat emptor.
 
Sawyers said:
Guys

If you feel moved to do so, try googling my and Ben Duncan's name, which should convince you that neither of us are prone to lend our name and reputation to peddling technical nonsense.


Craig Sawyers
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Craig, I'm sure we'd all be really interested to see any data that you have that shows a positive effect on mains borne noise. If you have anything to show an effect on the musical signal then I'm sure everyone in the world of audio would be interested and ready to licence your new technology.

I can't wait for the publication and peer review of your research...
 
Craig, what's the relevance of attenuation in the MHz-GHz range to transmission of 230V/50Hz/a few amps as far as a transfrmer primary?

A yellow kettle lead that made the light-up kettle illuminate brighter? Brickie, you're pulling my leg, aren't you?
 
Ok, ok - I said that I would only post once - but...

Measurement with audio amplifiers is ongoing, and is part of an larger development programme. A hint about the significance of the magnitude of the problem comes from the tendency of audio (domestic and professional) equipment to pick up a mobile handset when it periodically polls a base station, with the commonly heard zit-zit-... sound from the speakers. That signal is in the range 700MHz to 2GHz typically, and is a good indication that amps are perfectly capable of behaving badly to rf ingress, even in the microwave regime.

There is a good published article on the Analog Devices website, linked here: http://www.analog.com/library/analogDialogue/archives/42-03/hfcm.html describing differential mode errors and increased noise base as a result of rf pollution that is worth a read.

Incidentally, I have no personal interest in RA, other than as a licensee for the technology.

To ultrawomble (oh dear), the Randi quip is beneath contempt.

Incidentally - do none of you believe in identifying yourselves as real people with a name? Call me old fashioned, but....

Craig
 
The relevance comes from the following. Generally amplifiers are enclosed in a metal case, which if the seams are well bonded (they frequently aren't) forms a nice Faraday cage - no interference can get in. However, as soon as you break the cage to introduce signal and power connection, you provide a method for rf interference to enter.

The conventional method of using an IEC connector, and then routing the mains wiring hither and yon around the inside of the enclosure essentially puts a loop antenna inside the case. Depending on the area of the loop and its proximity to the case itself, this can be resonant at any high frequency you might chose, depending on the internal amp cabling.

At lower rf frequencies (say 30MHz to 200MHz), you need to consider the mains transformer itself. It is fairly easy to measure the interwinding capacitance for unshielded mains transformers (99% of installations) - typically in the 100pF to 1nF range. So any rf that appears on the primary couples straight to the secondary where it encounters the bridge diodes. These turn on 100 times a second to charge the reservoir capacitors. However, these tend to be high value caps, which become inductive with rising impedance above around 100kHz. All this means that above a few MHz the power supply is wide open to rf. Likewise any linear regulators (which are essentially amplifiers with a voltage reference) conk out above a few MHz - look at the spec sheets.

OK - so why not use a Schaffner mains filter? These at least keep the interference currents within the local enclosure that holds the filter. However, they are only specified up to 30MHz (that is a frequency limit determined by EMC regulations). There is a good reason for this - they incorporate common and differential mode chokes wound on ring cores, the material for which becomes lossy at around 30MHz. Plus the DM choke has to have 6mm creepage and clearance between the two windings, leading to a very large leakage inductance - further curtailing rf attenuation above 30MHz. So they allow to pass precisely the frequencies that cause the main problem.

So yes - mains provides an extremely efficient method for squirting any rf coming down the mains right into the amplifier. That was the core incentive to providing as much attenuation as practical in the cable itself.

Craig
 
Craig, are you saying that manufacturers of hifi components haven't already worked this out and don't build their designs accordingly??

Also I've never heard that zit zit sound you mention - perhaps my gear isn't sensitive enough.
 
Sawyers said:
To ultrawomble (oh dear), the Randi quip is beneath contempt.
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Most certainly not a quip. If you're confident that your product has an audible effect, take him up on his cable challenge, win the million dollars (hardly a sum to be scoffed at) and watch the sales roll in. Easy money surely?
 
stevec67 said:
A yellow kettle lead that made the light-up kettle illuminate brighter? Brickie, you're pulling my leg, aren't you?
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Isn't that how a dimmer switch works, increasing the resistance?
If a cable changes the resistance then yes a light could be brighter or dimmer.
 
avole said:
Craig, are you saying that manufacturers of hifi components haven't already worked this out and don't build their designs accordingly??

Also I've never heard that zit zit sound you mention - perhaps my gear isn't sensitive enough.
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First... a lot of designs are still based on circuits developed long before we lived in such an RF-polluted environment. Some manufacturers have attempted to resolve these problems (Arcam's perversely named 'Mask of Silence' for example), but many in-product resolutions either fail to do much to the power inlet or provide a solution that does more damage to the sound than what it's protecting against.

Second... I really don't believe you've never heard the sound of someone's mobile phone making its presence felt through a system. Even if you never use a mobile and live in a faraday cage, you'll have heard this sound ('zit, zit' isn't perhaps the right description... 'bapada, burpada, bapada' might be closer) at some time in the last few years.
 
ultrawomble said:
But does that interference enter through the mains or by another mechanism?
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I don't know... but isn't that the point? If it's determined that this does or does not enter through a particular mechanism, that increases our overall understanding. I can speculate one way and you can speculate in the other and we can bring all manner of elegant and inelegant arguments to support our case to the table, but that doesn't make it any less speculative.
 
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