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General safety
If you've read this far you realize that I am impressed not only with the specific 10WQ but the concept of balanced power. Since this is an expanded review I am going to finish with a few postscripts, the first being safety. With a discussion of a different type of power distribution safety is a concern. I brought the topic up with Martin right out of the gate and he ardently contends that a balanced power system is inherently safer. 60 volts to ground offers less potential harm than 120. Say you touched a live wire. Two factors come into play, the line voltage and your skin resistance. Skin resistance is not constant and can vary from 1MΩ (the light touch of a very dry fingertip) to 100Ω (standing in water grabbing a conductor with both hands). An average resistance of 5.000Ω is not unreasonable. Standard power would yield a current shock of 24mA (120/5000Ω) while balanced power will be half that at 12mA (60V/5000Ω). It won't be pleasant but probably not deadly because the 12mA current is generally below the threshold to trigger lethal ventricular fibrillation. No one advocates sticking fingers in outlets but Martin’s point is that if there is an accident, you are safer with balanced power.
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If it's safer and more energy-efficient as well see shortly and offers better performance for audio and video, what's the problem? Why not just wire your entire house with balanced power and enjoy the benefits globally? There are a few issues. First and foremost are standard single-pole single-throw switches and standard outlets. If you look at most balanced power equipment you’ll see disclaimers against lighting use. It’s not that the light bulb will somehow be damaged. The bulb itself couldn’t care less. The issue is with the switches. If you've dabbled with your home’s electrical system you know that every light switch makes and breaks the circuit by opening and closing the black (hot) wire in our 120V system. Since the white wire is at 0V, when the switch is off all parts of the light fixture socket are at 0V relative to ground. With balanced power any part of the fixture connected to the 'white' power line runs 60V through it even with the switch off. Simple appliances not controlled by wall switches have what's known as polarized plugs. Look at a two-bladed plug. One blade should be larger than the other so that plug only fits into the outlet one way. This assures that the hot side of the cable is the one internally switched. With balanced power you have 60V on the white neutral side and it’s live inside the appliance at all times. When you additionally have sloppy improper wiring in electrical devices combined with utter stupidity and poor design where the manufacturer will tie the white and ground together against code, you get potential danger in a standard system and a dead short in a balanced system.
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This is not intended to scare you concerning the risks of balanced power. All of us use it every day. Turn on your oven, dry your clothes, turn on your well pump or your whole-house air conditioner. They all use 240V power with 120V on each leg out of phase to show 240V to the appliance. The difference is that these appliances, their breakers and their switches were all developed for use with two permanently hot leads.
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Equipment safety
As long as your equipment is properly designed you should have no problems. If your equipment does have problems, you’ll encounter them regardless although probably less so with balanced power. For instance if the gear grounds the neutral it will immediately trip the panel circuit breaker. This dangerous situation could go undetected with traditional power. Even under the worst case scenario where the neutral is grounded to the chassis and you lift the ground then touch the chassis, Equi=Tech's CGIF will kick in after 5 milliseconds to disconnect power.
Correctly designed electronic equipment cares only about the voltage potential between two lines, be that 120V and 0V or ±60V. The difference simply has to be 120V. I’ve used stand-alone balanced power for 10 years. I've plugged in every conceivable piece of equipment into it from the costliest audiophile stuff to televisions, projectors, iPods and receivers. I’ve never had a glitch or a component failure and the improvements were universally positive. As to installation, even with the safety features of the 10WQ it's not for an overzealous weekend mechanic. We’re dealing with high voltages, grounding issues and electrical safety. Sometimes you best leave it to the pros. This is one of those times.
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The future of balanced power
Martin is one of the authors of the original electrical code for balanced power and attempting to expand the electrical code for its residential use. During 2012 Martin plans on meetings with committee members and Intertek (think UL). Changing the electrical code is not as simple as a presentation of an academic treatise. There are committees and a touch of politics. Martin's self-described challenge over the next year or so is to navigate the bureaucracy and make a case for expanded inclusion of balanced power in the 2012 edition of the NEC. With Equi=Tech’s experience in the professional environment, the NEC committee will be grilling Martin on safety and identifying problems encountered in previous commercial applications. If successful Equi=Tech will leverage and expand their commercial successes to bring distributed balanced power to residential homes.
If adopted new receptacles and plugs will be required for residential use to clearly indicate that this is not standard 120V power. Politics aside, other than a new receptacle system there are really no technical obstacles. Remember that there is nothing wrong with using any voltage combination provided you don't give someone a chance to abuse it. Martin believes that "as long as there is a unique receptacle I believe that ultimately the committee will agree since this is in essence no different than any other system be that 240V or 480V. All of these other voltages have systems with configurations unique to them.” There’s no reason you couldn't put a 480V outlet in the house. You just wouldn’t use a standard 120V outlet. Your dryer plugs into balanced power already. Why can’t your audio? Martin envisions a new outlet most likely labeled for electronic use, with an adapter plug to mate to the new outlet. By having a unique receptacle for this voltage it would put balanced power system in line with every other power system that has its own unique configuration.
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Green and balanced power
As one gazes into the future there is one additional element. Balanced power is inherently more efficient and green. Martin said that "… in its broadest sense the widespread use of balanced power throughout our nation’s power grid will significantly increase the efficiency of electricity itself." In the introduction I touched on the power factor. It is the ratio of actual power used to do work compared to total power delivered. Ideally a power factor of 1 indicates no waste. Yet the ratio in reactive loads is always less than zero, meaning voltage and current are out of phase. Some lights with ballasts only use 65% of the power fed to them. 35% is wasted as harmonic current fed back into the line as noise. While there are ways to play with power factor correction and adjust the voltage/current phase angle by adding capacitance, none are as simple and easy as balanced power.
You might wonder who pays for wasted power. On the residential side the utility companies don't directly charge the cost of wasted power to the consumer. If your device draws 1000VA but only uses 800 watt you are only charged for 800 watts. Someone of course has to pay for wasted power and the associated costs of larger transmission lines and bigger breakers. The extra costs and inherent pollution to compensate for wasted power are imbedded in the power grid's infrastructure. Martin’s believes that widespread adoption of balanced power would save 5% of our total energy costs. "The result of utilities providing higher quality power consumed by its customers in a balanced fashion will result in purer and less distorted electricity with a higher power factor everywhere. Electricity itself will be used more efficiently with less waste throughout the entire power grid. Less electricity will be needed because AC power that is more coherent with current and voltage in phase to each other packs more punch." In residential power consumption the savings would be in the billions of dollars. Realistically I don’t believe that our outlet and plug structure in use for a century will be displaced anytime soon. Still the lessening of our energy use combined with a reduction of our carbon footprint is an interesting concept in an oil-dependent energy world.
Summary
At this point you know that I am a balanced power convert. After a glowing review you might wonder about downsides. There are only two – logistical and financial. The 10WQ is not a casual purchase. It requires a commitment and is somewhat expensive for home use. The unit also demands professional installation and unless you have dedicated wiring to your listening room, you’ll be running new cabling. Until a new National Electric Code is out you'll also have to deal with your local inspector. But get past these minor road blocks and you have elevated your system to a new level. This is one upgrade I can assure you improves every system. If you want to dip your toe into balanced power without the commitment of a distributed system, Equi=Tech has freestanding units starting under $1.500 that will handle your front end. Some of the larger units can even handle powerful amps. As to the sound, the 10WQ is dramatic. From a sonic perspective there is simply no downside. My highest recommendation. |
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Quality of packing: Commercial product delivered on a pallet.
Reusability of packing: One-time installation, therefore not applicable.
Ease of unpacking/repacking: Easy to unpack,but at 350lbs not a DIY job.
Condition of component received: Flawless.
Completeness of delivery: 100% complete.
Quality of owner's manual: Installation instructions written for a professional electric contractor. Includes additional documents describing proper grounding and noise testing.
Website comments: Adequate but somewhat dated appearance. Buried in the site is a ton of technical information related to balanced power. Site is somewhat geared to the professional recording industry.
Warranty: Limited 3-year warranty for defect and workmanship plus a lifetime replacement warranty for the transformer – as good as it gets.
Global distribution: Products can be configured for domestic and international electric systems. Sample distributor list includes US, Canada and Israel. Contact Equi=Tech directly for additional info.
Human interactions: Helpful and courteous. All questions were answered promptly and professionally.
Other: For those wanting to take the next step up in system performance, balanced power is a must audition.
Pricing: While not inexpensive equal to a major component upgrade.
Application conditions: Professional electric contractor installation required.
Final comments & suggestions: None.
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