STUDIO ELECTRIC SYSTEM (Europe)

Electric system for pro audio applications, ground denoising, air and power conditioning.

The first thing you gotta keep in mind is a good grounding point outside the house, a pole into the ground in your garden for about 1,5 mt, 1,5 mt away from house's wall. We call it ground wells here. A plastic case say a 20 x 20 cube is on sell in electric stores, the conductive 1,5 pole of metal that goes into the ground too. Solder to it a ground cable (yellow and green strips, in Italy) with a diameter of 1,6 cm (called 160 mm).
Take the cable into your studio and screw it into a GROUND SWITCHBOARD (a switchboard is a PLASTIC BOX, you have the power one at the first point where power enter into the house, with all the switches, for the different power lines like: lights, normal outlets, etc, with the main circuit breaker, the one that saves your life in case of short circuit or problems. Thought the ground one is simplier and with trasparent plastic Wimar made nice ones). Give the ground to your outlets (you don't have to take the ground to your power switchboard). Keep it separated from power, they just have to meet at the outlet point.
From your main house's power switchboard and by a power line splitter take two 60 mm power cables to the studio and build there a second (studio) switchboard, with another 16 A 3,3 Kw circuit breaker and line switches for: 1 of 16 A - 3,3 Kw for power conditioner (230v 50hz), 2 of 10 A for PC - Audio System, 3 of 10 A for Guitar Bass Amplifiers (combos, Heads and Cabinets, BUT if you use the DI output connected to PI mixer, PC converters or else, PC Audio line is OK) 4 of 10 A for Air conditioner, 5 of 6 A for general porpouses outlets ( a mobile, fans, clip lights, Jacuzzi) 6 of 6 A for lights The intervent time of the first house's circuit breaker must be 0,3 ms, the second studio's 0,03 ms, so that if the studio one close the circuit breaker for a short, the house's circuit breaker won't close up but it will keep on working (houses lights won't turn off).
The diameter of the cables must be of 25 mm for Power conditioner - PSU, PC Audio and Amplifiers lines. Then 25 mm for Air Conditioner, and 15 mm for the rest. The cables will never be hot like that. Choose strategic outlets (WIMAR A8000 series , 501 , 505 MODELS DEPENDS ON SOCKETS) and place for the air conditioner, don't put many audio outlets, you will have all the power points you need by multiple flying shucko sockets BUY STREIGHT HEADS AND NOT CURVE, BENDED HEADS MUCH MORE SPACE TO PLUG !!! (Wimar models are good enough, you will have to build them to save money, they're not cheap, you need MANY). Buy FROR cable for that. 3 x 25 mm (hard to work but good) or 3 x 15 mm. A wall outlet may contain two power lines sockets, say PC Audio and General Porpouses lines BUT SIGN IT WITH A PEN ON THE OUTLET. SIGN THE PHASE AND KEEP IT ALWAYS UNDER CONTROL (STUDIO PHASE OUT - SOUNDS CLEAN, if you live in the UK you don't have to care about it the phase is forced in the same hole in every outlet).
IMPORTANT: only PC Audio and Amplis will have conditioned power (you don't need lights power to be stable, you won't record lights!!!). So put the conditioner's wall outlet (from his switch) near to the switchboard, plug the tool, take the output conditioned power to the Audio switches by a custom cable and let alone the other switches, the circuit breaker will feed them. Most of them have parallel ground at input and output, connected ground so don't mind about output ground, you have it from the input, from its wall outlet (control it before!). Don't use neon or intermittance lights, or chines cheap lights (400 hz feedback noises). A power conditioner for 2 Kw would cost 200 euro without batteries for 10 min blackouts autonomy, 1500 euro with batteries. Italian Riello has good ones. Digital. You may prefer an electromecchanic one, but other prices and measures and weight.
Furmann are the best power conditioners, nowadays, start price for level entry models 500 €.
My whole studio takes around 1.5 kW. Lot of stuff, amplifiers, preamps, mixers, speakers, usually 2 PC, 2 rooms... Calculate the power and PEAKS for your studio.
Panasonic and Mithsubishi air conditioners have a low (-29 and -21 Db) noise floor. A class.
For a 16 square meters room around 1500 €.

LIGHTNINGS ZONES You may need overload, over voltage protectors. If a voltage superior say to 260v enters. A Conditioner is not enough. They are like switches but RED (power) or YELLOW (INTERNET, ADSL). Dehn have good ones. 1 of each type at first house's switchboard and to be every 15 mt of line. Must be grounded not farest than 50 cm to the Ground Switchboard.

You can make a second ground cable from outside into the studio to use the Signal Flow or Star Grounding Studio Techniques (real analougue denoising). It must be separated from the other ground cables or power, they never have to get in contact. Take this cable to a ground switchboard near the console. Maybe you'll have to disconnect audio cables ground at arrival to avoid ground loops. It depends. It's called Signal Flow Ground Technique. Another one is the Star Ground, I prefer Signal Flow. IT IS JUST FOR THE AUDIO. Connect small diameter ground cables to the chassis of noisy equipment, then check for ground loops and if it's the case disconnect the ground where the jack plugs into the next device at the arrival, but solder it at the other side and keep the ground as long as the cable lenght, so it will be protected but won't give the loop to the next device. The ground cables can run naked on the floor but not in the other outlets ground channels. Keep them separated (European Law). I use the same ground point downstairs in the garden for both lines, it's the only point where they meet. Explain this project to a technic and tell me all about. This is not the best (an audiophile multiple socket with 6 shucko socket is around 300 euro, Wimar around 20). The system will cost a lot, anyway. Depends on the technic and employes too. It may happen that the house already has a grounding system. You can use it but of course all the electric stuff of your house, fridges, washers, etc will be on that ground. It can gives you some noise in your studio.

fraifikmushi made me notice that what follows may be misleading, you shouldn t do it, lige risk, but I ve seen it so many times, cause of... low money:

it may happen that you make a new grounding point for your studio's electric system, but maybe the lights are old on the house's system and ground. That not ok by law but you know... just keep in mind: NEVER switch the lights on while touching some gear on the studio's system. Like guitars. It could be deadly.

Try to stay on only one ground, or keep the grounding poles separated by 5-7 mt in some case the 2 poles must be linked. You d need an electrician an measurament tools.
Try to have studio and house power separated, with 2 different switchboards and separated rooms, zones and don t mix the 2 systems, check the pics below, to understand the system.

ELECTROMAGNETIC INTERFERENCES
power cables have a magnetic field of around 80 cm of diameter.
The ground cannot be enough in some cases. You can find small special channels, to contain power cables, like small pipes, that run inside regular channels. They re made of special material to keep the electromagnetic field inside, they cost a bit but they work well, I have that system.
I ve grounded that one too, for static electricity.

The switchboard and 2 ground lines, outlets and racks chassis:

 

Last edited: Jan 19, 2016

thanx to the people who liked it!

 

Jesus Christ

Tampering with your electrical wiring like that is extremely dangerous.
Having multiple grounds can result in a difference of potential, thus electrocution.
What you describe is illegal for a reason.
You realize what happens if you remove ground and put a human being into the loop (by touching defective gear, i.e.)?
Trying to eliminate ground loops like this really is hairbrained and again, extremely dangerous.
I lost my sister because a jackass thought he was clever and played the electrician.

So for the love of god, don't do it!

Not to mention the danger resulting from branching your whole studio's power from a single line of your house's switchboard and not setting up a proper power distribution.

 

Last edited by a moderator: Jan 19, 2016

I dont do it. People do it.

Two grounds can be possible, if kept minimum 5 mt away from each other, 1,5 mt away from the building walls.
you can always measure them. and or joint em

In my case both grounds go to the same pole.

the two ground systems are separated. one is for the outlets, one for the chassis.
to avoid eventual AUDIO loops, there are patchbays or you can unsolder the ground in some jack

I m just saying that people has lights on a system, and all the audio on another electric system, maybe grounded and conditioned, it happens frequently, in THAT case if you touch a light and a wired guitar there s a risk of death

 

Last edited: Jan 19, 2016

For the love of God I use my system everyday, it s all by law, for pubblic passage, all the grounds are separated, numbered and every outlet has its ground wire, as by law

 

it s a 40 years old technique used in serious studios.

Ground for places with pubblic passage for the outlets
Star ground or signal flow ground for the chassis

 

Signal Flow Ground, if needed, a ground cable acts like a denoiser. If audio ground loops occur, desolder the jack ground at arrival. Everybody who worked in analog studios knows it.

 

sorry about your sister... I wanted to add...

anything else said in this thread is just secondary
anyway, I wasn t encouraging wrong systems, it s just that I ve seen so many...
people just don t care
life, safety, but also sound can be terribly affected without ground and pro power conditioning

 

LOL!

LOOoooOl!

*sorry. Ive worked in quite a few grounded studios..and I'm still alive. *

 

The other guy is right anyway

the equipotential , how we call it here, is meaningful

 

Fraifikmushi you said "Not to mention the danger resulting from branching your whole studio's power from a single line of your house's switchboard and not setting up a proper power distribution."

No man I ve never said that

 

This is the house Switchboard, from left to right:

Power breaker, long intervent time
Splitter, it splits the power between house and studio
Power breaker for the cables that go to the studio, short intervent time
all the house switches



This is the studio switchboard



From left to right

Studio Power breaker, short intervent time
power conditioner switch
and all the lines I need in studio, PC Audio for PC, mixers, outboard, Ampli for guitar and bass amplifiers, Cond for the air conditioner, PG normal outlets for phone, light clips, Vent for fans, and lights

Outlets Ground Switchboard



All the lines are numbered, every outlet or light has its dedicated ground cable
each ground cable serves 1 electric point only
as by law
hospitals systems are build like that

 

Last edited: Jan 19, 2016

Signal Flow Ground for chassis only



Power Conditioner PSU on batteries, 2.4 kW, 40 kg of iron

 

I thought that's what you meant to do with "From your main house's power switchboard and by a power line splitter take two 60 mm power cables to the studio and build there a second (studio) switchboard"
Thanks for clarification!
Running lights, aircon, audio ect on different circuits definitely is the way to go. But disconnecting ground or short circuiting ground to get rid of ground loops is really a no-no.

 

You can make open heart surgeries here, for what concerns the electric system

 

hey hello... I ll review all the thread now
that s important to write it well
no misunderstandings
it can be deadly
you are 100% right

 

Last edited: Jan 19, 2016

no no I never disconnect the ground in the channels

just in some audio jack if needed

 

Very important to clarify that

 

anyway your intervent made me explain this difficult topic better

what you said... beware of the equipotential... that s what I always say to people
it s just that people don t want to spend money on electricity
so they have different systems running

also the power conditioning can affect the power values, if you don t conditionate all

 

good ground + good power conditioner = good sound

beefy lows, pristine highs

LoL the formula