IsoTek EVO3 Isoplug

Differential Mode mains noise is created by all electrical appliances – everything with a power supply, in fact. This includes your microwave oven, your television and your computer, as well as every hi-fi component you own.

Common Mode mains noise is often referred to as RFI – transmitted frequencies that surround us but we cannot see. For example, imagine how much data is transmitted by smartphones and tablets; cheap power cables act as aerials (antennas) for these unwanted frequencies.

From a high quality audio point of view, mains electricity needs two factors; a nice 50 or 60Hz sine wave supplied from a very low impedance source, without radio frequency noise. The low impedance makes for a near constant voltage regardless of how much power is used in the surrounding area. In reality we can typically expect around 5% fluctuation. The very low impedance of the mains, which is way below 1 ohm at 50 or 60Hz is not maintained when approaching radio frequencies (> 50 ohms > 100 kHz) and acts as an aerial (antenna) inviting RF noise.

IsoTek’s power cleaning circuits are designed to reduce impedance whilst remaining safe as well as correcting well into the audio frequency bands. This is not only a judgment from sound electrical engineering, but it also follows the codes of electrical safety, which are independently assessed.

Every IsoTek product uses the finest grade electrical components, many custom made, using the highest quality metals and materials which are specifically designed for purpose. Quality doesn’t stop at parts but also extends into the PCB designs, which maintain high levels of amperage and extraordinarily low levels of resistance, using up to eight times the general standard of copper prior to pure silver plating.

Internal wiring also uses high purity coppers combined with silver plating, with either Fluorinated Ethylene Propylene (FEP) dielectric or IsoTek’s Virtual Dielectric of Air (VDA), where a FEP tube is wound around the conductor before an extruded FEP dielectric protects this construction giving unrivalled performance and the ultimate low resistance, high performance internal power delivery system.

Power surges or spikes on the mains supply are generally very bad for any electrical device especially a high quality audio replay system. Power surges occur when there is a boost to the electrical charge at some point in the power lines. This causes an increase in the electrical potential energy, which can increase the current flowing to your wall outlet. This in turn can damage your sensitive audio system.

The IsoTek protection system uses an array of VDRs which offer a cascading level of protection, in some cases over 100’000A. These step in fast and sequentially dependent upon the severity of the encountered power surge or spike. The architecture of the protection circuit extends dramatically and almost instantly when required.

The protection circuit has two primary functions, one to preserve itself and the second to step in gradually as any problem increases, with the ability to act very fast should an extreme condition occur. The protection circuits also protect the filters and the filters assist the protection in the initial stage. Unlike many protection devices these assist sound quality as well as providing protection. Studies suggest this problem is not subtle and is frequent. The disturbing challenge is the 1’000 to 6’000V range. It is likely most protection systems do very little good and probably cause sound degradation.

Technical papers state that Kirchhoff’s circuit laws are two equalities that deal with the current and potential difference (commonly known as voltage) in the lumped element model of electrical circuits. They were first described in 1845 by German physicist Gustav Kirchhoff. This generalized the work of Georg Ohm and preceded the work of James Clerk Maxwell. Widely used in electrical engineering, they are also called Kirchhoff’s rules or simply Kirchhoff’s laws. These laws can be applied in time and frequency domains and form the basis for network analysis.

The guiding principles for IsoTek circuits are driven by Kirchhoff’s two current laws, a simple analogy would be that for every litre of water placed into a water distribution system we would expect to get the same out.

To put it another way, Kirchhoff and Gauss described how seemingly impossible problems could be resolved by the concept of a town. If traffic flows on a circular orbital road around the town there is no effect on the town. However, if traffic enters the town, then there will be an effect on the town, and however many cars that enter eventually have to leave. The structure of that town will have either a positive or negative effect on that migration. In electronics this is also true. We must totally respect the signal path as, whether one wishes it or not, ultimately everything will be in the signal path to a greater or lesser degree.

As one would expect, the internal wiring of any IsoTek product is of the highest standard, pure 6n OFC (Oxygen Free Copper – 99.9999%) conductor strands with silver-plating offer low resistance and high amperage. An FEP dielectric is used to protect the conductors as well as giving the ultimate internal power delivery system.

IsoTek’s internal wiring synergizes with the range of IsoTek power cables. One critical but overlooked area is maintaining commonality of design and material properties though an audio wiring loom, be it signal carrying cables or your power cable network.

IsoTek delivers absolute power, unrestricted current delivery within what the power company can supply, and regulations allow. Generally, for power amplifiers or high wattage electronics IsoTek provides output which offers extremely low impedance and low DCR, this completely eliminates (within the concepts of power filtering) any possibility of current restriction and enhances dynamic range, the impedance of the chain back to the power station being far larger. When power is contaminated, dynamic range is reduced.

It is impossible to get more than 100% out of the mains supply. The very principle of AC power is that it doesn’t store energy in the transmission system. It is therefore impossible to store energy in an AC system by the very principles by which it works. There can be no so-called power reserve, thus a power reserve within an AC circuit in the truest sense of the word does not and cannot exist.

Power reserve would require the voltage to increase as ohms law insists it must, saying a circuit doesn’t sag isn’t a reserve of power. The AC waveform goes between maximum and minimum points at 50 Hz in 10 mS, it then swings to the maximum negative value. At 20 mS a full cycle is achieved. Therefore, in fact the average values of an AC waveform is zero. Only as a power wave can it be positive, this is due to the law of squared negatives. It looks like a ballooned sine wave where the value of 45 degrees is 0.5 not 0.7071 from a trigonometric table. Were this only a voltage wave it would have a long-term value of zero! As far as energy storage is concerned zero is the value of stored energy.

Direct Current resistance (DCR) will cause sag. To put it in other words, a system has to be developed which does not limit the power reserve of the power station, meaning a circuit needs to have extremely low resistance whilst maintaining sufficiently high inductance. When done correctly and in perfect balance the inductance is virtually zero at 50/60 Hz and the Direct Current resistance (DCR) is also very close to zero. Therefore, an ideal filter circuit must maintain zero Ohms resistance DC (or very close) and considerable AC resistance to noise above 50/60 Hz. Despite statements to the contrary, this is precisely where correctly specified materials matter most. Whilst some might consider these ‘exotic’ they represent a critical and important part of the function and appropriate to use. Remarkably IsoTek filter designs can maintain very low resistance at 50/60Hz but have very high amounts of noise cancellation above that frequency.

Most AC circuits are reactive – produce a reaction either from the power drawn or the circuit itself, put simply they are not pure resistors and behave like a capacitance and resistance or an inductance and resistance. In an ideal world the only allowable impediment is resistance and ideally this needs to be extremely low. A dilemma, do you want high transient power, or do you want heavy filtration – amazingly you can have both, but one must have components of the very highest quality, which are designed specifically for purpose with totally correct architecture. This is extremely complex and has resulted in the design of specialist parts; these do not exist outside the world of specialist power engineering and are unique to IsoTek designs.

As part of our on-going commitment to the highest standards of customer service, IsoTek offers you the opportunity to extend the standard 2 years product warranty to 3 years, free of charge.

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IsoPlug is a versatile shunt filter system that goes across the live and neutral of the mains supply. It is easy to use, simply plug into free wall sockets next to noise generating electronics, for example computers, fridge freezers, telephone chargers, etc. When electrical components draw power, they produce Differential Mode mains noise. IsoPlug helps reduce this. IsoPlug can also be used to upgrade a simple power distribution strip; by plugging IsoPlug into the first socket of the incoming supply, a second one can then be used to separate analogue and digital components.