Good to hear

Sorry to keep butting in, but please don't expect a night and day kind of difference, as it's not an amp or filter as such. Listen with it there for a day or three and then take it out and try again. I found the TIS interconnect was the same - not seemingly as big a jump up as SSC was over SC, but I sure as heck missed it when I went back to SSC after a week with the TIS, so I had to buy the loan ones and forget how much they cost...

John that's the longest review I've ever seen you give, you must have liked the BMU.
I know you are familiar with balances power as you used to use it before to went all battery. Do you know how the NVA BMU differs from what you used before?
Cheers

I was down in Sussex last weekend and took the BMU from John on Sunday in order to bring it up to Lancashire for Steve (Accudazed) to try it. I gave it to him today but tried it briefly in my system for a just a few hours while I had it at home.

First of all, thanks to NVA for allowing people to carry out these trials.

My main system very rarely changes. It sometimes has components added (notably, a second turntable and a Raspberry Pi in the last year or so) but items are rarely actually replaced. Priorities are such that the household budget is focused away from big budget hi-fi items nowadays, so even if I wanted to, I wouldn't be making massive changes. Additionally, I rarely get involved with accessories and things as I'm not really actively looking for small incremental improvements. My days of messing about with cables have long gone and I've settled on something simple that suits me well.
In summary, I have been generally very happy with the system for years, so for all those reasons, I very rarely post about it on the forum.

But.

Taking a look at the mains that goes into the system is something that I have been meaning to do for quite some time. I can't really do anything about the wiring to the house, as we rent this place. We won't be moving back to the house we own for the foreseeable future, so there's not much point in wasting money there. So, it has to be a plug in option.
I've had one of Nic Poulson's Isol-8 Cleanline 2 conditioners for about ten years and it's OK but I've often thought it could be bettered.
So, as there wasn't much time available for pulling the system apart to get everything just so, I plugged the Isol-8 into one of the BMUs sockets because the pre-amp is ordinarily plugged into this. The other three BMU sockets took the plugs for the two power amps and the CD player, which are normally plugged straight into a four-way adapter.

System tested:
Accuphase DP67 CD player
Audio Research SP8 pre-amplifier
Mark Levinson ML9 power amp (bass)
Mark Levinson ML11 (mid and treble)
Mirage M-3si loudspeakers
Cables? - yes I used some of those too.

Music used was principally the following but various tracks from other albums were also played:
Isobel Campbell and Mark Lanegan - 'Ballad of the Broken Seas'
Jeff Buckley - 'Grace'
Porcupine Tree - 'The Incident'
The Jayhawks - 'Tomorrow the Green Grass'

Right from the first track and with the system stone cold without having been switched on for six days, it was obvious that it was making a difference for the better. Most striking and straight off, it was clear that the soundstage was a bit deeper but, more obvious was the way the performers were so clearly defined in their positions within it, no fudging, no blurring, they seemed rock solid. I place quite a lot of store in this type of thing, so some big plus points there.
A good bit of extra fine detail too and as the system began to warm up the bass got better. I liked the way that the different strands of the music became more clearly defined and therefore easier to follow. These are all cliches, aren't they? Well, the biggest one would be to that the whole presentation seemed to have been cleaned up. Contrary to John's finding, the system seemed quieter with the BMU installed but I think that was a result of the cleaner presentation. I kept turning it up!

A couple of interesting points:
1) One of the Levinson amps very occasionally develops a hum which manifests itself through the speakers but only lasts for a short while. It happened while the BMU was being used but this time the hum was different - it was thinner sounding and seemed to be at a slightly higher register. Perhaps a little louder.

2) One of the CDs we played was 'Tomorrow the Green Grass' by The Jayhawks and its final track, 'Ten Little Kids' finishes with the sound of children laughing and shouting and a dog barking. We play this album a LOT and we've done so for yonks and our dog has never once reacted to it. This time, he barked the bloody house down, convinced that there was a real dog somewhere in the house!

So, what of those people who have told us here on TAS that this device doesn't work, can't work and its benefits are figments of a deluded audiophile's imagination?
My wife sat beside me and listened. We didn't discuss it until we had played three albums right through and then I asked her what she thought: "It's very good indeed".

Did she have an 'expectation' of a big improvement or even a slight change for the better? - No
Did she have a subconscious need to justify an expensive purchase? - No
Is she given to spending large wads of cash on bits of hi-fi for imagined 'improvements'?  - No

On the basis of just two or three hours use, Mr Dunn may just have secured a sale for some time in the future.

Great write up Chris , thanks for taking the time to do this . I've heard the Airlink BPS at Garys place a few times now and the effects were not subtle . A general cleaning up of SQ plus increased musicality were heard by all . The Airlink unit is a bit industrial and as I don't really have anywhere to hide it it's not an option for me . The NVA BMU looks like a much nicer unit , is very well priced , and looks like it does the job very well indeed .

I just posted this on the Pinkie's Woes thread and since it's specific to the BMU, I copy it here -

'Balanced power systems are used in many or even most studios I understand. I can assure readers that if this method didn't bring about genuine benefits, these people wouldn't do it, as they WON'T spend needlessly as 'we' audiophiles (audiophools) so often do.'

Over lunchtime, I emailed the Doc about possible fault conditions in gear plugged into the BMU. Faults from + to earth are protected by the fuse in the mains plug supplying the equipment, or should be, and of course the BMU has a heavy duty mains lead with fused 14A plug too.

My question was about faults in connected equipment from negative to earth. Thinking about it, current draw on either 'leg' after the BMU will be seen as +ve current before the BMU (shouldn't it?) and this would also cause the BMU mains fuse and house system to trip out if the draw goes over a certain limit. The Doc conformed that the house trip will blow under such conditions - all I can say as he's tried it and I have no intention of doing.

I did say that, but only in a response to a question, now that question too has been deleted, it's not proper to quote me out of the full context. And this is a NVA thread and I'm a dealer.

I have to say this moderation makes me dizzy, so I'll take a break as I don't want to appear aggressive or confrontational (for a change!)

Dave

OK, I've deleted a few posts that have been made to seem like nonsense because of lack of continuity.
It shouldn't be assumed that moderators are the only ones who edit posts - there has been some self moderation going on.