Inverter Power
For those wanting to take your stereo to another level....beyond the beyond.........please read what follows.......the revolution has begun!

My history with inverters:

Back in the 90s I heard about a product from MSB that was essentially an audio platform for a single component that had a low distortion sine wave inverter built into the base (I think very few of these were made and sold).  You would run a very short power cord from your component to a socket on the built in inverter.  These inverters were made by Exeltech (still being made today).  At that time, I believe, they were the only low distortion sine wave inverter you could buy.  A 500 watter cost $500 back then....or over $900 with today's inflation (now you can buy a 4000 watt low distortion sine wave inverter for $500).

I got a 500 watt Exeltech inverter and modded it and my friend used it in his bedroom system powering the monster Levinson 30.5 DAC and matching ttransport (over $20K combo......a lot of money back then).  I then modded a 2000 watt Exeltech which he used in the same system to power his Rowland model 8 amp......pretty crazy.....inverters and car batteries in your smalll bedroom.....he he....what fun!  I modded another 500 watter for another friend but I did not see a way to sell modded inverters to most people.

Three years ago my friend found this review online:


 

Summary of what the reviewer said in the above review:.....He tried the $10K PS Audio regenerator and then the $20K inverter called the Stomtank S2500.  He liked the Stromtank better....then he tried a $400 Goal Zero Yeti 400 all in one inverter and he thought it sounded the same as the $20K Stomtank.

So, I bought one of the Goal Zero Yeti 400s and still use it today.  It powers my front end and my digital amp (48 watts draw).  I have removed most of the body of the thing so the fans do not come on.  I like it!

My friend bought the Goal Zero Yeti 3000 to power his whole audio system and used it with the Puritan line filter after it to improve the sound even more.  Then he bought the Ecoflow Pro 3600 watt big inverter from Costco and that sounded better than the Goal Zero.....he was super happy......then the Ecoflow died.......and then another died.......so he tried a sepaate inverter and battery system as shown below.  This 5000 watt Giandel Inverter plus to 200 amp hour LifePo4 batteries............sounds WAY better than the Ecoflow......when he called me he was raving.....he never acts like that.  Now he has upgraded the power cords between the battery and inverter and also wired a great outlet right from the terninal block on the inverter.....all shown in pics below......now, even better sound......he is in heaven!

At one point when one of the Ecoflows was down he plugged his Puritan line filter back into the wall (super dedicated line) and about cried......it was so bad!

What is nice is that the Giandel inverters fans do not come on till you are using 40% off their rated power.  5000 watt inverter.....means the fans won't come on till your drawing 2000 watts. He ran a 1400 watt space heater for over and hour and the fan never came on......so, you can use these things in your listening room.  With the Yeti 3000 and the Ecoflow Pro he had to put them in the next room they were so noisy.

What is so cool is that you can try an inverter for practically no cost.  Just buy the 2000 watt Giandel inverter model PS-2000SAR (30 day money back) and take a car battery out of one of your cars and use the adpaters I show below and hook it up to the inverter.  If you love that then you can then buy some LifePo4 batteries to extend the time or even send back the 2000 watter and get the 5000 watter and go all hog (if you need extra wattage....the 2000 watt will be fine for many...I use a 400 watter!).  The 2000 watt inverter is $329 delivered (sometimes discounted to $289 delivered). 

These things have three parts.....the inverter, the battery or batteries and a charger.  You can use a 50 amp charger like shown.....or even charge it harder using a 100 amp or more charger....the big LifeP04 batteries are super versatile.

Anyone can put these things together.....certianly a 10 year old boy with a 100 IQ can do it.  All you need is a few wrenches and maybe a screw driver......if you can change a tire, you can install an inverter.  However, there are a few things to consider.......

1. You do not want to have the charger attached to the batteries when listening....it decreases the sound quality.  It will not harm the system to charge while listening.  It does not work to just turn the charger off....its output wires need to be disconnected from the batteries.  If you want to keep your amps warmed up but want to leave for a couple of hours then plug the charger in.  Also, is you are casually listening....then who cares.  You can party all weekend long with inverter power and charger going.  But when you want that audiophile rush.....unplug the charger from the battery.

2. You have to be aware of how much juice (wattage) you are using so as to not discharge the batteries all the way and have your system shut off.  Most inverters have a meter or LEDs on them that show the battery charge amount.  A good very inexpensive battery monitor can be purchased and installed on the batteries, as well.  Most inverters will tell you how many watts it is pulling.  So, you turn on the system and it shows say 400 watts......play something really continuously loud and see what the inverter shows.....if it goes to 500 watts.....then you just need to divide the power available (battery power) by the watts used......For instance.....my friend is using 2 200 amp hour batteries in parallel (so, 400 amps times 12.6 Volts is 5000 watts.....so, if you are using 500 watts in your system then those two batteries would last at least 4000 watt worth (8 hours of continuous play time without charging) before you need to charge it.  Once you know how much power you are using, you can set a simple timer to go off when you need to recharge.

3. Inverters.....or even better, an Inverter with the Puritan line filter and Puritan ground filter and separate ground rod for your stereo......will not get rid of the distortion in your components....in fact, it will tell you exactly what your componets are doing for the first time ever.  If you have something in the digital path that has digititis.....you will hear it even more.  However, if you have low distortion components you will cry and freak out with glee.  You will simply hear more dynamics, lower noise, more separation of instruments, more holographic sound, more air, more space, way lower grain, way lower edginess.....more liquidity, etc. etc.  Big inverters have better dynamics than the wall......much better.  My friend is using Parasound JC-1s and the bass and dynamics are killer.  Way better than the dedicated line sound.

More to come.

Pictured above is one of the Parasound JC-1 plus amps with Silvermith Fideleum speaker cables and Belden Iconoclast PCOCC interconnects....various cable risers.
By wiring the charger and batteries this way you supposedly get more equal charging.  The connector on the charger wire is where he connects and disconnects the charger from the batteries (the connector comes with this particular charger).
At first he just used one of the regular outlets but now is upgraded to the doubled up 14 gauge cryoed VH Audio wires going into a burned in Furutech outlet and sitting on a Furutech NCF cable riser.  That cable goes to the Puritan line filter.  The Triode Labs power cord is for one piece of gear that there is not enough outlets on the Puritan for.  Red wires are ground wires to the Puritan filter.  There is no ground inside the Puritan so the thrid wire shown coming out of the terminal strip into the Furutech outlet is not needed
Links to where to buy goodies: 

So, lets see what his all out Inverter/filter system cost:

5000 watt Giandel  inverter..... $900
2 200 amp hour Ampertime batteries.... $1600
1 40 amp Ampertime charger.....  $250
OFC cables.... $30?
Feet under inverter.....  $300?
Furutech AC socket....  .$250?
Puritan 156 filter....    $1900
Puritan ground filter....  $250
Ground rod  ?

Estimate $5500 plus.....for all the above.


How about an entry level system....perfect for class D systems.....100 amp hour battery =1250 watts of storage.

1 2000 watt Giandel inverter....  $329
1  100 amp hour LifePo 4 battery.....$329
10 amp charger......$100

About $750.  Or just try the 2000 wat inverter, the above car battery connectors and a spare car battery to experiment with......

 



 

I want this page to be a resource for all things inverter.....so, if you try something I suggest or try other things and want to share with the world then please email me and I can put your sonic info and technical info here for all to see....pics especially welcome.....the revolution has begun!

More info coming every day.....check back. 

200 amp hour LifePo4 battery
Pic above shows the Puritan line filter......he has two Perfect Path pads on top and you can see the Puritan ground filter in the top right of the pic .  He likes Triode Labs power cords.  We will be changing three of the outlets and the AC inlet on the Puritan to Furutech NCF connectors and changing some wire inside....hey, gotta keep tweakin!
He is using 14 inches of the 00 gauge from the battery to the inverter. Hole size for battery is M8.....hole size for inverter is one half inch.. 
cables to connect the two batteries together........he is using one foot.
connectors/adapters..... so you can try an inverter with a car battery

All inverters put out noise and distortion.....that is why they will all sound differenct from each other and will benefit from further (pure filtering) .  The Stromtank and the Exeltech inverters are rated at less than 2% distortion....most of the others like the Giandel are rated at less than 3% distortion.   This is not .0001 percent distortion like a Benchmark amp or Purifi amp measures.  Distortion.....means noise.....I would think a larger inverter would sound better......probably lower output impedance and bigger power supply.  My friend with the Apogee speaker system first used a 3000 watt Goal Zero to good effect......then the 3600 watt Ecoflow sounded better and then the Giandel 5000 watt inverter stomped the Ecoflow to the underground.......I doubt it was all wattage capability.......but I certainly am recommending getting the big Giandel as that is the only Giandel that has actulally been tested in a serious system.  However, the 2000 watter might sound as good or even better.......And how does using less battery than the 2 200 amp hour batteries he uses sound?  Or using cheaper, heavier AGM batteries.    He does not care.....he wanted a big inverter system so he did that.  Personally, I would just copy what he did....since his sound is off the charts.

When OCD guy first discovered the Puritian filter he did it while filming a Youtube video....check it out......you can clearly hear the difference/benefit in sound in that clip.  He then used a noise meter to test the tunit.  His non dedictated line measured something like 158 .His dedicated line measured 19.9........then he plugged teh Puritan into the dedicated line and the Puritian has such low noise that the meter would not reguster.  There are a couple of Youtube videos where the guy that owns Puritian is at some audio shows in the UK and shows the noise of a normal line and then he plugs the Puritan into that line and shows the noise level again....both on a super scope.......the noise with the Puritan can hardly be seen. The Puritan can handle 3000 watts......you can plug power amps directly into it.  

According to my friend with the Parasound Mono blocks and using power hungry Agopee speakers.....there is no loss of bass or dynamics from either the Puritan or high powered inverters.....Just the opposite....you get better bass and dynamics using the two in series than running directly from a super dedicated line.  He has no neighbors so he has his OWN transformer on a pole right outside his house and is located one quarter mile from the transfer station (you drive right by it on the way to his house).....so his dedicated line is super duper.....better than almost anyone.......but it sucks big time.

LifeP04 batteries do not have hazards.......of course any electrcity must be carefully delt with.  12V batteries.....no matter how much current they have.....cannot give you a shock.  LifePo4 batteries are rated for at least 4000 cycles..,,,,,that would be 10 years of constant cycling.......so, maybe in 15 years you would replace the batteries.  If you put 30 cents in a jar everyday then you would have enough money saved after 15 years to buy new batteries.......

 

Large pic of the $900 Giandel 5000 watt inverter to give you an idea of how good it is made.....Compare this to the insides of the $27,000 2500 Watt Stromberg.

PLEASE READ THIS

A great inverter system is mandatory........but is really just one of three things to be done to REALLY lower the noise to mindblowing levels.  All inverters put out noise......as good as they are by themselves there is more to be had........

The Puritan 156 line filter will take any noise coming out of an inverter and make it clean as mountain dew.  This is another level of purity.  It has 6 outlets and can handle any big power amps....It isolates each component from each other......very important....so the noise of one component does not go back into the others.

Your grounding and the noise on the grounds affects the sound mucho.  You really want your own ground rod and grounding system for your stereo.  You want COMPLETE isolation from your house grounding system.  Not one component should be connected to house ground....nada.  Ground rods cost nothing and so does some great 4 guage wire running into your stereo room.  Then you want the Puritan ground filter to filter any noise on the ground wire.....All your grounding is done right at the Puritan filter or at the Puritan ground filter.  It is super important to have a very large gauge wire (like 4 gauge) running from the ground rod to your stereo.  My friend just changed his fifty foot long 12 gauge to 4 gauge and everything got better......everything.

You can even bury the ground rod horizontally and is easier to dig.  You can also buy carbon based cement (GEM/Ground Enhancement Material) that can be used to lower the impedance of the earth.  You dig a trench a little over eight feet ling and six inces deep and six inches wide (not too hard).  You pour two inches of the carbon cement in the trough and let it set......you lay your 8 foot long, 5/8" diameter ground rod with ground wire attached on top and then another two inches of cement on top.....when dry you fill the last two inches with dirt.....You can buy Ground rods, brass (lowest resistance....lower than bronze) grounding clamps at any Home Depot or wherever.  Here is the wire my friend bought:

 

I am now doing mods to the Puritan Line filters.....please see
Pic above shows battery cables shielded and shields connected to true ground.........even better sound.