DIY Power Distributor
No money for fancy power distributors ? Why not make your own ?
I saw a very nice solid aluminum power distributor casing in one of our local electronics surplus stores. It certainly could not be considered as refined, but was made from solid 5 mm thick sheets and had nice cut out holes for US sockets and an IEC inlet.
Choose your favourite sockets and your internal cabling of choice, and you are ready to go.
In my case, I used the following :-
1 x Oyaide SWO-XXX AC outlet
1 x Hubbell 8300 Hospital Grade AC outlet
1 x Hubbell 5362i AC outlet
1 x IEGO gold plated IEC inlet
Neotech 12 AWG PC-OCC teflon insulated solid core copper wire
You can also put in your choice of damping material, e.g. Fo.q, bitumen sheets. Feel free to put in other stuff like AC line filters (X-rated capacitors only please and make sure that your leads are well insulated !). For the new age guys, put in your crystals of choice.
There you have it – a nice and high quality distributor for not too much money.
Any practical tips ? If I had another go at this, I would use either multi-stranded copper wire or multiple runs of a smaller gauge wire. The 12 AWG is stiff as hell. Needless to say, please check your wiring for continuity and shorts using a multimeter before connecting it to the mains.
Based on my daisy chain wiring, the first set of receptacles would sound the best. Wiring the receptacles in parallel would have been difficult and probably require me to change to thinner cables to terminate properly at the IEC inlet.
Also, the screws provided on this casing are absolutely useless and deform at the slightest pressure. All screws and hex nuts were changed to stainless steel type.
The outlets of the Hubbell are connected together via a thin metal bridge (to facilitate snap off in case of split voltage wiring needs). I suppose breaking off the metal bridge and using a copper wire would improve the sound a bit.
Total cost if you used Hubbell outlets and Neotech copper wire would be about USD 160. If you were feeling rich, you could use the Oyaide R-1 (which I use in an Oyaide MTB-6 used in my main system) and solid silver wiring.
Where should you spend your money ?
I compared this to my Oyaide MTS-6, which is a basic model distributor, with unplated Oyaide AC receptacles, and copper wiring, as well as my Oyaide MTB-6 which is made from thicker metal and has solid silver wiring. Both my MTS-6 and MTB-6 have identical receptacles, the R-1 and SWO-XXX.
The MTS-6 was noticeable inferior to my DIY distributor, while the MTB-6 has no difficulty surpassing it.
Given a budget, I would spend most of the money on a quality and heavy chassis, followed by the choice of receptacles, and lastly the internal wiring. Despite the high performance of the R1, it was simply unable to perform in the MTS-6.
Happy DIYing ! An important disclaimer, if you have no idea what you are doing, please buy a commercial product. We are dealing with lethal voltages here.
I saw a very nice solid aluminum power distributor casing in one of our local electronics surplus stores. It certainly could not be considered as refined, but was made from solid 5 mm thick sheets and had nice cut out holes for US sockets and an IEC inlet.
Choose your favourite sockets and your internal cabling of choice, and you are ready to go.
In my case, I used the following :-
1 x Oyaide SWO-XXX AC outlet
1 x Hubbell 8300 Hospital Grade AC outlet
1 x Hubbell 5362i AC outlet
1 x IEGO gold plated IEC inlet
Neotech 12 AWG PC-OCC teflon insulated solid core copper wire
Raw materials before assembly.
Fit and finish is a bit rough
Close-up of the Iego IEC gold plated inlet. Silver plated o-ring terminals are provided.
You can also put in your choice of damping material, e.g. Fo.q, bitumen sheets. Feel free to put in other stuff like AC line filters (X-rated capacitors only please and make sure that your leads are well insulated !). For the new age guys, put in your crystals of choice.
There you have it – a nice and high quality distributor for not too much money.
Ground wires all terminate on the earth screw of the first AC receptacle
The bent Neotech cables. A good work out ! Getting the right length is absolute critical.
Dry fit
Finished product !
Any practical tips ? If I had another go at this, I would use either multi-stranded copper wire or multiple runs of a smaller gauge wire. The 12 AWG is stiff as hell. Needless to say, please check your wiring for continuity and shorts using a multimeter before connecting it to the mains.
Based on my daisy chain wiring, the first set of receptacles would sound the best. Wiring the receptacles in parallel would have been difficult and probably require me to change to thinner cables to terminate properly at the IEC inlet.
Also, the screws provided on this casing are absolutely useless and deform at the slightest pressure. All screws and hex nuts were changed to stainless steel type.
The outlets of the Hubbell are connected together via a thin metal bridge (to facilitate snap off in case of split voltage wiring needs). I suppose breaking off the metal bridge and using a copper wire would improve the sound a bit.
Total cost if you used Hubbell outlets and Neotech copper wire would be about USD 160. If you were feeling rich, you could use the Oyaide R-1 (which I use in an Oyaide MTB-6 used in my main system) and solid silver wiring.
Where should you spend your money ?
I compared this to my Oyaide MTS-6, which is a basic model distributor, with unplated Oyaide AC receptacles, and copper wiring, as well as my Oyaide MTB-6 which is made from thicker metal and has solid silver wiring. Both my MTS-6 and MTB-6 have identical receptacles, the R-1 and SWO-XXX.
The MTS-6 was noticeable inferior to my DIY distributor, while the MTB-6 has no difficulty surpassing it.
Given a budget, I would spend most of the money on a quality and heavy chassis, followed by the choice of receptacles, and lastly the internal wiring. Despite the high performance of the R1, it was simply unable to perform in the MTS-6.
Happy DIYing ! An important disclaimer, if you have no idea what you are doing, please buy a commercial product. We are dealing with lethal voltages here.
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