I'm not passive about problems that shall not exist.

Posted by Jacques (A) on September 15, 2006 at 12:02:53

In Reply to: Would you rather... posted by Sean on September 15, 2006 at 10:57:58:

I've often said that most commercial gear is drastically under-designed as far as the power supply goes. This goes for off the shelf mass produced components up to those that are custom built mega-dollar pieces.
The later is perfectly unacceptable. As I quoted somewhere else, home life-sustaining equipment like dialysis and baby monitoring does work on mains with very high levels of EMI, and can deal with high levels of radiated RF noise. The levels of which are specified in many standards.
And it's not expensive at all, once it's taken into account from the beginning ($10 to $20 along with a clever layout or boards and wires, according to my experience of designing very rugged equipment)

Knowing that, sharing that information and making others aware of it by pointing out blatant offenders and teaching them what to look for is about all that i can do.
I would like to have reviewers test the susceptibility of equipment. Would be even more interesting than their wine-tasting wording. A good conducted EMI generator like Schaffner builds costs in the 2,000. It would help to screen out offenders (and too-easily-offended).
Don't forget the wallet is yours. Works for the manufacturers, but first for the magazines...
Do I have to tell further to a citizen of Ralph Nader's nation?

Getting someone else ( manufacturers ) to do something about it is another story.
If a well known brand has its new expensive toy bashed away by reviewers because of its EMI susceptibility, I bet that this unacceptable problem will soon be fixed. Again, the magazines (and Internet forums maybe too) are the key.

Obviously, the goal is for all of the various manufacturers to produce well designed gear, but that ain't gonna happen anytime soon. As such, what is your answer to this type of situation?

My answer is double

making people aware that such a situation is unacceptable, and that an equipment that could not pass standard ground-based equipment EMI/RFI susceptiblity/ perturbation certifications would better be used as a boat anchor, even if highly prized by perfect-world reviewers.
teaching 80 hours/year of correct design rules at an engineering school in Marseilles. Those guys are likely to work later in industrial electronics or avionics and shall avoid many pitfalls...

But I'm not like Georgesguy, our Polarity Pandit (TradeMark). If customers of high-end audio don't care about spending thousand of bucks to make their equipment work like it was sold to do, I won't make of it the Fight of my life, you know!

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Follow Ups Full Thread

Topic - I was wondering.... - B.Zak 07:08:01 09/14/06 (34)

Re: I was wondering.... - john curl 23:13:20 09/14/06 (15)

This is one of the reasons why... - Sean 10:05:05 09/15/06 (13)

Again... - Jacques 10:27:27 09/15/06 (12)

What about high performance tire driving on snow!!! and - Paul L 13:01:30 09/18/06 (0)

Re: Again... - john curl 22:46:46 09/15/06 (5)

No offense, John ... - Dave Pogue 05:18:18 09/16/06 (4)

Re: But how do you - geoffkait 11:09:05 09/16/06 (2)

That's just awesomely unfunny. - Dave Pogue 11:22:01 09/16/06 (1)

Re: As usual - geoffkait 11:47:14 09/16/06 (0)

Re: No offense, John ... - john curl 09:51:06 09/16/06 (0)

Cottage industry... - Al Sekela 11:27:05 09/15/06 (2)

Re: Cottage industry... - Jacques 12:16:05 09/15/06 (1)

We are talking about different levels of interference. - Al Sekela 14:16:19 09/17/06 (0)

Would you rather... - Sean 10:57:58 09/15/06 (1)

I'm not passive about problems that shall not exist. - Jacques 09/15/0612:02:53 09/15/06 (0)

I do wonder in the XXIst century... - Jacques 02:19:03 09/15/06 (0)

A/C doesn't change the way equipment sounds. - soulfood 13:34:21 09/14/06 (1)

Yes, good description for house appliance and audio is one of those!!! (nt) - Paul L 13:07:30 09/18/06 (0)

All designs can be improved. - Al Sekela 11:41:47 09/14/06 (9)

Re: All designs can be improved. - B.Zak 12:11:37 09/14/06 (8)

Interesting example. - Al Sekela 22:39:30 09/14/06 (6)

Re: Interesting example. - B.Zak 08:10:31 09/15/06 (5)

Notice the weasel-words... - Al Sekela 11:02:06 09/15/06 (4)

Well...to each his own... - B.Zak 11:51:24 09/15/06 (3)

Re: Well...to each his own... - soulfood 15:30:45 09/15/06 (2)

Re: Well...to each his own... - B.Zak 16:43:09 09/15/06 (1)

Re: Well...to each his own... - soulfood 20:43:01 09/15/06 (0)

It can't hurt to try these things... - mkuller 20:10:18 09/14/06 (0)

Re: I was wondering.... - FastEddy 11:19:48 09/14/06 (0)

The right thing.... - mkuller 10:58:37 09/14/06 (0)

Many designers - G Squared 10:23:16 09/14/06 (0)

Re: I was wondering.... - Awe-d-o-file 09:32:30 09/14/06 (0)

" by using these devices you are changing the way the designers of your equipment probably intended them to sound" - Android 08:27:26 09/14/06 (0)

Re: I was wondering.... - Bob Rex 07:52:14 09/14/06 (0)

Follow Ups

I'm not passive about problems that shall not exist. - Jacques 09/15/0612:02:53 09/15/06 (0)

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