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Performance

"You know, an average home has a lot of AC power line noise, especially in apartment dwellings where not only your appliances pollute the power supply but also possibly the appliances of your neighbors." Mr. Yeung acknowledged as he was explaining the BC86 MKII to me.

"Yes, but I live in a house", I replied. Playing difficult I was not giving in that easily.

"Even so, your appliances like your fridge or your air conditioner are quite nasty AC polluters. Other big polluters are personal computers."

"But I listen mostly at night and power down almost everything in my house, including my PC." I returned.

"Although switching things off helps, there's still noise you simply can not get rid of unless you have a dedicated filter or a power line conditioner." Smiled Mr. Yeung. "Here, listen to this".

Mr. Yeung demonstrated the effect of the BC86: He plugged in a power line noise amplifier and turned it on. Noise could easily be heard from this box. He explained that the noise we were all hearing is the common power line noise circulating throughout the hotel. Then he plugged in a single BC86 MKII into the same power bar and the noise was gone. To further demonstrate the effect Mr. Yeung cranked up the volume and the noise could be heard again, although the tone was somewhat different. He remedied the situation by introducing a second BC86 MKII; the noise went away again. I nodded in approval and was willing to give it a try.

That night, after the first day of the show, I sat down to listen to some new material I also happen to pick up at the show. As usual I made sure all unnecessary appliances were powered down and because it was already quite late, it was safe to assume that the power was now "cleaner". Since the BC86 is supposed to work plugged into the same circuit 20 feet way from the audio system I decided to use my spare duplex receptacle on the adjacent wall.

For the curious ones here's a picture of the BC86 MKII with its hood off.

The Blue Circle BC86 MKII