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Acoustics 101 - Chapter 4: Electrical Noise
Practical Guidelines For Constructing Accurate Acoustical Spaces

Electrical Noise

Again, we would encourage you to hire an expert to help you with all aspects of electrical wiring and hookup in your studio. For electrical noise concerns, we offer some tips:

• House computers, amps – basically anything with fans – in a separate equipment room. Build this room just like you would build an isolation booth. The only thing to keep in mind is the cooling required by many electrical devices. (Otherwise, they wouldn't need the fans.) So be sure not to miss the HVAC section.
• If you do not have the space for a separate booth, consider at least housing some of your noisy computers and amps in equipment from Sound Construction and Supply, makers of the Iso–Box.
• If possible, install separate circuits to power your room(s), or even various components of your room(s) such as lights, HVAC, computers, audio processing, audio power amps, etc. While it is of supreme importance to keep all your gear tied to a common ground at the electrical panel, splitting things off on their own circuits lessens the possibility of various pieces of gear, lights, etc. from causing AC problems for each other.
• Avoid fluorescent lights because they can introduce noise into your room and into your audio systems. While dimmers, in general, are also to be avoided, we do have some information on quiet dimmers. We have compiled a PDF of some dimmer discussions that have taken place on Syn–Aud–Con and Recording.org.
• Keep power lines and audio/video/phone lines away from each other and never parallel.
• Plug your gear into spike/surge/brownout protection devices and make sure your insurance policy covers your gear if lightning should take some of it out. (Phone devices and computers are especially prone to this; we have suffered these sorts of losses in the past.)
• Live near extreme RF (radio) interference? Ask your electrician about constructing a Farraday cage; basically a chicken wire or aluminum foil room within a room that ties to your ground rod (seek professional assistance with this so you do not toast yourself).
• To really clean up your ground buzzes and hums, and to greatly lower the overall noise floor of your productions, look into the balanced power conditioners and other helpful devices manufactured by Equi=Tech, ETA, Jensen Transformers and Furman. Of particular note are the Jensen white papers. The folks over at Jensen are very much of the same mindset as Auralex: We both believe that the problems for which we manufacture products are the last anyone thinks about – i.e., acoustical and electrical noise problems. Anyway, all the products from the manufacturers above do a fantastic job and can really save your fanny when your best grounding and isolation intentions go awry. Of course, if you do not have the money for them, Ebtech makes some wonderful 2-channel and 8-channel hum eliminators that really work well. We have used them in mobile and studio racks.