Another tip to add here: When you get a new piece of gear, instantly label the wall-wart/cord for what it goes to. A moment of effort for perpetual ease from then on. If you worry the sticker might come loose over time (heat, etc...), cut a slightly larger piece of clear packing tape and 'laminate' it. I am always thankful when I pick one up and it's labeled. I have a plastic tub filled with cords and the like somehow collected over decades. Great videos, Ken. Thanks so much.

'Housekeeping with Hiwatt'. Instant 👍. Thanks Ken.

Ken all of your videos are something to behold. Thank you for putting all this knowledge and expertise on KZfaq to help make the journey a little easier! All hail Ken "Hiwatt" Marshall!

Hi Ken, Love your channel and enthusiasm. You do so many things I've done over the years, so it's great to get that validation and all, but your energy is infectious and I know we all appreciate it. One thing I would love to see from you and others is how you ACTUALLY run your cables in your racks - power AND audio. The cleanup is great and thanks for that. I do it my way, but I can always learn from anyone about this subject for sure, and I'm sure you've thought it through and had lots of good people to soak up from over the years, too. While I haven't wired any data centers, I've wired MANY EC racks and also wrangled the most hideous POTS and campus telephone wiring, too, in addition to many iterations of my home and project studios. Cheers, mate!

My background in AV had me laughing at the intro pulling all the power supplies out! Sincerely one of my favorite topics ever

Instant watch! Thank you for your videos and work, Ken!

Hmm.. thinking about noise potential and heat. I used to build out datacenters on a fairly regular basis. Back then, I required managed power strips. having to make a trip to the data center to toggle the power on something was like being punished for poor planning. So, the good news is that managed power is now actually affordable to regular folks, and just thinking that being able to easily guarantee that the power is off on any device that is currently unused would no doubt help lower the floor on noise even further. Also, Datacenter building got me very into using Velcro strips to do the tie downs.. Not quite as tight at zip ties, but making changes or additions down the road just got easier. I used to just get the Velcro on a roll and cut the lengths I needed during the build. Also, have to agree wholeheartedly with Brap Allgood in his comment. Get a decent label maker and use the heck out of it. A bit of good organization up front will more than pay for itself in the long run. Especially when you are have a "what goes where?" moment. I have seen the insides of old Ma Bell Central Offices. Back in the day they took the time to get the cable and wire work done really well. The result was, little frustration on a techs part when it came time to fix or change something.

Every time I dive in to my cables and power center, i seem to find extras... I am glad to know it is not just me.

There's some very fine cable management going on there, sir. I got tons of great tips just from the photo at the end :-) I'm always learning!

what a great 'nuts & bolts' addition to your channel. at work, i often see professionals who have to re-engineer pre-existing systems to get everything working smoothly- and in a quiet part of my brain, there's admiration and a touch of envy: they're making the systems themselves work better in order to support the overall effort. and then, later at home, it hits me when i've crawled under my desk to arrange signal cabling and power- that i'm doing the same thing, just with *my* series of systems. thanks, Ken.

Great points. I have a mess of power boards and adapters. I hsve to clean it up!

Great video, Ken. I'll never get excited for cleaning out racks, but it's encouraging to know we're all in this together. I hadn't considered the compounding ambient noise production if the power adaptors, great stuff!

Yeah, even as an amateur my "studio" became a mess of wires and PSUs. You follow a cable and it goes into nowhere, while just bought some more cables... Just got a simple Tascam DP24 and external FX pedals.

Haha! Exactly the right timing. I just installed a second Eventide Powermax in my studio to feed more of my machines and to throw away those nasty wallwarts that were humming and buzzing.

I've just had to reorganise my entire studio to add a new desk and make it flow better. No unused cables thankfully, but definitely plenty of dust. I wish I labeled everything last time around especially with left and right audio cables. and maybe kept an itenary f what I have. With the new layout I need to order some different length cables, so I'm going to experiment with some sort of colour coding, so I know the blue cable for example runs to the sampler.

As soon as i heard annual purge, and saw random power supplies I cracked up.

My strangest experience with noise in my music setup was in the old apartment that I used to live in. For some reason, on certain days and evenings, and only for certain times, my PC that I used for recording and controlling everything, would start receiving some Spanish radio station. The sound would just start blaring out of the speakers, and ruin recordings. I tried every possible method to eliminate that radio interference, including covering the PC and my speakers, and all the wiring with tin foil. It never worked. I had to record stuff only on those days and times that my setup hadn't turned into a radio receiver. Since I moved, this hasn't happened again, thankfully. The funny thing is, to my knowledge, there was no radio station or broadcast towers anywhere near this town I was in. I have no clue where those signals were coming from.

Get outta my Head!! All joking aside, thank you for sharing Sonic Sensei!!

7 min video to say “unplug unused power supplies” . What are you on? I need some lol