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February 10, 2011 - 8:24am
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Power Conditioners
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First, I have never owned a serious power conditioner, serious being something like a PS Audio Powerplant supreme (around $1500)as that has always been a LOT of money in my world. I HAVE always lusted after one.
I want one because the single largest change I ever made to my audio system short of a change in media, was when I put in a dedicated 20 amp line in my old home. Much darker backgrounds and a change in overall sound so great my tin eared spouse noted it immediately without prompting.
If there is a product that can do that AND provide first rate surge protection, I figure it is a good idea.
What I do use is a series of far lesser devices. I have an old Monster power box series 2500 and an assortment of APC brand power strips for protection, not conditioning.
The PS Audio device is more of a power re-generator than a conditioner. With that said, I too, want one maybe two. Most "power conditioners" are not rated to work with power amplifiers because of the current draw.
Running dedicated AC lines for your gear is the most cost effective option. I have run three, one for power amps, one for small signal devices and one for all video gear. The quality of everything improved with the dedicated lines.
That's interesting. When the weather gets a little warmer I might have to look in to running a dedicated line to my system as it seems to be very enthusiastically recommended.
I have a Rotel RLC-900 Line Conditioner. It's pretty inexpensive, and I've had it forever. Because it is filling up with plugs (darn wall warts!) I've sort of been looking into other options. I thought that I might buy another line conditioner, something like the PS Audio Duet power conditioner. I'd use it with my integrated amp (Rega Mira) and powered subwoofer (M&K V-75) leaving my DAC, Airport Express & tuner plugged in to the Rotel.
I guess that as I've read a bit more, I've become hesitant to purchase the line conditioner as people seem to have mixed feelings about them.
Thoughts?
Count me in as a dedicated line devotee. Best $100 I ever spent on this hobby in 30 years.
Tom
My friend Vinny gave me an Entech "wideband powerline noise analyzer". You plug it into an outlet and the display will give a reading. You then adjust the sensitivity to 100. At this setting a loud static plus RFI signal is produced through the speaker on the back of the analyzer. I then plug it into an open outlet on my trusty old API 114 power conditioner and the noise is gone. Plug it back into a wall socket and the noise returns. The API has isolation transformers for low-current sources and "filtered" outlets for amps. I plug my VSP Labs TM150 into the amp outlets and everything else into the isolated outlets. I haven't tried to A/B the API in and out of my system in a long time, but from what I remember it sounds much better with it than without it, especially soundstaging, imaging and treble smoothness. So the "gizmo" bears out what my ears hear. Works for me.