Jfrech: I think Spirit is basically right, but what I'm seeing that the difference amounts to is the distinction between the traditional "power conditioning" we're so far familiar with and this emerging new field of "electronic noise reduction" - similar, but different. Traditional power conditioning evolved from simple designs usually involving the more basic ingredients for filtering like caps and chokes and so on - good, but they can have their limitations...the technical side of which I will spare you, but everyone has had to deal with the downsides to power conditioning - inconsistencies in performance due to various conditions or factors - things like: time-of-day or weather and seasonal changes, voltage irregularities (here you could talk about AC regeneration, but surprisingly it's just as vulnerable to these changing factors as anything else is). But, most of all and particularly familiar to those of us who've kept some kind of tabs on user reports on power conditioners - there can be some sort of infringement on the sonic performance of the system...some loss of bass, or treble or dynamics...that tends to pop up with a somewhat disturbing degree of regularity in almost any thread on the subject, do they not? Look at Spirit's own direct experience with his Burmester. The inference is that there all kinds of conditioning out there, some good, some great...and some, in the end, not so great. So how much do you really have to know to market a conditioning product? How many makers out there are the real thing and how many are just pretenders? Hard to say, but the fact is that anything less than a completely successful conditioner (i.e. one that plainly improves the sound quality and without compromising it at the same time) is liable to be seen as an unfortunate investment, regardless of price. But, what I'm trying to get at here is that I think we're more or less on the verge of a paradigm shift and that "electrical noise reduction" represents the next step. In its new form, apart from traditional power conditioning, you might recognize it by its inclusion of some form or another of quantum physics (on which I'm basically next to clueless so far) that will likely involve proprietary materials and, increasingly, an absence of any of the traditional parts like caps, diodes, resistors, chips, etc. For Alan's part, he has said all of the products he makes do only one thing: reduce electrical noise. I own thousands of dollar's worth of his stuff, but I've not yet heard any of it to introduce anything I could interpret as a negative impact on the sound...all utterly without adverse effect. But, he says he does not own an "audio" company because this sort of technology has applications everywhere. I even have it in my car. It's applied to the car's computer. For $60 I now get 50 extra miles per tankful. That same amount of fuel savings applies to any car in the world (that has a CPU). Imagine what the world impact would be if you could just flip a switch, and instantly every car in world had this simple technology installed. What would that do overnight for world economies? There are endless applications for this kind of thing: aeronautics, medical imaging, computers, communications - everywhere there is an electrical circuit there is virtually the possibility of an app for it. One of the things Alan has done with all this is a very sophisticated level of manipulating ohm's law in a way that reduces resistance. Up to now, the only way to do that has been through selective use of metalurgy. This is different. This is innovation. Not only has he found a way to this in a component, but in the whole home. It consumes little or no electricity from the wall, so it's utterly green. I even save money on my power bill. And it reduces all forms of EMI/RFI, in the in-wall wiring, in the components and in the air in the home - which brings with it health benefits for allergy suferers (like Alan) and those who suffer from auto-immune diseases. FWIW, Alan Maher has flown under a lot of people's radar so far, but I think that may begin to change in just the next few years. If he were publicly traded, I believe I would be buying his stock. I also think he (with help from his investors) is going to one busy dude for a while...a long while. That's one reason why I sound like a perpetual Alan Maher commercial any more...it's not that I just like saying the guy's name or anything, it's the endless innovation that seems to be coming, both for A/V and for everything else. Keep your eye on that guy, he just may end up being one of those special people in history who changes the world. Or, if you like, as Spirit says: "...I'll never go down the conditioning/filtering route again". I'm thinking that before it's all said and done an awful lot of hifi people may well be saying the same thing. Alan certainly won't be alone, there will be the Entreqs, the Tripoints and the rest, I'm sure, but I suspect in one respect or another, they will be struggling to catch up to where he is now...let alone where he will be... Jfrech: do I think the Entreq will not be that much of an improvement over your Shunyata? Somehow, I don't think so...from both what I believe and from what Spirit is saying... (An even longer post...oy vey...)
