Has a Power Conditioner Improved Your Sound?

@thelonious527   When installed in my system it seem to roll off the top end. It took the ‘ sparkle ‘ out of the sound .

I wonder if that's not the same effect which I have been observing these last 20 years - every time I make a major upgrade, some 'sparkle' goes out of the top end. I've come to realize that this is high frequency distortion. This has lead me to value 'smoothness' over sparkle or other tinsel. YMMV

This may be what @ghdprentice is referring to.

By 'major upgrade' I mean air bearing turntable, air gap phono stage, etc.

I live in British Columbia, Canada and our electricity is generated entirely by hydroelectric dams. BC Hydro produces electricity that is 98% clean.

I also live in a large city, so we don't get power outages, power spikes, lightening strikes or brown outs.

Despite this, I still use power conditioners because I need 14 outlets and I've just always used a power conditioner.

Am I an idiot?

( That's a rhetorical question. )

@terry9

From your quote…”It took the ‘ sparkle ‘ out of the sound .”

Yes, it can be. I went through a period about thirty years ago when upgrading some modest components and adding / evaluating high quality interconnects and power conditioning that each step I took reduced the “treble”… sizzle… until I was freaked out that my whole system had gone over to the too warm side. I was confused since in most respects it sounded much better.

I started going out and listening to unamplified cymbals and pianos… and was shocked to find that what I had thought was great treble was in fact high frequency hash and distortion. Cymbles when struck sound like brass not tsssssss. I realized all those loud amplified concerts and cheap loud stereos in the 70’s had trained me to believe that is how music sounded. Surveying real music it was easy to stop craving the tsssss. I realized how beautiful undistorted instruments / music sounds. You know, once you hear you cannot unhear it. My systems then got better more quickly and my partner (a female) no longer minded listening to my system any more… since the high frequency hash and distortion hurt her ears.

Often after that I would go into a showroom and go running out with my hands over my ears. The piercing distortion is often completely missed by folks so focused on detail and slam they just don’t seem to hear it. 

I've got three dedicated lines coming into my audio room on a rock-solid power grid (we share the grid with the county's emergency services).  I thought power solutions never offered much improvement in my system (Fleetwood DeVille, Backert Labs Preamp, McGary amp, Merason DAC).  That is until I demoed the Puritan PSM1512 (12-outlet version of the PSM156).

I was stunned at the difference.  Everything was clearer and better delineated.  The pace seemed to pick up and the sound seemed more "alive".  The sound stage was wider and deeper.  Honestly, I was stunned.  

In my other system (Volti, AGD, Technics, HiFi Rose) I swapped the Puritan in for my IsoTek EVO3 Aquarius (both using a Transparent Premium PC), and again, the difference was pretty staggering (and really obvious).  I would attempt to demo a Puritan before you commit to anything else.  It's by far the best that I've ever heard in any of my systems over the years, (but, to be fair, I'm not auditioning $10K power line solutions).

The only thing a power conditioner might do is introduce noise. They do not improve sound. Put down the snake oil someone is trying to feed you.