Everyone has an opinion on power conditioning and I'm sure each system and power situation presents a unique problem to solve. For my part, $50 an outlet from Sound Applications for my dedicated circuits (2) was a no brainer first step. Very easy to do and had a significant impact. Next were the cords (not cheap or midprice though). Again a very noticable difference, mostly on what I'd call the "signal" or sounds being made. Nothing was taken away in terms of music. Lastly with power conditioners, I had a chance to try a small number of these (not enough). Almost every one balanced or not seemed to take away more than the "noise", as in music. The ONLY one I tried that took away the "noise" by making it a more silent background, and didn't harm the music at all was the Sound Application RLS filter. It is ridiculously expensive, but it sounds great and gives me peace of mind that I've done all I can in that area. It also allows me to "tune" quite a bit with cords, quite often requiring less exotic species. Jim Weil (Sound App guru) actually recommended a <$50 Belden stock cord out of the Newark Electronics catalog to me. Haven't dipped that low just yet, but it's tempting to get a little of that capital spent on power cords back in the till for other goodies.
