Plug Amp directly to Mains or use a Power Conditioner?
There have been discussions about whether to plug an amp directly to the mains or via a power conditioner. I live in a house that's 60 plus years old, with two phase (non-grounded) wiring in most of the house. The neighborhood I live in is also quite old with an ancient power grid. I have been plugging my amp directly to the mains, but think, due to the bad power distribution, I should plug it into the new power conditioner I have on order. I also bought some mildly upgraded power cords for both the amp and conditioner.
I respect that some may suggest re-wiring the house or using a whole house conditioner. Probably great ideas, but I am more of a serious hobbyist than a true audiophile. Meaning that I am not going to invest thousands for electrical current remediation.
I have my large-ish TV's plugged into decent Panamax or Furman line conditioners and saw noticeable improvements. I am thinking that my audio output may also benefit.
Suggestions anyone?
Thanks all. I guess I left off some details about my question. I have read in various publications that an amp has internal voltage regulation that could be adversely effected by external power conditioning. If that's the case, in general, I would still plug the amp into the mains. I bought the power conditioner primarily for my source equipment. |
Taken from the '10 Biggest Lies In Audio' Just about all that needs to be said on this subject has been said by Bryston in their owner's manuals: "All Bryston amplifiers contain high-quality, dedicated circuitry in the power supplies to reject RF, line spikes and other power-line problems. Bryston power amplifiers do not require specialized power line conditioners. Plug the amplifier directly into its own wall socket." What they don't say is that the same is true, more or less, of all well-designed amplifiers. They may not all be the Brystons' equal in regulation and PSRR, but if they are any good they can be plugged directly into a wall socket. If you can afford a fancy power conditioner you can also afford a well-designed amplifier, in which case you don't need the fancy power conditioner. It will do absolutely nothing for you. |
When I bought my now 70 YO house, some 26+ years ago I had a 20 amp dedicated line run from my elec panel directly to the 4 plug outlet for my system. I ran it outside, digging a several foot deep trench @carlsbad I had a PSA Premier Power Plant plugged into my dedicated line. It really did NOT improve the sound. Lots of PLCs in between, I have a Core Power 1800, which DOES |
There was a post to this thread that was deleted and it hd a link to something sort of like "the dangers lurking behind your walls" or something like that) & it was about old &/or bad wiring. This got me to thinking, as like the OP of this thread, I own a house built in the ’60s and when I bought it it did have the old style fuse box and there is one circuit with a few outlets WITHOUT the 3rd wire (ground). Is there a good chance there is some knob & spool going on here, and would I be able to see that by pulling one of those outlets and would I be able to identify it from what wire I could see from the removed outlet?
OOPS! On edit: wrong thread. But I'll leave the question up anyway. |
