power conditioner


How important is power conditioner for musical system . Does it really  improve sound quality if the outlet AC power is adequate enough?
farzad
Hi farzad,

Today’s best AC enhancement units aren’t "power conditioners" as we knew them even 5 years ago. Regeneration, Electro-magnetic cells, Graphene, etc. have obsoleted the notion of "taking something away", usually associated with power conditioners as they lower the noise floor based on passive filtering and choking of extraneous noise from the AC signal.

The current TOTL AC enhancement products virtually recreate and/or transform the AC power. A few even audibly increase dynamic headroom over what is possible from the raw AC line.

The right models will positively improve the sound of a good system in every way with no downside except the high cost.

Best to you farzad,
Dave
Farzad,back to your original question. The simplest answer is that it's simply not possible for your ac outlet from a residence to give you 'adequate power'. All ac today is noisy and getting worse. Refined sound requires clean ac power. All the highest end products pay great attention to their power supplies for this reason. It's time for you to experiment. Best wishes.
There are many threads in the archives regarding power conditioning. You can learn about passive and active conditioners, and why regenerators are used.

The goal is to lower the noise floor, provide stable power, and not restrict the sonics of your system.
..tried many, they all have warts I cannot live with.   You must try them inl your own system to hear if the colorations et al are acceptable to you.
@falconquest to your point "And it's not like they wear out so your investment can last for many many years" this is true, however, in the case of an actual surge I come to learn (by talking to electronic repair shops, not first hand experience) that the overwhelming majority of conditioner use some kind of MOSFET and those components can only withstand one (1) surge and then they are of no value (i.e. they have sacrificed themselves to save the rest of the gear). Further, and from what I've read and been told, trouble is "small" surges that you may not notice could also do irreparable harm to the MOSFET without the end user even realizing the protection is gone.

One electronics guy told me if one gets a direct lightning strike there is no in-home surge protection device that could withstand that. The voltage could simply arc across whatever stands in its path and literally fry anything "in its way".

Still, I agree its better to use surge protection than not have it at all.