Power Conditioner Help

First for the free options... Turn off your power on that circuit and find every outlet and pull them out and clean (Craigs Dexoit/Pro Gold) the connections on the back of the outlets and screw them down tight (they loosen up or were never tightened properly) Clean all your power cable prongs and IEC's in components and all connections while you are at it. If you can replace them with better outlets even better since your circuit will probably be in series so any loose connections especially grounds will degrade you sound. Next replace your outlet with at least a Hosptial grade 20amp outlet but ideally something better (Porter Ports, PS Audio, etc... tons of threads on this)

As far as conditioners Balanced Conditioners provide a smoother presentation (BPT, Platinium Power PP1, Exactpower, etc) and are transformer based.

Next regerators like the PS Audio Power Plant products and Exactpower (different model than above) don't fit in your budget as they sell for ~$1200+ used and the smaller one will only support your front end. I have found that these add dynamics, detail, weight, and sometimes the best detailed blackness level in situation where urban noise is problematic to the music. If you ever get a plasma,DLP, or LCD get a Regenerator and watch your eyes pop out at the improvement!!! plus your bulbs will last longer with the constant exact supply of power. Same thing for using a PS Audio Powerplant 300 with Tube wave on a tube preamp!!!

Finally you have filters types that are passive (Shunyata, PS audio Duete and Power Director Series) (These are a bargain and I would recommened a 4.7 or a 3.5 because of all the outlets and all the isolation it provides.), and the many other outlet style types.

Oh yeah you can also play with testing polarity for each component at this time to see which way a plug needs to go into the outlets. Check out Galen Carol audio GCAUDIO.COM for some excellent FAQ's about power problems. he's a great dealer also to work that has been around for years.

Good luck the fun is about to begin!

if you can fit it in your budget the ps audio premier very black backgrounds and the plasma looks awsome through it also, but the music is unbelievable through it i highly reccomend it. the nest level past it would be the audiance

If you have a soldering iron and are minimally handy you can make something cheap and easy that works wonderfully. Go to www.audiocircle.com and search for the threads on the Felix, it's in the Lab forum.

I've built more complicated designs for my main system but have this little fella' on my home theater. I'm running the TV, receiver, DVD and cable box through it. I can say there was a marked improvement in the picture, which is the most noticeable improvement.

Good luck,
Bob

Is it conditioning or isolation you need? Pacific Geeks sell a Dale Techology Unit for $40 that will provide hospital grade isolation. I have one and it did wonders to clean up the line.

You might look into a used Equitech balanced power unit. I am very pleased with one in my Spectral/MIT system.

http://www.listenup.com/FURMAN+Elite-15+PF+i-p-Elite15PFi-p-1689474.html

I have the Monster HTPS7000 on the main rig which is a fairly nice unit. My main complaint is the contacts on the outlets are not that tight.

I have a Furman Elite 15i on my headphone rig. The outlet contacts are nice and snug. The link is the big brother to this unit. IMHO at $600.00 well worth the investment.

Due to circumstances beyond my control (I am waiting on a replacement head amp as mine has a microphonic tube and a crackel in the right channel that is frequency dependant) and the fact that this is a fairly new system I can't acuratly judge it's affects. But it just seems to stay out of the way of the music.

Good luck in your search.

Thanks for the suggestions -

Cytocyle - thanks for the suggestions and break down very helpful

Tiger - I believe it is both

The PS Audio regenerators sound very interesting - expensive - but interesting - I am going to try some of the suggestions and then choose - but this is a particularly difficult item to demo

Jwales,
IMO: These things may be the MOST system dependent of all audio components. What may give one person excellent results may not work for you. Demo is definitely the key!

J, Why do you say this is a particularly hard item to demo?