Power conditioners and power regeneration

This youtuber uses a gizmo to test noise on the AC line and compares it to Furman and AQ Niagara. 

In my system, I recently traded out an AudioQuest PowerQuest3 for a Niagara 5000 w Tornado power cable. The sonic result was a substantial increase in realism, among other things. I expected to be disappointed with the results from the trial, thinking the cost of the Niagara couldn't warrant the price tag. I don't want to remove the Niagara from my system now. 

Interestingly, guys over on WhatsBestForm say that running two Niagara 5000 is better than one 7000. One dealer I know also runs two Niagara. 

In my TV space, I run a Furman PST-8D. Now that I have a freed up PQ3, I'll compare them to see if I can see or hear a difference. 

@oddiofyl - The rectification happens on the secondary of the transformer. Meaning it doesn’t "know" that the primary is balanced or not. It’s perfectly safe to use with tube gear.

Please keep in mind that whole-house surge protectors have high clamping voltages compared to the best point-of-use surge protection. About 600V vs. 200V. Whole-house suppressors are not intended to be the only surge protector in your home, especially for delicate electronics.  I've lost a laptop that way.

Having said that, tube gear by nature of the higher working voltages may be less susceptible to your average surge.

@erik_squires What Furman gear models do you use for voltage regulation and surge protection?

Many manufacturers ask not to stack surge protectors with their uninterruptible power supplies, but those UPS's are some of the only gear I've seen that will control voltage (or at least measure voltage). 

@classdstreamer There’s a couple of reasons for that. One is that UPS output often has a lot of harmonics which can trigger a surge protector, and most surge protectors use parallel protection which could short the UPS output. The other is the generalized fear of users putting low current extension cords downstream. The nightmare scenario which fire departments often have is a chain of unfused strips overloading. None of these issues apply to me.

You can get Furmans with both AR (automatic regulation) and surge protection (LiFT + SMP) , such as the P-1800 AR but in my case the voltage regulator ( https://amzn.to/3E5JesI ) is before the Furman Elite 15i. This wasn’t a great plan, but now I can keep my HT equipment on a different surge protector than my DAC/amplifier, and everything is voltage regulated.

Keep en eye out for open box deals, and know that Furman has made like 3 dozen models... so there’s a lot of other conditioners thave have these features (AR + Lift and SMP).

The reason I ended up with such a setup had to do with living in San Francisco and getting 130 VAC or higher regularly. The AVR has kept the voltage between 118 and 123 no matter what is playing or where I was.

Unfortunately my HT system shares an outlet with the porch and when the workers would start their circular saws the regulator kept engaging to keep the voltage at my equipment solid.

Thanks Erik !