Power Conditioners Suited to Digital Front End

Pubul57,

Yes, everything is plugged in to the Power Wing, monoblocks and all.

Chuck

What is the primary benefit of good clean power? Is it less extraneous noise? or does it affect that actual sound staging, tonal balance, etc? that is, does it remove errors of comission? I don't know if I'm clear with my question. I find it easy to describe the different sonic signatures of amps, preamps, source, and speakers - but I'm not sure what clean power does. I assume the disigners of those "core" products are making voicing decisions. Does that kind of thing apply to power? If I'm not clear, I'll try to reworded it, but I'm hoping my questions are not too obscure.

I have owned the P300, Exactpower units and Power Plant Premier. I have also used a Power Wedge and homemade parallel filters. My experience is that both regeneration/correction and isolation are very important to good sound. Power cord quality is also important even between the wall and the power unit.

The primary benefits of clean power I have experienced are improved focus, image stability, smoother treble and lower noise floor. In a dialed-in surround sytem, clean power can enhance the holographic effect.

Even with regeneration there can be some day to day and time of day variability but sound quality is much more consistent than without regeneration.

In comparing the EP-15 and the Premier, the improvement with the Premier was very noticable. I am passively biamping my system with linear power supply Icepower amps. The isolation features of the Premier are apparently working much better than the outlet filters in the EP-15. The Premier has each duplex isolated to inhibit noise produced by a component from backfeeding into other outlets. This is not intended as a plug for the Premier - other products can be used to isolate components. There just seems to be a great potential for system induced power contamination regardless of the initial power quality coming out of the wall.

Some components may sound better directly connected to the wall outlet. Most days, my player sounds better directly into the wall than through either the Premier or the EP-15.

Bob

Thanks for your comments Bob. It is the very fact that you sometimes think your system sounds best direct into the wall that makes me wonder about the affect of conditioning. They obviously protect the equipment from spike and surges (or should) and that certainly has some value to it. I would also think that if you had very dirty electricity coming into your house that you might need some conditioning. But I can't help but thinking that putting all these filters and electronics between the straight power from the socket to your equipment might come at a price. I have consistently been told by manufacturers of amps I have owned to plug it directly in the wall - now I do understand that the current demands of an amp are much greater than for my pre and digital gear, but it still makes you wonder. I am curious about these products and will give them a try, but I do so cautiously.

Why not try this experiement, which is totally risk free. Contact Robert at Ridge Street Audio and buy a few of his Z-der blocks. These units perform power factor correction. If you're using dedicated lines and want to continue to take advantage of plugging your gear into the wall, the Z-der blocks may be a better solution than filtered power conditioners. I think they are about $300 each. I use one on my transport and I could tell the Z-der block made a difference. I'm probably going to get one for my DAC.