Power Conditioning Help Please?

Good question re: budget. I try to make a habit of buying "near state of the art" gear...and always second hand to attain excellent bang for the buck. Deciding on budget for "tweak" gear like power conditioning seems a bit dicey for me. If I KNEW I'd hear considerable, positive impact, I'd be willing to lay down for something good...make sense?

Thanks to all for the advice and counsel...the ball is in my court now and I appreciate your collective feedback.

I’ve had Legacy speakers for several years now. First I had the Focus 20/20s and now I have the Whispers. Although efficient, Legacy speakers can still be very challenging for many amps because of their hunger for current [amperage]. It is well known that the Focus 20/20s are current hungry with an impedance dip below 2 ohms, and I believe I read somewhere that the Whisper may be even more demanding. If you have everything running from a cheap Monster power strip, then your whole system is very likely bottlenecked right there. Especially your monoblocks/speakers…I would guess anyway.

Here’s something to try – Find another circuit and plug your pre-amp and source into it if at all possible, and then plug just your main amps into their own circuit with power cords as short and/or heavy as possible. Try this when there are not big demands on any of those circuits elsewhere in your house.

Perhaps doing this would give you an indication of whether or not dedicated circuits are worth while. If there is a big improvement, then you know what to do [new circuits]. If there is not…well…then the jury is still out.

Anyway, this is just my out-of-the-blue suggestion. BTW, I also use Shunyata stuff. The Hydra 2s are not that pricey here on Agon, and they go very quickly all the time, so you know there is a resale market if you don’t like it. Remember though, it takes a 20amp power cord.

I've got to throw my 2 cents into this forum. I'm relatively new to audiophilia but have jmped in with both feet. I want to give a major thumbs up to Running Springs Conditioners. I have a pretty revealing system (MBL transport, Boulder pre, Boulder 2060 poweramp, and wilson Maxx2) which I arrived at somewhat gradually (some would argue that!!). I made one (at least) rookie mistake after reading a glowing review of Shunyata Hydra 8 and power cords in TAS, by letting a dealer I no longer will speak to, convince me to buy a Hydra and a full array of power cords for my power amps (at the time BAT VK 150 monos). I have since learned that power conditioners on power amps is an iffy proposition. I have never been more disappointed. I had just gotten the hard sell and shelled out 8 grand and my system immediately and permanently sounded worse. I tried to use the power cords and hydra on the front end to salvage my investment but I found they were wthout question colored. They definitely changed the sound, but I wouldn't say it was better, just different.
A dealer I trust recommended I try running springs. I ordered a Harley from the cable company and the second I plugged it in...WOW! Soundstage explosion, everything better with no discernable weaknesses. Had I gotten that conditioner earlier I probably would have saved alot of money. I have since added 5 dedicated 20A circuits with PS audio outlets, upgraded front end and added a major league amp. If you pressed me I would have to say the RSA was the single biggest incremental leap in performance in my system. That's saying lot with a new $40,000 amp. (One might question my sanity/or intelligence:o). I have a Jaco on the front end, and Dukes on my power amp and Sub. I have only been using the Duke on the amp for a couple of weeks, so I don't have a final verdict. What I can tell so far is that it definitely is either unchanged or slightly improved. The boulder 2060 is a monster, but so far no compression of dynamics. So I recommend giving RSA a try. I can't say I can notice a difference between the Jaco and the Harley, thus for around $2k or less you can get a major (I hope for you) improvement in our system.
Good Luck

PS all my comments are IMS and IMHO