Power line conditioners- to use or not to use? That is the question?

I tried many....they all changed the sound but they all had warts I ultimately couldn't live with.

The answer is yes and no. 

Panamax and Furman two very commercial brands tend not to make an audible difference.

We have many different power conditioners in our shop including: Isotek, Audio Magic, Audience. and Running Springs the difference that a good power conditioner can make is huge.

AC power can have noise, RF and EMI which can thereby be amplified and added into a musical signal which create grunge.

The other issue is that the powerline may sag and a good power conditioner can bring stabiity. which increases your systems sound quality.

Dave and Troy
Audio Doctor NJ

Audience

PS Audio P5 or P10 or the massive upcoming P20 power regenerators.  My P5 sees 2.5% distortion from the electric utility and outputs .1%.  Clean power=cleaner sounding music.

a used Topaz will cost $200 or so

none will do anything other than 'protect' from noise on the AC input from your utility, etc. and protect from power surges - noise generated by your own components needs to be solved via 1-3 below

1st you will want to makes sure your DAC and/or streamer, computer, file server is galvanically isolated from the rest of the system
2nd - hunt down and break all leakage loop currents in the system

3rd - use a star-quad type cable on your DC power supplies (wall warts)

4th is the isolation transformer

*** Good speakers, room treatments, and source recordings will be of primary importance, and ALL the above secondary ***

There is a 45 page long thread on ComputerAudiophile on how to do this and what to get (but you will need 2-3 days to wade thru it, and there is no summary AFAIK).