Why does better power = better sound?

"I'd love to attend a shootout of top power conditioners like Audience, Shunyata, Synergistic Research, Tripoint, etc.."

Yes, me too.

Ideally this would occur in my room and with my power.

I'd settle for a/b testing of any of these with my setup compared to what I currently use. I would expect to hear a difference and be able to make a value judgement accordingly.

A shootout elsewhere would still be interesting but harder for me to translate.

My goal would be to use a power conditioner to put the power issue to rest for me for good hopefully. That might well prove to be a good investment even if somewhat pricey!

Maybe if I had $30 or so left in my pocket afterwards I just might, MIGHT, consider a fancy fuse! But probably not. :-)

If someone in Baltimore/DC metro area wanted to play, I might be interested in a reciprocal trial of some of my more easily transported gear in their place as well sometime.

I was a skeptic. Moved up from a Shunyata to an Audience AR12 and was surprised at how much energy and dynamics and nuance came through. Much bigger difference than simple power cord or dedicated outlet upgrade (which also helps). I just bought the new Audience AR12-TSS. AMAZING.....it was like an immediate upgrade occurred on every component in my system, and that was after being used to the stock AR12 which was pretty special and beat other PLCs I had in my system....couldn't live without it (well OK I could live without it but wouldn't be as happy). Those folks at Audience have cracked the code I believe, and I'm a believer in power conditioning for sure, including plugging my amp (tube or solid state) into the AR12-TSS!

Byroncunningham... I've followed your journey with great interest.

Mapman... I fully understand what you mean about "pulling the trigger". For me it was a hard decision to buy the aR6-TS versus buying a better 2 channel amp to replace my 5 channel Theta Intrepid Amp. In this case, I made the right choice.

After reading the last few posts I am pleased that for the most part,there is an agreement that the qulaity of your sound can be improved if you do something to improve your power.

I see there are still a few satisfied with the way it sounds audiophiles,but the thing is most of us were perfectly satisfied with our sound also.

We only found out how much better it could get after we did some power tweeking.

That's the point to remember.

All systems will sound just fine, straight out of the box and into the wall.

They work and work well.

But just as some cave man discovered fire, he discovered cooked meat can be even better than raw, which was up to that point "good enough".

I think you get the drift.

We all know how good our systems are,what we don't know is how good our systems can get.

Unlocking the full potential of what I own has been more fullfilling than swapping out one component for the next hoping to find the last perfect piece and get off the merry go round, if that is what you want to do.

Some folks enjoy the ride and for them it's not always about the destination.

I was like that, some of my friends were like that.

After awhile you get to a point where everything starts to sound good enough, and the magic wears off.

So I have to ask,is this the point to end the search or to move in another direction?

I was fortunate to have a friend who was into power tweeking before me.
I heard the improvements, and followed suit.I moved in another direction, and focused my attention and money to power tweeks.

It didn't stop me from making further audio purchases,just more informed ones.I could more easily discerene that the new cd player was much better than the last for example.
Before power tweeking most cd players had started to sound the same.

When your system is getting decent power you can judge whether some components are worthy of purchase or they aren't.

Degraded power really does mirky up the waters and render most things good enough, that's great news for the fellow with the Thrift Shop power amp that sounds as good as any Pass amp ever did.

Ever wonder what kind of power systems these folks are using when they make such statements?

Then again, have they ever heard a Pass amp?

Most likely the answers are no power conditioning, and no expereince with a quality power amp or system.

Moving your system from good enough to great doesn't need to break the bank.

But you need to know how to recognize it when you hear it.

Something I'll save for another time and place ,perhaps.

well put lacee,after many years just using a power conditioner with everything plugged in,i got dedicated lines and 20 amp breakers installed.amazing differance...should have started with that right at the begining.Although the breakers dont have there own ground and panel its a hugh upgrade for now.Wow i have never heard this gear like that.(it was a lot cheaper than a new cable.)