Power Conditioners Recommendations

Hi Mapman, yes I was talking about LP's as well. My brother and I did the experiment, and were shocked at how much worse the conditioner made the LP's sound. We used recordings I knew to have spectacular soundstaging, and it all but disappeared with the conditioner. The conditioner also seemed to remove the ambient noise of the original recording space, greatly to the detriment of the effect. It also took much of the richness out of instrumental and vocal timbres, making the music sound much more analytical, and losing the warmth and sense of life and realism that analog usually has. We think that it may have something to do with the tube amplification, as this effect did not happen in my brother's system, and he has a solid state amp. However, there was a slight improvement for CD's with the conditioner, even with the tube amp, so we are not entirely sure of that conclusion. Anyway, in my system, the conditioner had a VERY detrimental effect on LP's.

Learsfool, I made mention in my post above about the use of 'proper' line conditioning. If I ever post about line conditioners I always preface it with the word 'proper' because there probably is no other area within the industry where there are so many improper (inferior) products as in line conditioners.

Not only do improper line conditioners not improve the sonics (their sole purpose for being) by cleansing and conditioning the AC, they most always seem to induce their own sonic harm by inducing their own noise and/or suppressing certain offending frequencies (including the music). The indifferent line conditioners are those that do nothing whatsoever.

Based on the line conditioner brands you've mentioned, I cannot see where you have yet to list any 'proper' line conditioners among those you've auditioned.

But don't give up. There's a few out there.

-IMO

Stehno, I am sure that you are correct, but would I be right in guessing that the "proper" line conditioners of which you speak are quite far above the price range of say the PS Audio Quintet?

Just buy some Synergistic Research TeslaPlex AC outlets......WOW!

Learsfool, good point. There is always the used market.

For example the Foundation Research LC-1 and LC-2 line conditioners are older models and still should compete with some of the very best line conditioners available today and used you can find them around the $300 - $500 price range. (There's none on Audiogon at this moment.)

I'm sure there are others as well such as Audio Magic.

But more important, if proper line conditioning is not in your budget at this time don't waste your money on something that often times sounds worse than nothing at all.

It's not like any line conditioning is better than no line conditioning at all because that simply is not true. I've actually auditioned systems where after 10 - 20 minutes I couldn't take the fatigue any more and suggested we remove the line conditioners entirely from the system and the system sounded far better and less fatiguing. And we're talking very popular name brands in high-end audio.

It's these very units that give proper line conditioning a bad rap and that's why even after all these years few systems have any kind of serious line conditioning.

Line conditioners are what I consider somewhat of a foundational requirement to a system. In other words, if you get this part of the system right (or at least better) it has the potential to dramatically improve every electrical component in the system. Not just one. So it's actually like upgrading every component and hearing a bit more of every component's full potential.

I suggest patience and research, stay away from the most popular brands, and look for used unit prices.

Perhaps instead of budgeting for your next amp or speaker upgrade, you might consider budgeting for proper line conditioning instead. I can all but guarantee that you'll get far more listening pleasure.

-IMO