New level of ridiculousness

if I were building a cost-no-object rig from $300K+ I sure wouldn't use crap as a power bar.

At RMAF, I think those power strips were in the room with the big 100k Lansche speakers. IMO, the sound was pretty uninspiring, not contending for one of the better rooms in the show. I wonder if they should have spent more on powerstrips?

John

Maril555,
There are two issues here. There are those who say, if people can afford these overpriced items it's up to them. Of course it is. But I agree with you -- for most people, many of these items are crazily overpriced with the cost reflecting only the greed factor of the manufacturer. Some of these high-priced products deliver superlative performance, granted. But others deliver hardly anything to write home about. So, we are talking about two things here -- high prices and bang for your audio buck.

I have found that the price you pay is often not reflected in sonic value. For example, I have paid the most ridiculously low prices for Bybee items on the after market. They are far and away the best bang for the audio buck in my system. I have never been let down by a single Bybee product.

On the other hand, I have had a lot of SR products in my system -- but with mixed results. I paid an outrageous price for an SR product that is guaranteed to send your system to the moon -- hoopla-ed to death on their site. What did I get for my money? I got the sound choked out of my system -- a very scary event for a product that is supposed to deliver an expanded sound stage and blacker backgrounds. In my system this SR product delivered only the black background -- with no sound at all coming from my speakers. It scared the hell out of me.

The moral of the story? If you have deep pockets you can go for anything and everything out there without having to worry about value. But if you are an audio mortal you will have to be very careful with your hard-earned dollars to get the best value for your audio buck -- especially in our "new normal" economy.

"There is nothing wrong with improvement thru placebo effect as long as one can afford it. "

A significant portion of what we hear and how we respond is determined by the final component in the signal chain, our own mind and bodies, so I would tend to agree.

There are all sorts of overpriced thing out there that don't give much or anything back in return. Just make sure you have deep pockets...and short fingers.

I think it's the mainstream belief that power conditioners don't make a difference that makes it a very niche product and why it continues to be so expensive.

The Sound Application devices are hand built and outside of recording studios, no one really knows about it. I only came to know about it through a friend, and I went in to listen to his system quite skeptical but his system sounded good. At first I assumed it was his gear. They were CJ GAT/ART with ASI Diamond Tango speakers with a 2 box EMM Labs as source. But removing just one of the conditioners changed the soundstage completely, it was startling. If bias is going to affect your judgement, I should not have heard any differences.

I can see why studios continue to invest in these conditioners.