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AC Conditioners: Must Have Tweak or More Voodo

As the old school, 2 channel, sentimental dinosaur that I am, power conditioners are very newfangled devices to me and are filed in the same section of my brain as home theatre receivers. However, I have just moved into an apartment in an old townhouse where half the plugs don't even seem to work and even the ones that do requie "cheater" plugs. As I continue to build a system around a Levinson 23.5, ARC SP-11 MK II, Michell turntable and Sony SCD-1, I am wondering if some of these devices would erase my worries about old wiring in the house. Can someone please educate me on what I should do? Dealers seem to tell me that the power amp should go into the wall or a chang lightspeed thingy and that PS Audio 300 would be good for all the source components but I'm clueless. Would these things really mitigate the need to rewire or seek a dedicated line? Thank you.
cwlondon
jallen
502 posts
 
Great advice above. I can say that I have benefited from dedicate lines and recommend that you use at least 12ga solid core romex if the run is less that 50 ft., and 10ga solid core if the run is longer. I also recommend that you run it underground to minimize RFI. CA code requires it be buried in conduit 18 inches deep (top of the buried conduit) and you may want to consider a copper ground rod. This may not be a good ground depending on your soil. Sandy soil will let too much water drain away and the ground is poor. On the other hand, if your soil is hardpan/clay, the rod will hit the hardpan/clay and stop or deflect to the side and not get very deep. The 10ga is so hard to pull and terminate, but sonically very good. I have used Chang, API, Noisetrapper, Monster, WalMart MOV strips (not very good) and nothing at all. I find that you must get the advice from the manufacturer because some of them use devices in their amplifiers similar to line conditioning devices, and two "conditioners" in a row can deteriorate the sound, not help. All of the conditioners have helped in different ways. The API worked at one house very well, I moved, and it became noisey (tile floor) so I changed. Listen before you buy, but first, get the dedicated line. Jallen
bob_bundus
1,834 posts
 
Funny thing about integral line conditioning within a component. I had an older AyreV3 (pre Ayre Conditioner) & sent it in for the upgrade. They told me that I would no longer need to use a PLC, but the amp still sounds better through the PLC than without, even with a dedicated line & an upgrade AC cord, so both filters worked well together.
However, with one preamp that I was running through the PLC I later installed a different AC cord containing integral filtering. That cord + the PLC really messed things up (too much filtering) but that cord alone plugged straight into the line did fine by itself. So you never know what's going to occur until you try it.
avideo
222 posts
 
I would agree with several others who have made posts
about having your wiring brought up to local code. Aside
from the potential for fire and shock from improperly wired
outlets, a properly wired home provide you with much
cleaner audio.
I just recently bought and installed a Panamax 5300
Power Conditioner in my McIntosh-based system. It has
removed ALL ambient noise from my system. Even my old
analog MR-73 tuner is much quieter when between FM stations.
I also have AudioPrism Quiet Line filters plugged in around
the house; and they do a pretty decent job of reducing AC
line noise from appliances and light dimmers.
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