PS Audio Ultimate outlet

Steve, you didn't answer my qestion. Why would we hear a negetive affect when using this outlet if it costs more and we have been told that it will IMPROVE the sound of our amps? How can you say it doesn't make a difference if you have not tried it! I can say all day long that BMW 750i drives like my Maxima....but I have never even sat in 750 much less drove one so who is going to believe me

Steven: I apoligize for attacking you personaly, though I do find your posts most irratating. However there is no talking to you because you obviously either have a hearing problem or have not properly auditioned (if at all) the gear/equipment that you dismiss. To be credible you would have had to audition the products that you have strong feelings about, which I doubt that you have.

PS: Steven: As far as cable being directional the only conductor that I can conceive of as not being so following run in (another aspect that you probably do not believe in) would be totally symmetrical (perhaps crystalline) in structure. Otherwise the cable would be directional. Whether the difference is audible in all cables, I don't know, but it has been in the cable that I use and have used. You also fail to comprehend that many cables are marked for direction due to their grounding schemes. As far as my answering questions goes, I have 35 years+ experience (with real equipment in real situations) plus was a musician many of those years having recorded and mixed music as well and feel confident answering questions based on real life experiences. In other words, I don't guess or make it up as I go along. Sound familiar?

The question was ..do the Ps Audio outlets improve sound.? The answers varied, but were mostly negative. That saves many posters time and money, and was of real service to Auidogon's members, unlike the " I know it all, and these fools are wasting their money " attitude some here are espousing. As to whether cables, outlets, line conditioners make a difference, anyone denying it is wasting our time. The issue is really, what kind of difference, and is it worth it? The objectivist vs. the subjectivist topic is so old. Statistical testing for differences is only part of the criteria for judging, not all of it. Our results are always limited by the tests themselves. Experience, scepticism, and an open mind should be respected as in Dekay's case. No one here knows it all, and I am glad of that fact Mr. Stevemj.

No money - I don't know why. I am only claiming that it has nothing to do with the fidelity of the sound. The power from the wall gets hacked up by the rectifiers and dumped into the storage capacitors. The power supplies have a significant amount of ripple on their plus and minus rails. Small irregularities on the power line will make small irregulaities on the relitively large amount of ripple on the rails. The fidelity of the sound is uneffected by this ripple until an amplifier is driven into clipping. During clipping the ripple of the power supply shows up on the top of the wave form the amp is trying to reproduce. At this point distortion is very high and audible.

There are some things that just don't need to be tested. Here is an analogy to the power cord, distribution, outlet senario. You are in a small submarine well below the surface waves (power supply ripple) whose particle's vertical movement is in a circular fashion and extends something like two times the height of the waves. Large seaguls are landing and taking off from the surface creating little waves. My contention is that in the submarine you will not feel the effect of the birds activity.

What make these products even more ridiculous is that they don't do anything to the line anyway (they don't stop the seaguls from landing). I read an ad for one of the ac line conditioners that bragged about not having any coils, filters, transformers or capacitor to spoil the quality of the sound. Of course there is no sound on the power supply side. And the very things that would clean up the ac line are the things they brag about not having.

You could by a ferroresonant transformer. They actually do clean up and stabalize the AC power. They provide constant voltage and tremendous surge protection. They won't make things sound better but they will protect your valuable equipment. Problem is that they make a lot of mechanical noise due to magnetostriction (the transformer laminations actually grow and shrink as the the magnetic field varies). If you could sound proof one in a box it would be a useful addition to your system.