Anybody stop using power conditioning?

1. There are NO absolutes in this or any other audio-related area. What works great for you won't necessarily do so well at my house etc. etc.

2. Yes I once stopped using line conditioning - for about half an hour. The sibilance came right back along with the dirty power. I still used the dedicated circuit with transorbs & upgrade AC cords.

With dedicated lines, only now the dirt is dedicated

John I love that statement! Couldn't have said it any better myself so I'll appropriate yours. Thanks.

3. Philes like Cape & Albert should at least install whole house surge protection if they find that a line conditioner isn't doing them right. If your area has thunderstorms, then once you've been hit by lightning then you'll better understand the ramifications of no protection. You won't always be at home to turn everything off & unplug it just in time. Then believe my, you'll cry. Even in storm free areas, line transients can be severe & damaging.
I use a Joslyn gas-tube-discharge parallel transorb at the house panel & also I parallel MOV's across my dedicated outlets. And I STILL power down & unplug everything when storms are nearby. I've learned my expensive lesson the hard way - twice!

I use conditioners but not for lightning protection. I have twice had my house hit by lightning. Most recently my stereo was on and plugged into a Sound Application. While my garage door opener, intercom system, answering machine and telephone were all destroyed, my system was unaffected. The first time I had no protection but the system was off except for the preamp. That time the computer was taken despite being on a surge protector, which did not burn itself out, and not on, but the stereo was again unaffected. My computer guy said that computer chip are much faster than surge protectors.

I have never found any surge protector that sounded anything other than like shit. Also I have found only three conditioners that I think add more than they subtract in sound. The good one have been in the last three years. Before that I would initially like them but ultimately found they detracted.

When we have a severe storm, I unplug the Velocitor and Harmonix conditioners.

has anyone used ps audio's uo as a surge protector? does it work? how does it effect the sound? at $399 for thehigh current unit this might just do the job. what do you think albert?

I don't like what the PS Audio does to the music. They were ineffective with my Soundlabs (powering back plates) and Soundlabs draw only one eighth of an amp at 120 volts.

The Soundlabs are an excellent place to test conditioners, whatever sound the filtering adds or takes away is obvious and immediate. That personality is additive and identical in every other component it's tested on.

Comments here at Audiogon about balanced lines have all spoken favorably. A friend who also owns my same preamp and speakers and who's opinion I respect said balanced lines helped in his home, and there appears to be no downside.

So far the only bad news is the parts costs. After much testing, the best results were from large air core transformers, hand made in Switzerland. They are very expensive and require a fairly large mounting space near the AC panel.

The economy needs to turn around and my business must improve before I venture into multi thousand dollar investments for experimentation.

I just finished my living rooms acoustic treatment, rebuilt my Soundlab cores and back plates and had six new power cables built by Purist Audio. These were a small miracle, beating my Dominus like Dominus beat OEM cords, but they were very expensive.

When I recover from all that and test the new Bruce Moore 225 Mono blocks that are on the way, I hope to do more experiments on power. Possibly the balanced approach.

Crazy4blues, in answer to your question, I got rid of the three conditioners for different reasons, some relating to sonics and some more to my comfort level with owning the product and having it in my system.

I had one of the early Power Wedges and used it without giving it much thought for several years. Until I took it out of the system one day and found that I preferred the music without it. I think it made my system sound dull. (But I wonder if what I find dull is what others consider a welcome absence of sibilance.)

I mostly liked what the PS Audio did sonically, but I was frustrated that it (1) had only 4 outlets, (2) could not accomodate my power amp, and (3) consumed power all on its own, so I was conflicted (environmentally speaking) about leaving it on all the time even though I certainly wanted to leave my low-consumption front-end gear on all the time. Also, I thought it was ugly and I was kind of embarassed to have it in the house.

When the Hydra came out, I thought: 6 outlets, doesn't consume power, handsome, and I had had some good experiences with Shunyata power cords. But I was never convinced that it improved my system. Larger soundstage, yes, but things often sounded, again, dull. So I sold it and have been using a Mapleshade power strip as a stopgap.

Over the years, I have certainly heard huge effects from power-related variables in my system. I believe it's important. But I find that I am often unsure about whether the change is an improvement, and sometimes I feel like I'm chasing my tail. Ditto for cones and footers and such. About a year ago, I decided to remove most of them from my system and perhaps revisit the whole topic down the road when I had the time and patience to critically evalute their effects in my system. I used to buy inexpensive tweaks on the basis of reviews or buzz and assume that it was a good thing to have them in the system. Now I'm being more conservative about adopting these things. I got tired of friends asking, "What's that?" and then, "Does it work?" to which I could only say "I don't know, but it's supposed to." Know what I mean?