Richard Gray's 400 Pro = Emperor's New Clothes??

Athipaul,

I think Albert qualified his statement fairly well by ending his post with this:

"If you have problems of operating off a terrible local electrical grid, live in an apartment or high rise where everyone in the building is beating on your stereo, then yes, maybe conditioning is preferable to having none."

But, he is right, for less than the price of a $700 RGPC Power 400 and $1,500 Pole Pig, most homeowners can add at least 2 dedicated lines and breakers. Make that a $2k RGPC 1200S+ Pole Pig and dedicated lines in a home become a much more affordable option with better results, too. Obviously this may not be an option for those in rental units, condominiums, or in situations like my house where it will take major work to run new lines to my living room.

Regardless, I did find the RGPC units did a great job of quieting my noisy AC system. Of course, my surplus isolation transformers work just as well at <20% of the cost.

Darkmoebius:

Regardless, I did find the RGPC units did a great job of quieting my noisy AC system. Of course, my surplus isolation transformers work just as well at <20% of the cost.

Well said.

I don't hate power conditioning, I just want to make everyone aware that a good solid electrical grid is vital to maximum performance and that should come BEFORE investing in add on equipment.

I suppose it's possible to invest in the total reconstruction of your electrical and still need conditioning, but for me and several in my audio group, that is not the case.

The quality of your electrical power sets the stage for every piece in they system. Improve power supply at the source by even a little and reap the rewards at every gain stage.

Another way to look at it is that your Rega and Rotel gear is already handling power supply issues/variations as par for the course (as any highly respectable electronics really should)

Perhaps your results simply reflect the high quality of your orginal components?

Albert Porter's comments have piqued my interest on this complicated question, and I'd like to ask about how to help me figure out what to do about my power situation.

I live in a quasi-rural area with a far lower population density than most suburban communities. Our road has about 18 houses spread over a little over a mile. My house is the end of the line, with approximately 800' run of underground electrical cables. A vented underground transformer serves my house alone, since the nearest house to mine on the same lines is approximately 1000' away and closer to the line run on the road.

Still, I have brown outs at times, and I think I have detected power surges as well. The music room has 2 outlets on the same circuit and a ceiling fan. When listening, I have on one or two incandescent lamps. Tube power, tube pre, tube CD, turntable with vac holdown, transistor step-up and electrostatic speakers are on the 20 amp circuit. The power amp is plugged into the same outlet as the power conditioner that has the rest of the components plugged into it. The overall quality of the sound improved when the power amp was plugged directly into an outlet rather than going through the power conditioner. The conditioner sound is better than with a power strip.

Running dedicated lines to the music room seems quite difficult with the construction of the house since there is no basement and the wiring is in the walls.

My 200 amp service box definitely needs replacing. If dedicated outlet rewiring is not in the cards, what recommendations might be made here?

Thanks,
Rouvin

I don't know where you live or what standard the PUC holds over your electrical supplier so my answer may not apply to your situation. I'll describe my situation and the experience I gained from going through the chain and hopefully that will help.

Where I live (in Texas) if power is NOT up to specification or you have potential demand that exceeds what can be supplied, the power provider must upgrade your service to match your needs.

I had a commercial electrical contractor that worked with me and he knew people at the local power company. We requested an upgrade when I was running my 14 dedicated lines for stereo and the provider complied with new transformer, new heavy drop, new Trans Socket meter and all labor (for free).

I paid the electrician about $3800.00 to rewire and the contractor and electrical provider worked out the details. Even if the provider will not do a new meter base for free, it would be worth paying for an upgrade.

That's all I can tell you, unknown what the rules are where you live but it's sure worth fighting for to get the power right. Otherwise everything else you do is after the fact and in my opinion, impossible to make 100% right when you're starting out wrong.

My comments probably sound over the top, but understand that most peoples idea about good power is the lights light up when the switch is turned on. The electrical supplier is not going to upgrade unless they have to. It's your job and your contractors job to convince them you need better. I got that accomplished but then again, I could have been in another state or another time of year and gotten nowhere with these guys.

I will say though, another guy in my audio group who lives in another part of Dallas completely rewired his stereo room about a year ago and he went even further than I did. Larger meter, more runs and even a solid copper drop from his own transformer.

Again, he used a commercial electrical contractor that's accustomed to doing office buildings and businesses and our home systems seem simple to them. All a matter of perspective and experience.