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PC or Line Conditioner

Hello,
Quite a few years ago I had a post asking people to chime in on what they would recommend for a good Power Cable. I find it funny because at the time I had the Ayre CX-7xe CD player, V-5xe Amp, and the K-5xe pre-amp. Now I have the V-5xe (in Black), K-5xeMP, and the Oppo UDP-205, using AQ Wind XLR IC's. I still have (2) Richard Gray's Power Company PC's and the RGPC-400 Pro. I find myself in need of more outlets and was looking at a used RGPC off of Ebay, but after talking with Gary, the tech guy, at Ayre he really believes that I should spend the money for the Ayre L-5xe that has (4) outlets. There is one right now on Agon for $1,400 OBO. It is not a conditioner in the normal sense, it is completely passive and there is no voltage regeneration or current limitation.
But I still am a fan of running a better PC than what comes with the component. Like I said I have the (2) RGPC cables and I just bought a Kimber Kable PK-14 Ascent. I would really like to keep the price for the cable under $500 but I also am giving more thought to putting that $500 to the Ayre L-5xe instead. All though I would be looking at more than twice what I would be spending on a Power Cable.
Any thoughts would be greatly appreciated!
Thanks,
David
f1wheels
f1wheels OP
22 posts
 
Hello,
First off Thanks for all of your replies! As for my house it was built in 2001 and I am located fairly close to Seattle (about 30 miles South). From what I can tell by looking at the breaker box I have the standard 15 Amp breakers in my front room. I did however installed two silver plated, cryogenic treated hospital grade outlets on each side of where all my equipment is. There is no way for me to run a dedicated line as I would be looking at tearing down a bunch of sheet rock.
Once I do my cap upgrade on my Thiel 2.4's I will try the main amp plugged into the Richard Gray's 400 Pro and then I will try it straight out of the wall. To my knowledge I believe he went out of business, all though you can still get his PC's on Amazon. But I only see his AC Conditioners, used on Ebay or here on Agon. I can also try switching between the Kimber and RGPC cables to see if I can hear any different. At the time I purchased the RGPC cables they were running right around $450 a Meter if my memory serves me correctly.
Thanks Again for your input,
David
lowrider57's avatar
lowrider57
5,417 posts
 
OK, so no dedicated lines. Are you using any lighting dimmers on your first floor that introduce noise? I'm thinking that maybe you could move electrical devices from the shared line to a different breaker.

In any event, another passive conditioner is the way to go, not a new PC.
lak's avatar
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lak
4,624 posts
 
In your scenario, I recommend you purchase a balanced power supply, such as the Core Power Technologies Equi=Core 1200 or 1800 or the Equi=Tech 2Q (although the Equi=Tech company makes a variety of units to choose from).
I'm not familiar with the Ayre L-5xe, therefore, I don't know how well it would clean your AC power. You did mention that your were in need of aditional outlets.
f1wheels OP
22 posts
 
Yes,
I am in need of more outlets as I have A Marantz AV-7701 Pre-pro along with a reliable Rotel RMB-1075 5 channel amp. So naturally I want to run not only the HT gear through a good conditioner but also the dedicated two-channel equipment as well.
As for any type of light dimmers or something similar that would introduce noise into the system I cannot really think of anything off hand. I could sell my RGPC 400 Pro and buy one of the 6 outlet RGPC 1200's. But they run at right around the price of the Ayre L-5xe.
simonbelgium
13 posts
 
What I understood from the whole power story, is that it's about a few things:

1. Stable power. Is your voltage around 110/120V constant, or does it drop and rise by a few volts. Power peaks can wreck electronics, so a surge protector is key here.
2. Clean block wave AC. This is where the problem lies and noise occurs. You can remove a lot of it with better cables and noise filters, but ideally you have a system to regenerate a clean block wave.

I use a PS Audio system to do the latter.
Once your power is "clean" (so from the regenerator outlet), keep it that way with high end cables.

I'm not a super expert on the topic, but this is what I got from researching it a while ago. Happy to hear others' opinion.

I'm not far from Seattle as well, if the OP wants to come look at the PS Audio.
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