How much should a person spend to get a decent power conditioner?

@pesky_wabbit,

I would take issue with your your statement. It is mainly cable induced (both mains and signal). if it is component induced the component is faulty or badly designed.

The most common sources of noise are cheap or poorly positioned transformers, and poor grounding schemes. Far less often is the noise cable induced. Cable noise is most often the result of a bad solder joint or complete lack of shielding -- rare, even with inexpensive cables. 

I'd agree that noisy components are badly designed, but there's a lot of those out there. Cable noise in aviation and automotive is far more common than in home audio, but they're not apples to apples. I worked to mitigate noise in aviation systems for years, and more often than not, the culprits were poorly executed terminations or grounding schemes. In home audio, any halfway decent, inexpensive cable can thoroughly mitigate noise. Realistically, phono cables are the only ones that might require extra shielding and careful routing. The few times I've had cable noise in a home system were due to cold solder joints. In contrast, I've owned quite a few amps from various brands that had noisy transformers and/or bad ground schemes. It's quite common IME, so I take issue with your statement and  assert that you sir are the one who is wrong. Silly Wabbit.

OK, let me clarify. I have no noise, no hum, no pops, no signal induced noise, no component induced noise. Quiet is quiet, black quiet. I get more noise from my ceiling fan. (Which is a Hunter btw. ;-) ) Setting aside the consitent power outages, I am wondering most about increasing the definition of my soundstage. It is pleasantly wide, deep, and high, but can it be improved upon with more expenditure on AC conditioning? If so, are we talking 4 figures, or something less? Or this this a moot point, and save my pennies for speakers or a higher end pre/pro? THANKS TO ALL FOR YOUR INPUT

Put your money toward speakers or more music. Better yet, experiment with speaker placement. Pull them away from the walls, a good 3’ or more.
Claims that power conditioning will improve soundstaging are complete hogwash.

@wisciman99 ignore the nattering nabobs who dismiss any sort of tweak or system accessory. The only thing you can do is try something in your system. Luckily power conditioners are easily available used and also easy to resell. 

A good conditioner will make your system sound more open and effortless, it will add weight and improve dynamics. In general however I haven’t found them to materially change soundstage, which is more a matter of low level noise better addressed via grounding solutions and the like. Rather against expectations I’ve never found conditioners to remove noise or so called grunge, but that’s perhaps as I’ve always had clean power to start with as it sounds like you have too - anyway you can check my system to see the lengths one can go to to work on clean power from the breaker out.

The challenge is that a lot of the inlines and other tweaks like the HFCs or Akikos are a bit hit or miss, and may suit better in a more refined system. If I was in your shoes I’d try a solid Chang, Shunyata or Synergistic box and see how that works for you. Unfortunately these are all $1-2k and up used but they will grow with your system. 

Rarer brand to look out for but work really well include Running Springs Audio and Sound Applications but again these are all expensive. 

Also take extra care plugging power amps into conditioners as not all conditioners will work well and some may limit the amps performance - for example the Chang and some Shunyatas are not a good fit with power amps but the Synergistic, RSA and Sound Apps all work really well with amps as well as sources.

Anyway good luck with your search!

I lucked out on an older Sound Applications XE12 for a few hundred dollars. It worked very good at my previous house ( old historic home with cloth wire ) . I have not checked it at the new house; just kind of something you drop in and forget. I will need some power strips to get it out and check, in case Whart is correct, and it is now effecting the sound negatively.

Try dedicated lines also. Getting electrical right is important, and not BS, although speakers are a very high return item if you haven’t got that settled. Get rid of wall warts, which reminds me, I still have one on my modem.

Replace the ceiling fan!! :)

@folkfreak - I'm a completist in that i cannot read "nattering nabobs" without the complete phrase. :)
I was trying to discern what you are using- I remember some posts about Synergistic Research active blocks, and saw that at one time you had the Equi=Tech wall cabinet. You are now using a Torus isolation transformer or did I misread? I assume you found some benefit to 'conditioning' of some sort even with balanced power? I gather from my cursory read of your set ups that you don't have a traditional 'black box' power conditioner installed?
Call me agnostic on the subject. If it helps, great. I think try before you buy is the watchword for anything over a modest price.