Power Conditioners - and where they are placed


Hi All,

I'm looking to get a proper power conditioner for my home system. I've been looking at Furman, Audioquest, PS Audio, etc. Furman appearing to be the best bang for buck (Furman Elite 15 PFi).

I currently have very limited rack space. Would placing the conditioner on the bottom of my rack with a PS4 on top of it be the end of the world? Obviously this is not ideal, but it would need to have either a 4K blu-ray player or a PS4 on top of it to fit it in the rack.

Thanks in advance.

shahram
I'm looking to get a proper power conditioner for my home system. I've been looking at Furman, Audioquest, PS Audio, etc. Furman appearing to be the best bang for buck (Furman Elite 15 PFi).

I currently have very limited rack space. Would placing the conditioner on the bottom of my rack with a PS4 on top of it be the end of the world? Obviously this is not ideal, but it would need to have either a 4K blu-ray player or a PS4 on top of it to fit it in the rack.

Thanks in advance.



I notice you say you've "been looking at" power conditioners. Is that a metaphor? Or are you literally looking at them? Because my understanding is we buy them for how they sound not how they look. Well, I do anyway. If you do too then you need to listen to them. Preferably at home in your own system.

Ditto rack space and stacking. Asking around here not gonna get you anywhere. Actually it will get you a whole slew of uninformed opinions! My informed opinion, I know from experience how much better a component sounds when sitting on its own Shelf and Cones, so I know I would never in my life turn my back on that much better sound just to save a few bucks or a little shelf space. But that is only because I have actually done the work of trying and listening and comparing. And that applies only to me. I have absolutely no idea what applies to you.

Only way to know what you think is to try it and find out for yourself. 
Maybe I should have used the word 'considering' over 'looking'. But I'm pretty sure you got my gist. Either way, I am going to be buying a used component.

The main thing I'm try to achieve is lower the noise floor of amps, preamps, etc. If I turn my amp way up (past 11 o'clock), especially with my low output MC cartridge on my turntable, I can hear a slight buzz. 

Unfortunately, it's going to be near impossible for me to test out these before buying since I'm going to buy something second hand most likely. I do take your point that testing something in my system is the only way to determine if it's going to meet my goal.
@shahram   Can the power conditioner you purchase be placed in front of the rack?

I would place it on it's own isolation platform and run the power cables under the lowest shelf of the rack (and around it, if / when necessary) to the components. It will allow for separation from the components and rack (a good thing, for example from your PS4 or 4K player) as well as better cable management, etc.

And now for what you don't want to hear..."best bang for the buck" isn't a good strategy. Best "bang" is. 

All the best with your decisions.
Furman is a really great choice. The main advantage of the unit you are thinking about vs. smaller is multiple banks of filtering, and power factor correction.

But, it is a physcially large unit. If you want something almost as good, but a lot less expensive and smaller in the rack, check this one out:

https://amzn.to/2TCAGAE

It includes the 2 biggest noise reducing elements: LiFT and SMP.

Best,
E
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