The limited experience I've had with power conditioning led me to believe that going straight into the wall gave the best sound. Better dynamics, wider soundstage, etc.
On a lark and propelled by threads like this and the one on the Equi-Core I did some research and considered at least trying out the Shunyata Venom Defender. That was when I realized I had something like it already packed away.
All it took was a few minutes and I plugged my Blue Circle Thingee into a vacant spot on a Cullen Cable power strip (no filtering or surge capability) using a bog standard power cord.
Cue the lightbulb over my head, or the heavens parting.
It seems that with both outlets on the same line and dedicated only to my audio and video demands, the Thingee did it's thing. BlueCircle sells smaller versions that don't have receptacles that just filter AC line noise and the Thingee has several times the amount of filtering.
Next, I swapped out the standard PC for a Zu Audio Mission PC and things got even better.
The noise floor, as well as the ceiling, side and back walls just dropped, blew up and blew out. I spent the last three hours going over familiar tunes only to discover new, or better tunes. A slight hash in the upper registers is gone (didn't know it was there). Everything has air aplenty with exacting space that naturally compliments positions instead of congealing them. The better the recording, the better the results.
The funny thing is that with the anything plugged into the Blue Circle the results weren't as good, but when used as a stand alone device, it excels.
Now I'm wondering if something like the Venom Defender would be a better propositon than the Blue Circle Thingee, or if there's an even better one out there. As it stands now, this is a rather big improvement.
All the best,
Nonoise
