Power Conditioners

@erik_squires great reading man! Thank for sharing that! @mattmiller thats not my experience, I used to have one and I loved the black background and the greater detail and dynamics.

Until half a year ago, I always went directly into the wall. Whether it was BrickWall, TrippLite or Blue Circle, they all limited dynamic range and soundstage size, resulting in everything else following suit.

With the AudioQuest Niagara 1200, none of that happens. The noise floor goes waaay down allowing everything else to shine. Absolutely no loss of anything across the frequency range. Dynamic range is superb as well. One of the best investments I ever made. 

All the best,
Nonoise

@erik_squires still I am wondering why the power conditioners of for example Vincent or Dynavox have different input types (filtered vs unfiltered). Is that because of the 2 zone topology in your example?

Hi OP,

I think that the difference is whether they use parallel only parts, like for surge protection, or whether they try to do noise as well.

The issue is that parallel surge protection and filtering simply can’t get down low enough in the frequency range, so you’ll often see them brag about EMI/RFI noise suppression, but that’s in the 100kHz range.

The true series mode surge supressors are ALSO noise suppressors that work down in the 3 kHz range. That’s well down into the audible range of noise.  Some believe that anything in line with the electric company is bad, so they will avoid them.

Personally, I don't want to be connected to the transformer directly.  It's noisy, and may cause surges.  I'm good with noise filtering and series mode protection.

Best,

E