2. cables
  3. 160174-149613

Power Conditioners

Not sure if I placed it in the correct topic but here goes. I was just wondering how power conditioners work, as I want to buy one. There are conditioners with only filtered inputs and conditioners with some filtered inputs and some unfiltered. I believe the unfiltered ones are for analogue devices. But why should these go into the unfiltered part? If I buy a power conditioner for example with only filtered inputs, will I not be able to put my class A amp in? Or will it have a negative effect?
sjeesjie
fastfreight
779 posts
 
+1 for the Inakustik 3500P.  I plug everything into it.
nonoise's avatar
nonoise
10,825 posts
 
To anyone who doubts the efficacy of a good power conditioner because they haven't heard a difference, I'd like to know if your gear has lights, meters or displays that can be turned off. 

If so, try turning them off to see if you can hear a difference. If you can't, then it's you and not the conditioner, or, your system is simply not resolving enough.

I say this because when I first got my Marantz Reference gear (integrated and SACD player), I tired it with the display on or off and couldn't hear a difference. That was before I got my Niagara 1200 and the Isoacoustic Oreas. On a lark, I tried it again and the difference was big enough to make me reconsider a lot of things. 

There's now so much more air, separation, detail and nuances laid bare that those dirty LED displays were injecting noise back into the gear and superimposing itself on the music, blurring things more than just a little.
The line noise was so dirty that it helped cover the negative contributions of the LEDs. 

Before my getting the Niagara 1200, I thought LEDs and displays had no real effect at all.

All the best,
Nonoise
mgrif104
344 posts
 
Mk00

the answer is yes - others heard the difference easily. I have had a number of conditioners in the past.  None were cheap and none really made a sizable difference, but I wanted to protect gear.  My dealer suggested I audition a Niagara 5000. The difference was plainly and immediately audible. I didn’t have to squint and ask myself what was I hearing.  My reaction about 5 seconds into the audition was “crap now I’ll be spending $4k”.  Obviously, every situation is different such as quality of power coming into the house and the gear you’re using, so YMMV.  For what it’s worth, my local dealer told me that every customer who’s auditioned the Niagara at home has purchased one.  I was sincerely hoping to prove him wrong. 
ejr1953
912 posts
 
For my "all digital sources" system, each time I've upgrade the power conditioner, the performance of my DACs improved.
ptss
1,964 posts
 
Does anyone use Equitech 2Q to any benefit?
More to discover