Power Conditioning on the Cheap

Underwood HIFi has a line of lower cost power conditioners and offers a trial period.

I am personally a fan of the Garth Powell units (Furman and Audioquest) that have storage in the unit for more power than the line can deliver for transients.
While I use the Niagara 7000 in home system to great effect, I needed to put together another much cheaper system and found a very old Furman reference 15 for sale. It’s pretty much the same as the current reference 15i units sold now except for cosmetics.

I just noticed a Furman reference 20 on flea bay for 800 obo.  I would imagine it would blow away even an Niagara 1200.  

Brick Wall offers a couple of power conditioners/protection. I can’t say about the improvement in sound, because I am just using one for my computer.

To my liking are the old BPT power isolation transformers, which were rated high over the need for current in many systems. The one that I bought many years ago had 6 secondary windings electrostatic shields for each winding, and also produced balanced power in the output. Each secondary is rated at 10 amps, but the primary is also rated for 10 amps, so that must be taken into consideration.

Got to admit to using Richard Gray products in the past but think that more than one needs to be considered.

A close second in my experience is an old PS Audio P300. I have one coming in Wednesday that has been thoroughly rebuilt by a good friend of mine who used to consult for Sudgen in Europe. I consider the extra money spent on the rebuild rather worth it. I have owned these units (the P300 in particular) like what they do given their limitations. Almost always used for source equipment.

I also agree with @mitch2.

And that a dedicated ground can't be overlooked, if available.

Objective? Here you go, from Audio Science Review, a deep look into power regenerators. 
 

Personally? I just use a nice TL line conditioner that has a protection circuit built in.

@mitch2 yeah, when you know what’s actually in the box you have to giggle

varistors change sound in a way some may find appealing, but squash dynamics big time. The outlets are very high quality and probably do offset their impact to a certain extent, but I would remove them in a heartbeat..

As Eric mentioned the Furman units are surge protectors first and top notch. I think the idea of “conditioning power” is dubious. However, keeping voltage as constant as possible along with surge protection is a smart thing. I need surge protection like Eric, in CO, t-storms can be monsters. Very real deal. This year I’m installing a whole house surge protector and dedicated line. For now I too use a Shunyata Hydra 6 for my amps and front end along with the Furman PTS-6 for digital, TV etc. they haven’t failed me yet. The new Viper block looks like a winner IMO. I like Shunyata gear, it has served me well overall on the power side of things. I’m considering an upgrade of my block to a unit that can do all my system as one… not sure what that will be just yet.

I think the most important question you need to ask yourself is how robust of a surge protection unit you need. If your needs are minimal then I think about any decent block would get you where you want to be.