Has a Power Conditioner Improved Your Sound?

Lalitk, you are so correct. Getting foundational stuff correct makes everything in the system perform its best, but it is very unglamorous. It's like getting underwear and socks for your birthday instead of a new bike! I am learning that power, isolation, room accoustics, cables, tube rolling, very non-sexy stuff is transforming my system into a much more engaging and rewarding sound. Buying expensive large components is way more fun, but without integrating each component with the rest you don't get the full benefit of your investment. A couple of years ago I bought a used Vivaldi Stack. This was the most expensive investment I had made in this hobby. After I wired the money the broker suggested that the previous owner would sell me his Nordost loom for a super low price of 47K. I'm sure they would have sounded great, but I was out of my lane. I could afford to buy the component, but I didn't have the money to integrate it. I sold the stack and went with a much simpler approach that I could afford to optimize.

@jfrmusic

Perhaps you misunderstood my last post. It’s not about spending 4 to 5 times. It’s about finding the right component that offers no compromises given so much riding on it. In my experience, a passive power conditioner like iFi or Furutech would have yielded better performance with everything plugged into it. Check out the link for iFi with return privileges. If I were in your shoes, I would have ordered this combination to compare against 707. In my opinion, AQ707 is not the best choice for your system. I am using a $2800 PC that’s powering a system well north of $100K.

https://a.co/d/6nop3JQ

@thelonious527   When installed in my system it seem to roll off the top end. It took the ‘ sparkle ‘ out of the sound .

I wonder if that's not the same effect which I have been observing these last 20 years - every time I make a major upgrade, some 'sparkle' goes out of the top end. I've come to realize that this is high frequency distortion. This has lead me to value 'smoothness' over sparkle or other tinsel. YMMV

This may be what @ghdprentice is referring to.

By 'major upgrade' I mean air bearing turntable, air gap phono stage, etc.

I live in British Columbia, Canada and our electricity is generated entirely by hydroelectric dams. BC Hydro produces electricity that is 98% clean.

I also live in a large city, so we don't get power outages, power spikes, lightening strikes or brown outs.

Despite this, I still use power conditioners because I need 14 outlets and I've just always used a power conditioner.

Am I an idiot?

( That's a rhetorical question. )

@terry9

From your quote…”It took the ‘ sparkle ‘ out of the sound .”

Yes, it can be. I went through a period about thirty years ago when upgrading some modest components and adding / evaluating high quality interconnects and power conditioning that each step I took reduced the “treble”… sizzle… until I was freaked out that my whole system had gone over to the too warm side. I was confused since in most respects it sounded much better.

I started going out and listening to unamplified cymbals and pianos… and was shocked to find that what I had thought was great treble was in fact high frequency hash and distortion. Cymbles when struck sound like brass not tsssssss. I realized all those loud amplified concerts and cheap loud stereos in the 70’s had trained me to believe that is how music sounded. Surveying real music it was easy to stop craving the tsssss. I realized how beautiful undistorted instruments / music sounds. You know, once you hear you cannot unhear it. My systems then got better more quickly and my partner (a female) no longer minded listening to my system any more… since the high frequency hash and distortion hurt her ears.

Often after that I would go into a showroom and go running out with my hands over my ears. The piercing distortion is often completely missed by folks so focused on detail and slam they just don’t seem to hear it.