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Has a Power Conditioner Improved Your Sound?

My system sounds great. When it is on and not playing music it is dead silent. I tried a PowerPlant Regenerator and it didn’t improve my sound. Actually it slightly constricted my soundstage. Like most audiophiles I’m always searching for that next improvement and wonder if a power conditioner might add something to my SQ So before I start auditioning any power conditioners on a 30 day trial I’d like to know if anyone has experienced a significant improvement to their system, what that improvement was and which power conditioners they used. Right now I’m considering the Isoteck brand. Possibly the Aquarius or Electra. I’d most likely keep the amp plugged into the wall and connect my Streamer and DAC to the conditioner.

jfrmusic
lalitk's avatar
lalitk
5,553 posts
 

@jfrmusic 

Thank you for the update. I willl check out the cable thread and look forward to your findings on Stack Audio. Among other things, their isolation footers caught my attention. It’s ok to wait on PC but know this, clean power is fundamental to your audio system optimal performance. 

v-fi
91 posts
 

It's tough to say whether a power conditioner will make an impact in a different system, and if so how big that impact might be. Over the years I've lived in several homes and each one reacted differently to power conditioners - in some cases it made a drastic improvement, in other cases little or no difference.

Beyond that, I've even had different houses which reacted better to different types of power conditioning. One home did best with regenerated power (I used PurePower but PS Audio made conceptually similar models at the time), another liked the more straight forward filtering types (Audience, Puritan Labs), and my current home favors balanced power (Bryston, Furman, Equitech). 

Unfortunately that means the answer likely involves trying things for yourself and seeing what works in your home. 

jfrmusic OP
278 posts
 

@v-fi

In a way I’m not looking forward to evaluating power conditioners. After trying the PS Audio regenerator and AudioQuest 707 I know it takes time to try out the units and may depend on the quality of your power at the time of the test. I just can’t stand anything that takes air, atmosphere and openness out of the system via the filtering which is what my two previous test units did as well as move the soundstage forward. That’s a big no- no for me. I think I’ll probably try some of the Shunyata units as they always seem very popular with owners.

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