Isolation transformer question

@lewm That is why I said, "well designed".  Sure, there is a lot of equipment that cut corners to keep the price down. However, I once thought the very basic bias supplies on our ESLs would benefit from refined power. I tried it and it made no difference. I moved the transformer to my line level equipment and it made no difference, so I sold it. The most sensitive piece of equipment, my phono stage, is powered by batteries and is isolated from the line during play. 

I found just messing around that feeding the ESL bias supplies from the lowest power PS Audio regenerator does make a small improvement in sonics. Years ago I tried 6 different power cords on my then SL M1 speakers (before I bought the present PX845s), and I heard differences with SQ having no relation to the cost of the power cords. In fact, the OEM SL power cords (basically 14ga hardware store types) were 2nd best of the 6. Go figure. Any noise inherent to the bias supplies can potentially move the diaphragms, much as spurious motion of a cantilever can also cause distortion.

@clustrocasual Isolation transformers are incapable of cleaning up AC power. They can provide isolation, which is useful for solving ground loop problems, but they can actually add to AC power distortion.

It is AC power distortion which causes some of the ills that people seek to solve with conditioners. In particular, the 5th harmonic of the AC line (so 300Hz in the US) causes power transformers to become noisy, power rectifiers to radiate noise and synchronous motors more likely to run in the wrong direction; all with greater heat.

If you run any transformer past 50% of its rating, the distortion will rise and things like the 5th harmonic show up. Here's a nice link to show you what goes on. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harmonics_(electrical_power)

The only time I had intrusive hum on the Plitron within my BPT was when I had an over voltage situation with my provider, 125-126V. I also had noisy power trans. in my Art Audio 845 and Coincident 845 amps, I ended up building bucking trans. to quiet those (no amps ever on PC for me).

I also have experience with battery vs AC powered equipment, had Nirvana Electronic Works SS class A amp which ran off 4 wheelchair 12v batteries, Merlin speakers back in the day run a BAM (essentially a preamp, rechargeable batteries), and experimented with battery vs AC power for preamps, dacs. I'd posit if going battery, Stromtank level of design and build quality  may be necessary.

Large capacity transformer in PC and only run front end equipment off PC, no issue with saturation. No doubt grounding is an issue, I completely redid grounding in my house, no more ground loops with potential issues resolved.

@lewm pointed out the difference between these types of PC, this is consequential.

@atmasphere , what are your thoughts on balanced power isolation transformers?