Does a good power conditioner reduce need for power supply upgrade?


Would like to hear Agoner’s opinion on this topic.  It appears to me that power conditioning as a part of power distribution role for your whole system, and high end external power supplies designed to either replace and beef up internal linear supplies (e.g. Naim approach) or to replace cheap switching wall warts or internal supplies supporting a single piece of equipment have a similar function, that being to reduce noise without restricting current.

Interested in what you think.

kn

Ag insider logo xs@2xknownothing

It still is very good to upgrade to a  decent LPS power supplies especially at the starting points 

for example get rid of the noisy wall wart a $10 piece of junk to the router That just adds more noise.

Like so many things in this hobby there appears to be no simple answer to power conditioning. And apparently there are various types of power problems that can be addressed.

my goto reference for this is live testing done by alpha audio which you can watch where they both subjectively and objectively show that different conditioning devices work better in some situations better than others and in some devices better than others and ‘conclude’ that the results are situation dependent and you must try the specific devices in their intended places to know if or how much they will help.

I live in an older apartment building in a neighborhood with lots of old homes being torn down and replaced with condos (cash registers). Even before the gentrification of the neighborhood, the power was iffy, maybe once every several months I'd experience a brownout and even rarer, a blackout. 

With all the new construction, there's been too many times that the power would go out and having my AQ Niagara 1200 in front of my gear provided protection as well as piece of mind. Those brownouts would cause flickering and surges as it came back on. Not good for anything plugged in. Getting something passive, like the AQ, wouldn't hurt. It clamps down when necessary and doesn't limit current. I don't see or hear any downsides.

All the best,
Nonoise

Years ago I bought an Audience AR-6 power conditioner.  I lived in a big city, the house was built in the early fifties and it really made a difference in in the sound quality. A few years later, I moved to the country in a new house that was built on what was a cow pasture. When I set up my hifi, I didn’t put the AR-6 in and I really didn’t hear anything bad. After a week-ten days, I reintroduced the AR-6 and heard NO difference, but I I kept it in for the magnetic breaker in it. Six years ago, I moved back to the big city, into a home built in 1962 and had to but the AR-6 In pretty quick. 
So I guess what I’m saying is can depend on where you’re living, how your house is wired, how your subdivision is wired and how many people you’re in your immediate area you are sharing with and for me now, I have a six story office building less than a thousand feet from me.