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WHICH POWER CONDITIONER IS BETTER PASSIVE OR ACTIVE WITH ISOLATION TRANSFORMERS

Looking to purchase a Power Conditioner to reduce the noise floor in my system as well as to protect my system from electric spikes. The two types of conditioners seem to be as follows:

  1. Passive conditioners such as an Audience AR-12 T4 which claims that passive conditioning with the use of chips is the way to go because their filtering is better accomplished without the use of isolation transformers. The proponents of passive seem to claim that the use of isolation transformers adds noise to the components in the chain.
  2. Active or non passive-An example would be the Niagra 3000, 5000 &7000 by Audioquest which all use Isolation transformers to accomplish the filtering. Most of the conditioners I see advertised seem to accomplish filtering with the use of isolation transformers.
  3. My question is what type is better and why? Any recommendations would be appreciated. My budget is $4000-$5000.00, would consider used, a/k/a pre-owned. 
  4. Thank you for your input. 

 

kjl1065
erik_squires
16,922 posts
 

I’m not really onboard with the definition. In all other situations I know of, active means powered. That power is being used in addition to the input and output. Isolation transformers by this definition are still passive.

The PS Audio power regenerators are very much active. Furman with LiFT is active.

Personally, I prefer voltage regulation over isolation. Day in, day out, winter and summer it keeps the voltage at my gear solid. Furman with AR (auto regulation) plus SMP for surge suppression is really hard to beat at a great price point.  Of course, you can also get Furman with AR, SMP AND isolation... but that's above my budget.

carlsbad2's avatar
carlsbad2
2,036 posts
 

@nonoise I agree, it is hit and miss how each amp works with power supplies.  And it can be the opposite of what you think.  I have a 14 lb, 2 wpc tube amp that is very sensitive. 

Jerry

mark200mph
468 posts
 

All i know is i had more power spikes this wk and all the power filtering systems worked and saved my equipment including the monster 2000 +7000.the furman 20i  is nice cuz it has big capicators to help the transients in the big monoblock amps. They could rob me of some clarity but it's like a timex that takes a licking and keeps on ticking.i don't have to pay 500$ shipping them off to get fixed.the niagra has the magic tube that I think is a capicitor for transients.watch the interview by upscale audio on upscale audio site. I'm sure my amps sound better plugged directly into the wall but I can't afford it.i do like the gadgets on the ps 20.it would be nice for you to go to a dealer and try stuff out crutchfield will let you do it.the bug spray dude fell over and lost controll of his spray nosel we heard the loud crash as his big 10 gallon can hid my grandkids toys.then 3 hours latter the ge surge protector was like the wizard of Oz and lit up.called the. The next day and the manager came and evaluated the situation.the next day got full page denial letter stating they are trained not to spray outlets. And the outlet would have char on it if thaT truly happened.they fun it by thier genius electrician. Moral of the strory.do it yourself.they must have not looked at the outlets cuz 3 had ionizationation from arc .it was soaking wet.off to the fire arsonist  I go.good luck with your search and keep the pesticides sprayers away from your outletts.

jeffbij
250 posts
 

@kjl1065   +1 on the Regenerators.  I have very noisy, high distortion incoming power with significant voltage swings.  I bought a PS Audio PP12 and it made a world of difference, better than Furman I was trying out.  Everything is plugged into it, Classe monoblocks as well, and not coming anywhere close to overloading it. Infact, it worked so well that I bought a used PP10 for the bedroom system and haven't looked back.

 

mgw
66 posts
 

The PheonixNET made a significant improvement in my system. Pretty obvious, even down to a better TV picture.

Setting aside the title of this thread there is another issue about denying this guy the oxygen of publicity that he so desperately craves.

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