Power Conditioners - Best Set-Up

Lrm1jaf, Good kuck with your research in this somewhat confusing world of power conditioning. I have learned a lot by doing some intense reading and by having discussions with some of the people whom represent the manufacturers.

I have concluded; passive power conditioning units do a great job of filtering and isolating from component to component. But, junk in, junk out. I have found no passive conditioning device that will correct the AC waveform, nor will they stablize voltage. If, for instance, your AC line voltage was 115 volts going into the passive device, that is exactly what will come out. Probably less after you consider the draw from all components. Passives cannot correct for that.

If you provide a CORRECTED AC waveform with a stabilized voltage @ 120 volts, and remove the distortion from the AC waveform, there will be nothing left but to filter and isolate the corrected waveform. The Exactpower SP-15 acts as an isolator between components, filtering, and now provides balanced power. That in conjunction with the EP-15 correcting the waveform is making the AC about as clean as you are going to get it.

Best of luck in your selection process. You will find that you will be rewarded with much cleaner and sweeter sound.

It doesn't get any better than that.

Careful with "audio grade" filter products...be very careful. Not that I don't use them, but the ones I use were so good the manufacturer stopped making them. Even more, they'll deny they made them since they're way superior to what they currently produce.

Buscis got the basics right. Now, powering amps via regenerators (full or partial) is rather challenging. I have a 10 amp medical grade Elgar regenerator and I made a test--plugged in my little Makita hole shooter (just that). Starting it took the current needle almost to 10 amperes! The internal wiring is not as beefy as it should be, either. We're talking about a 70+ lb device...

I separate this subject in four areas:

1) Power delivery
2) Power filtration
3) Preventing cross contamination of filtered power
4) Not ruining the music in the process

So, Buscis and I have very similar viewpoints on how to do this. However, I did not get good feedback from the Exact Power. Someone I trust used it and got rid of it. Said it was harsh and unmusical.

Psychicanimal, the feed back you received was pretty accurate. The first couple of weeks with the EP-15 SUCKED. However, I contacted Exactpower and discussed this with them. I told them I felt the sound was very hard, very unnatural sounding. Leading edge transients made me grit my teeth. Music took on a very "mechanical" sound.

Exact responded by telling me that they recommended 400 hours of break-in time. I reluctantly agreed to keep the unit and continue the long break-in period. They were right. The unit seemed to settle in and become significantly smoother. I then scrapped the stock power cord and replaced it with an LAT AC-2, which I use on the rest of my components. Another major leap forward.

You know, I firmly feel that you really don't recognize the benefits of something until you REMOVE it from a system. After removing the EP from the system, it became immediately apparent that I was using an integrated amp (and YBA by no means is an inferior quality integrated). On loud passages, the soudstage would collapse, the music would become "homogenized" losing all definition.

Reinstalling the EP was like bolting a set of turbochargers on the amp. Loud, dynamic passages became effortless for the amp to reproduce. The soundstage would remain rock solid and stable. The EP really made a major difference.

Exactpower is on the ground floor with the EP. I feel that they are absolutely heading in the right direction. I also feel that PS Audio units do a great job, if, you don't mind pissing half of the power away in just operating the actual unit itself. That to me, does not make a lot of sense.

In the very near future Exact will be releasing a 20 amp EP unit. They will also be releasing a new style SP unit which will provide total isolation from one receptacle to another, star grounding schemes, analog and digital filtering , and balanced power. Is it perfect? NO. But, I think that of all the manufacturers out there, they are getting a very accurate picture of what the audiophile requires, and are addressing it accordingly.

Do I think it's the best out there at this point in time? Well, let's just say I think it is a unit of minimum compromise. And so far, every form of power conditioning has required compromise in one form or another.

I think if we give these boys at EP some time, they may very well have a "giant killer".

Lrm1ajf, I beg to differ with you, BUT to each their own. If you think just by having a dedicated circuit that your not going to benefit from a balanced power conditioner, you so, so wrong.And if you tink you got clean power on a dedicted circuit, your wrong again. I wish you the best of luck on your research, sorry I couldn`t be of any help. Regards, Robin

Like I said, he needs a lot of reading...