2. digital
  3. 1032541629

Power Conditioner deleterious to digital sources?

I bought a power conditioner (meant for for the manufacture of chips, where stable voltage and absence of AC hash, and DC leakage from the mains is mandatory). I tried plugging in both pre-amplifier and CDP into it, and it was awful: the sound took on a compressed, walkman-like, sound. Soundstage was all gone, replaced by a muffled signature. I removed the pre-amp from it, and much of the magic is back.

My question is: do power conditioners generally help digital sources?
Maybe I need to ProGold5 the contacts or something.

Thank you...

benny
atzen811
sean
6,231 posts
 
Alexanderj may have hit upon something in terms of current overload and / or increased crosstalk between the power supplies of the preamp and digital gear. From a theoretical standpoint, it is best to isolate digital gear by itself. Many PLC's have individual filtering with different types of circuitry with labeled outlets for this very reason.

Other than that, many commercial products sound like "crapola" for various reasons. There is no amount of Pro-Gold that could correct such a problem. Sean
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natalie
404 posts
 
Good point guys.
One other thing I have found is very important. Your digital source should be on its own outlet. Thats one of the resons it sounded better when you removed the Pre.
sugarbrie
3,854 posts
 
Yes, Yes, Yes, issolate the digital source from everything else, especially the preamp. It is the most dirty thing in most systems. Plugging them both into the same thing does not accomplish much if anything.

Some conditioners have a specific digital plug to issolate that source.

There is a cheap issolation device call a Pac-Idos. It is not a conditioner; it just issolates the digital from the rest of the system.
elgordo
530 posts
 
It sounds like you tried a PLC that was not designed for audio. This is a MUST.
cdc
1,862 posts
 
Audio Magic has a digital Stealth for CDP - $700.
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