Balanced power compatabilty census

Neil, had the 3 wire PC conversion done so I could use a better power cord. I had that mod done by the tech who serviced and aligned the Fisher. Can't be too hard; I wired my Eico that way. The two "hots" to the power transformer and the ground to the chassis. Digi-Key sells IEC connectors with built in RFI filters that are kind of cool. My Sun SV-2A3 kit came with one and I used one in the Eico and the RAKK DAC that I built. Anything to kill some of the crap that's coming over the power lines these days. Can't imagine what it will be like if they start sending internet data over the power lines.

Thanks John

I have a Furman 20 amp balanced line conditioner run off a 20 amp dedicated line.In it are plugged my pre,turntable,sub, cd player.The noise floor is lower than straight into the wall.I did not like my power amps (Classe DR 8 mono)done this way. They sound better into a Hydra 2 and another dedicated 20 amp line.The sound of the amps in the balalnced conditioner was too rounded off and lacked some life which could be the result of the power conditioner's transformer robbing some life from the amps.Perhaps lower powered integrated amps would benefit more when plugged into this unit.I have no hum, or noise problems,so I feel a balanced power conditioner is useful.

I am running a BPT fed by a dedicated circuit. I found that the video peformance on my old CRT based TV was phenomenally improved. I don't run my integrated out of the conditioner since I found that it definetely chokes off the sound.

I use an API Power Wedge Ultra 116 with my front end stuff (it follows an ExactPower EP-15 used for waveform/voltage correction). The PWU provides separate center-tapped isolation transformers for each of its 6 outlets, with switches that allow you to choose between normal, floating, and balanced power options for each attached component. (This unit cannot provide balanced power to power amplifiers, so I haven't been able to test that application.)

Therefore, the PWU provides a reliable test for how each piece of gear reacts to balanced AC on an individual basis, without throwing in confounding variables. To date I've only used one component that showed no improvement from selecting balanced AC (an older Conrad-Johnson tube preamp), and that one showed no degradation either. All other components tried, primarily SS preamps and digital separates (my phonostage is battery-powered, so it doesn't apply here), showed varying degrees of improvement, from very slight to pretty vast as far as these things go, but again never any degradation. (All these pieces also sounded better fed from the PWU than they did skipping it altogether, no matter which switch position was chosen, so the powerline filtration it includes in addition to the iso trannies would seem to be doing no harm here.)

Based on this evidence, I'd say that balanced AC done properly (independent of any other filters or such that might be included in whatever device is balancing your AC) probably rarely has any downside used for line-level components such as sources and most preamps. If there's a problem with a power or integrated amplifier, I'd investigate whether it could be due to inadequate iso tranny capacity. The issue may have more to do with undesired raising of the powerline impedance seen by power amps than balanced AC per se.