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I'm convinced: my Power Conditioner was ruining...

I'm convinced: my Power Conditioner was ruining my system's acoustics.

I heard it all, but ignored it. I'm in a brown/black out prone area so I've been over cautious using an APC 1500VA powering a Monster HTS 5100 and distributing to my system from there.

Yesterday I was moving things around and I ran the system direct to the APC. F'n AMAZING improvement!!

Within an hour I had it on Craigslist and today it went out the door and I ordered out for Chinese on the new owner.

But for the last 6 hours I've been reading reviews for PS Audio, Richard Gray, Running Springs, etc. Am I nutts? Should I rely on the clean music I'm getting? Why do I feel a conditioner will help when clearly the HTS didn't?

In part I feel it's because I don't understand power enough; I know the APC produces a stepped sine wave. I know that's not good for my use, but does it produce that only when acting as a backup? Short of a regenerator would anything eliminate the square sine?

If you had $600 to spend and you were in my position would you spend it on music and chinese (perhaps Indian next time) or a replacement conditioner?

Thanks All.
kphinney
mingles
800 posts
 
Kphinney, prior to your discovery, did you have all your gear plugged into the Monster? Amp included? I found my amps sounded better going straight to the wall with preamp and sources going to a passive conditioner (PSA Quintet). However, your post is food for thought. I'd like to pull my conditioner out of the picture and "remember" what it sounds like that way. It's good to do these kind of tests once in a while.
fruff1976
103 posts
 
Save your money. I went through multiple conditioners that INCREASED the noise level in my system. Even my wife, who could care less about audio, agreed that the conditioners were making the system worse. IMHO they are a snake oil product in audio.
knownothing
1,703 posts
 
I am convinced your power conditioner was ruining your sound too. Brown power with voltage drops is not the same as "dirty" power resulting from digital and/or high frequency noise, and does not have the same affect on audio performance. Presumably your APC is dealing with the brown power problems?

I have yet to hear a power conditioner that improved the performance of an even reasonably noise-free AC supply from the wall. PC's definitely make systems I have heard, including my home systems, sound "different", often "smoother" but not better if the AC is already fairly "clean" IMO. Dynamic peaks get clipped and smoothed over, so everything starts to sound like Steely Dan's early to mid-seventies mega-overdubbed mush.

This doesn't mean that there aren't conditioners out there that can significantly improve system performance by scrubbing noise from the wall supply in difficult AC environments, or reduce pollution from your digital gear back into the AC lines - I use a power conditioner with my sound system in my office in a highly polluted office building electrical environment, but this is the only place I have found a benefit to date. In agreement with Mingles, I am especially dubious of putting something in the line between the wall and your amp - in fact I am temped to hard-wire my amp at home directly to the AC supply line in the wall!

If you need multiple outlets, try this piece of gear instead of a power conditioner in a reasonable AC environment, plugging your amp into the first outlet or directly to the APC, and your digital components into the last outlets used -

http://generubinaudio.com/Merchant2/merchant.mvc?Screen=PROD&Store_Code=GRAS&Product_Code=Wmold&Category_Code=acc

Finally, I wonder if you tried unplugging your APC from the wall and running your system off the battery alone for a few minutes. That might provide the best sound you can get, albeit for short listening periods!
blueranger's avatar
blueranger
719 posts
 
All of you making things too complicated. This is a simple scenario to explain. He unplugged the equipment and by doing so he deguassed his system. And if any cables were unplugged and plugged back in they got cleaned. Mike
kphinney OP
24 posts
 
Degaussed my system? Now I'm lost. All I know is that with everything plugged in to the Monster it sounds like "A", with the Amp in the APC and everything else in the Monster it sounds like "B", and with everything in the APC it sounds like "C". I mixed and matched a few times, but never ran my amp right into the wall -- I went thru tubes too quickly for my comfort that way.

IMH listening experience the music sounded fuller, less congested, and more full in B than A, and more so yet in C than A or B.

A
So, I'm now running C and my Monster HTS 5100 is S.O.L.
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