AC Power


I have a relatively nice system, but have done nothing with my AC power, with the exception of upgraded PC’s and a cheap iFi plug in power conditioner. My question is multi fold… do I need to do something, and if so what? Dedicated line (15A or 20?)? Quality power conditioner? Both? Which one first? How do you tell?

My system is a combination of HT & 2 channel & I tend to use both simultaneously as I like to watch sports while listening to music.
My amp is (I think) a relatively low draw… Moon 330A, Rythmik sub, BHK pre, Aurender, Qutest w/Sbooster, R11’s. No high power amps are in my future & never listen above 75db. I do currently plug my amp directly into the wall. All my wall warts are gone. For my HT, add a 75” Sony TV, Marantz 7015 AVR & a Klipsch sub (although at zero volume the AVR & sub should not come into play).

I am considering buying the Furman IT-Reference 15i or 20i first as they are well reviewed & are priced very well on Amazon ($1,400 / $1,900). Before I pull the trigger, should I go dedicated power & at what amperage (my nephew, an EE & audiophile thinks I am drawing no more than 5 amps) as that will dictate the Furman model?

Interesting, my nephew thinks neither are worth the investment. His statement: “Do you have appliances on the circuit now? What kind of interference can they inject?...voltage drops would come from current draws...which trip breakers.
Not steady 60hz a good power supply handles. So it all comes back to was the power supply engineer dropped on his head as a child.”

”Personally I think it’s something audio people do when they have run out of gear to buy.”

Any thoughts or recommendations would be appreciated. Thanks!

 

signaforce

Showing 2 responses by steakster

signaforce OP

One other question… can the Furman be near my speaker or interconnect cables and not cause problems?

Here are my observations. Enough to hear a noticeable difference - not night & day. Compromises are made - and we do what works best for each of our circumstances.

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As you can see, I also have Transparent cabling.

. . . Digital & analog isolation is critical… those who recommend it are apparently correct…

My first power conditioner in 2000 - A Bob Crump* designed Bybee Line Sucker - had separate analog & digital isolation. Easy to hear the difference. Currently, I have separate power conditioners which completely isolate analog from digital - and digital from digital.

For those who would like to take a deep dive into clean power, here is a link to observations by member, Kingrex. He specialized in wiring high-end recording studios and dedicated listening rooms - including Michael Fremer’s.

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* Bob Crump voiced the circuitry for the original Parasound JC-1 monoblocks. He partnered with John Curl on several audio projects.

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kingrex

It is my experience through many people asking for my assistance to eliminate some sort of noise, I find the issue is the audio equipment itself that is the culprit.  I have seen it with 3 year old 40K monoblocks to brand new $20K phono stages.