So little curiosity about what actually goes on inside these black boxes? I'm surprised...
analyzing the technology of power "conditioners"
Besides the balanced power/massive toroidal approach (Equi=tech, Torus, Bryston, Furman balanced, etc.), and the power regeneration approach (PS Audio, PurePower+), there are a number of what appear to be other unique technologies out there. Or perhaps they’re not, and we just don’t know what’s going on inside those little black boxes inside the larger black boxes.
Has anyone ever come across an electrical/electronic engineer, who has actually dismantled and identified the innards and workings of the offerings of Shunyata, Audience Adept, Audioquest, Synergistic Research, Isotek, et al.? You know, the way iFixit always does a teardown of the latest iPhone.
3 responses Add your response
Here's a review of the Lab12 Gordian Power Conditioner by a reviewer. He's not an engineer but it's a rather extensive look inside. Here's another. They're both in depth and the designer is upfront about its workings. It would be nice to see reviews that do more of this rather than repeating what the makers say. All the best, Nonoise |
I've worked on a few. Most power conditioners are very simple, and the term 'power conditioner' is often an overstatement when applied in high end audio. The best power conditioners can filter nearly everything out of the incoming AC power leaving a sine wave with distortion under 0.5%. The 5th harmonic of the AC line voltage is one of the more pesky problems of dirty power. Most high end audio conditioners can't get rid of it. The PS Audio units can, but they are limited in how much power they can handle. One conditioner that really does do the job right was never offered to audiophiles- it was for commercial industrial applications and was made by Elgar. It used a massive isolation transformer that was also equipped with a feedback winding. There was a high powered amp in the conditioner that used a feedback signal from the output of the conditioner, compared against a low distortion 60Hz oscillator. This feedback signal corrected not just distortion but also output voltage. So the unit could keep AC voltage constant and low distortion. So far the capabilities of this conditioner have not been equaled in high end audio; one of the more common Elgar models is the 3006, which could run 28Amps continuous. You can still find them and smaller Elgars on ebay but they usually should be refurbished before use. |