Do I need a power conditioner?

I guess I was wondering of the dedicated circuit would obviate the need for a conditioner. I'm convinced Shunyata is superior to most because it's not supposed to restrict current or dynamics. But the 1st gen Hydra I just git does seem to take away a little bit of liveliness, some of which is noise and some of which is detail IMO.
Guess I won't be cancelling the Denali anyway. Music Direct has 60 day return if I decide it's not cost effective. I find Shunyata's demonstrations on their YouTube channel fairly persuasive.

I think Shunyata says most of the noise in the line is generated by your own equipment. And that most of the noise attenuates pretty quickly with distance. Thus dedicated line. Fortunately I am rural so there is not a lot of activity on any nearby lines. If I turn off appliances as much as possible it may be that my wall power is better than average. The PS Audio PPP that I had been using gives a readout of AC distortion on one of my non dedicated lines of between 2% and 4.5% usually. PS PPP output usually reads 0.5% distortion. I do have one dedicated line in another room. I should plug the PPP into that line and see what it reads. My sister is IMO nutty about "Earthing". She has a little meter that measures something "bad" in power outlets (not sure what) and it seems every outlet and every house she measures gives wildly varying results. Maybe have her measure my dedicated line and see if there is less "evil" stuff there. Haha.

Hey Guys,
Thanks for all the interesting advice.
Definitely gonna implement some.
Just got done cutting holes in the wall and drilling through studs and top plates. Fortunately I could do it on the inside of a closet, and just put the outlets on the other side of the wall. What a mess. Gonna run 2 isolated 20 amp lines.One for amp (Classe CA5200 = 200W X 5). One for components.
Had been using PS PPP for just components. Was always a little suspicious about that unit. Final straw is the vibration and the fan. Figure the Denali is a sure fire upgrade. Classe says "no conditioners."
Shunyata says "no problem." Will be easy enough to do the experiment.
Thanks again.

Plugged in the $39 conditioner and couldn't hear a difference.
Bummer. Thought maybe I found a cheap shortcut. :/

Hey Ivan,
Don’t actually turn off AC or dryer etc unless the noise is an issue when I’m dong some critical listening. I’m aware that you like to keep the draw balanced between the A and B poles on your main power supply. Easier said than done maybe.
Looked over Alan Maher's web site. Pretty interesting stuff. So I borrowed my sister's "Stetezerizer Microsurge Meter" and measured around. Some of my non dedicated circuits measure better than the 1 dedicated circuit I have.
Also, the circuit where I have the Hydras connected measure significantly lower at all the outlets on that same circuit.I also borrowed her mini conditioner. Kinda like a Shunyata Defender I think. Plugged it in and the measurements are about half of the unconditioned measurement. Similar to the Hydra effect. Gonna take a listen and see how it sounds. A Defender is $195. My sisters unit is $39!

I hear ya bro.
"Earthing" is a big time snake oil operation.
A bit of the snake oil in high end audio too I guess.

Do you have a link to that article?
Might like to harass my sister with it.
Funny thing is, I’m in health care and wacky therapies annoy me.
So when my sister is falling for snake oil I get a little bugged.
You wouldn’t believe the kind of money people spend on this stuff...
Kinda like audiophoolery that way ;)

So i got two 20 amp lines to the music room.
Don't know if it sounds any better yet, but at least I have plenty of outlets ! :)

Niagra 7000 with great reviews but price almost double a Denali 6000S.
Was considering a Niagra 1000 at one point. Local dealer raves about it.

Hey Todd,
Checked your reference and found it interesting.
As mentioned I am in healthcare and I have a definite bias toward avoiding unnecessary health interventions, because every intervention has a risk of complications, known and unknown. This unit falls into the category of unproven benefit and potential harm IMO. Thanks for providing the reference. Forwarded it to my sister. Hope it doesn't start a fight.
Sorry to everyone for taking the thread on a wild tangent :)

PS Audio PPP usually says between 2% and 4.5% harmonic distortion on the line. With either the PPP or the Hydra in line it drops to 0.3-0.5%. I think my line untreated is better than most. Still I can hear a big difference with treatment.
Tested out the new dedicated lines and, even though I assume the romex requires some kind of break in, it sounds pretty wonderful. But that is with the Hydra 4 to the components and the Black Mamba from amp direct to wall.
I would be surprised to learn that anybody has perfect power without treatment.

I'm waiting on a Denali 6000S (looks exactly the same as the 6000T internally) and an Alpha HC. Was running everything (ModWright Oppo 105/ Classe SSP800/ Classe CA5200/ JL Audio Fathom F110 X 2/ Martin Logan Montis + Stage and TV) off one 15 amp circuit. Seemed to work fine. Just added two 20 amp circuits so tripled the supply. Plan is components off  one 20 amp circuit. Speakers off 15 amp circuit and amp off other 20 amp circuit. Question is if I can run the amp through the Denali's high output section plus components on remaining sections. I believe Shunyata says yes. Seems that is what you are recommending. Amp is rated 12 amps but I doubt I use more than a fraction of that. Any experience running an amp off a Denali?

Thanks for all the interesting responses. Just what I was hoping for.
Several interesting suggestions for further research (was unfamiliar with "balanced power"), and several first hand anecdotes. Guess we'll see when the unit arrives. Doubt I will need to use MD's liberal return policy. :)

I installed two 20 amp circuits both from the same pole. So ground loops shouldn’t be a problem. Don’t really need 2 though, if I run everything off the Denali including the amp. Can easily compare with amp alone into it’s own circuit. Even just using the old Hydra 4 the sound stage/imaging is dramatically improved. I think the Black Mamba PC, amp to wall made a bigger difference than the Hydra 4 maybe. Seems like the Hydra cleans it up but also drys it out a little. I expect the Denali to be way better than the Hydra, so I doubt I will be disappointed. Too bad it is on back order.

Canceled Denali order.
Gonna go Equitech.
Compelling argument for balanced power:
http://www.6moons.com/audioreviews/equitech/1.html

I got the Equitech 2RQ.
Apparently it is a little hard to find a unit in stock anywhere, but I managed this one. I believe I was told usually takes 4-6 weeks to get one. They have multiple models. I am led to believe the 1.5 R "Son of Q" and the 2RQ are the most requested, and most likely to be in stock somewhere.

Again Audiogon forum comes through. Previously I had asked about turntables and ended up with GEM PolyTable, Hana cartridge and Sutherland phono stage. Products I had never heard of but which are clearly better than what I had originally planned on getting.
Likewise, I had never heard of balanced power or Equitech.
Hopefully I am equally pleased with the outcome this time.
Thanks to everyone for all the advice.

Dealer where I got the 2RQ is also a Shunyata dealer. He has Equitech unit in his home system. Hope that means something. Equitech technology sounds good on paper. Shunyata is a little opaque about their technology. I have the 1st gen Shunyata going (Hydra 2 and 4.) Mid range sounded a little bleached out till I added their Black Mamba PC from the amp to wall. Every new generation of Shunyata "sounds way better" than previous generation. I've heard the Denali and it sounded freakin fine! Taking a bit of a flyer on theEquitech. We'll see when it arrives in a couple weeks.

I've heard Denali at the local dealer. Sounded wonderful. But it was part of a $200K+ system. So how much to attribute to the Denali? I am getting the Equitech from an out of state dealer to avoid massive sales tax. The more I read about the history of balanced power the more convinced I am. Appears Martin Glasband revolutionized the recording industry with it's introduction. I am led to believe that virtually all high end audio and video production uses balanced power technology. Availability for home use is a relatively recent development. Thanks again to Audiogon forum for introducing me to a better idea that I knew nothing about. Wish I had resorted to Audiogon for advice before I had dumped large $$$ on so much gear that didn't stand the test of time in my system.

Interesting brewhaha. Has since been resolved in favor of balanced power use for audio systems I believe. Including modification of the NEC. I do wonder if ungrounded components present a problem. I have a Pioneer Elite 79-DVi SACD player that doesn’t have a ground plug. Uses neutral for the ground. Made my Headtrip amp buzz like a mutha. As long as neutral is not grounded to the chassis shouldn’t be a problem I don’t think. UL approval requires neutral to be isolated from the chassis. I think if there were a widespread problem, it would be well known by now. Maybe someone who knows more than I do could chime in.

So the Equitech 2RQ arrived yesterday.
The more I read about it, the more I am convinced that balanced power is the better solution for eliminating noise in theory. In practice however, no way to know till you actually hear the results. Of course you can look at the list of heavy hitters that use Equitech. Never the less, I was apprehensive till I got the unit plugged in.
Started out with my Oppo 95 to PrimaLuna Dialogue HP Integrated to Zu Druid. (high sensitivity speakers more revealing, including noise, I think.)
Put it there cause the thing is freakin heavy, and I didn’t have any help to lift it into the rack on my real system. Long story short, I already ordered another Equitech (Son of Q jr this time) because I can’t imagine listening to that system again without the Equitech.
I feel kind of silly trying to give a subjective impression. All the audiophile terminology sounds pompous and pretentious coming from me cause I’m kind of a newb. But it was apparent right away that this thing is a game changer. Made orders of magnitude bigger difference that all the previous tweeks I’ve laid on that system, and there have been plenty. So yeah, drop the noise floor like that and you are gonna liberate the actual music that has been hidden behind the layers of smear you have been previously hearing. Pretty damn happy about that.
Seems to me that all the filtering that other conditioners use remove some of the music along with the noise. The better ones just have a better noise to music removal ratio. Pretty sure the Equitech just removes just the noise while leaving the music intact.
Glad I came to Audiogon forum again. You guys turned me on to a product I knew nothing about, that seems to be a much better solution than what I previously had in mind.

It is not just the noise I think.
It's the phase integrity also.
Filters cause phase shift between voltage and current right?
So improved power factor.
Wish I knew more about it.

I had a PS Audio PPP. It helped, but the improvement was relatively subtle, especially compared to the Equitech.
The Equitech is orders of magnitude more effective IMO.
Most of the noise in your AC power is not coming from your wall circuit. It is reactive current emanating from the power supplies of all the gear you have connected. The regenerators do nothing about this source of noise.
With balanced power that noise cancels itself out; a really elegant solution.
And the SQ difference is not subtle at all, more like freaking amazing. Proper respect to Martin Glasband for figuring it out! Now virtually all the important audio video production companies use his technology. Which may be why it is hard to get one of his consumer units, they are so busy producing their larger installations.

CPT a little more cost effective. And likely more available.

I would like to try it.
Wonder if they have a try before you buy option.

Or is it 0.02?
Maybe inflation adjusted.
Thing looks pretty expensive for what it actually is: maybe the most overbuilt power distributor ever!
But I have no basis to judge its effect on SQ.
Thanks for another interesting suggestion.

"Do I need?" is not actually the question of course.
Will it make my system sound significantly better is the real question.
Thought the original question might elicit some useful info. Boom!

PS. My apologies for being the one who asked the question, and then being the one with all the answers. :/

I used to take solace in the opinions that cables make no difference, because it saved me money. Then I listened to a demo at CanJam where Dana Cables had some Grado headphones plugged into a Headtrip amp that had 2 outlets. Side by side identical headphones, identical source. Stock cables on one headphone, Dana cables on the other.You could have one set of cans in one hand and one set in the other, easily swaping A/B . The difference was dramatic. Debate over as far as I’m concerned. The fellow next to me listened and thought they must have been pulling some kind of trick! Haha. I have swapped a variety of speaker, power and IC cables through my various setups. Don’t feel the need to apologize for saying that generally the differences are somewhere between detectable and dramatic. I have a friend who "can’t hear differences" but he heard the difference with the Dana demo. Most of the reason he can’t hear differences is that he has set up his systems so poorly that, to my ears it sounds pretty bad either way. He is too lazy to read his manuals and figure out how to get things sounding good. As long as sound comes out he thinks his job is done. When people say it is just confirmation bias based on you just wasted a pile of $$$ so you have to believe it was worth it, I just shake my head. That being said, I aim for the sweet spot in the price/ performance curve. Which for me is just a step or two above entry level for the most part. As far as power conditioners, I was leery because "they kill dynamics" etc. "They give and they also take away." I think that was true with the PS Audio PPP and the Shunyata Hydras I tried. In general they gave more than they took and the systems sounded better with than without (just using on sources, not amps) Yet the differences were not dramatic. The Equitech is a different story. The difference is dramatic and I believe it gives plenty and takes away virtually nothing but grunge.There are other conditioners that I am willing to believe make a huge difference including Shunyata Denali and Audioquest Niagara. Pretty sure that almost anyone who actually tried them would easily hear the difference.

I would ask the BPT guys.