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Don't try to fix these electrical prolbems with a conditioner!

Over the years of hanging out here I’ve seen a lot of audiophiles with significant electrical problems try to fix them with a power conditioner.  Lordy.   Look I’m a big fan of power conditioners and as you all know recommend Furman often... but they can’t fix what they can’t fix, and may mask serious problems. 

Ignoring an electrical problem in your home is to ignore a property and life safety issue.  

Lights flickering?  Feel a tingle when you touch your equipment (or washer or range)?  

We are used to seeing famous authors recommend weird/bespoke AC panel solutions, or isolated circuits, which of course are not free.  My two recommendations here will set you back $20 or less. 

A tool every audiophile, no, every homeowner should have is an AC outlet tester.  You can get them at any hardware store but I like the cheap-o Kawaits style from Amazon because they include AC voltage AND, critically, Neutral to Earth voltages.    All you have to do is plug it in and watch the AC.  Is your AC stable while playing music?  Does the N-E ever rise above 2 Volts?  Do the red lights on the top light up as they should?  Then you are good.  (PS, a nice voltage meter is better and more reliable, but this is an excellent and safe alternative for those who don’t have a soldering gun in their desk at all times. ) .  Don’t stop at your audio rack, check your other outlets too, especially if you’ve moved into an old home. 

The other recommendation is to at least inspect your outlet.  If it’s just old anyway replace it with an outlet that is rated for commercial AND residential.  About $5-$7.  Make sure your outlets are using screw down terminals and not back-stabbed (i.e. push in) terminals.   I wrote more about this here.  Again, I know there are many here who are going to recommend bespoke extremely expensive jewel like outlets.  My feelings about all that are in the blog. My point in this post is to suggest super cheap tests and improvements any audiophile can afford.  

Be safe.  If you see signs of electrical problems don’t patch over them with a conditioner.  

erik_squires

Showing 1 response by atmasphere

atmasphere's avatar
atmasphere
12,154 posts
 

@erik_squires Totally FWIW Dept.:

Most of the people I encounter who are interesting in a power conditioner have already done their homework getting the AC up to code with new materials and often a 20A dedicated line. They want to see how far they can push it. I've never heard of anyone thinking a conditioner might be used as a band-aid. 

Most of the so-called 'conditioners' offered to high end audio are not; most seem to be glorified AC power strips, perhaps with some high frequency filtering on even a passive isolation transformer and so unable to clean up AC power of lower harmonics (of which the 5th is the most pesky) or regulate the output and so on. 

A real power conditioner has active circuitry. It will generate its own low distortion line frequency signal, usually synchronized with the AC line. It will then correct the AC line to minimize distortion and probably also regulate the AC line Voltage. Feedback is used to compare against the low distortion reference, so the output can be guaranteed low distortion right up to full current. 

If the distortion of the output is not listed in the specs, its a power strip rather than a conditioner. IOW a proper conditioner will reduce AC line distortion. 

The real conditioners I've seen are mostly older units. Apparently the commercial AC power conditioner market had the bottom drop out of it a long time ago- back in the 1980s. 

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