How much should a person spend to get a decent power conditioner?

Here is a list of all the reasons why an audiophile should buy a quality power conditioner:   

Is it necessary for me to relist all those reasons?

Just use a single power outlet unless your power consumption needs exceed the rating of the outlet.

I use two passive conditioners for my components since the power in my area is steady at 120V and there are new transformers installed in our neighborhood.
I have a Brickwall with surge protection which does a very good job of filtering noise from components and any stray interference such as RFI. It does not regenerate or regulate power from the grid.

I also have dedicated AC lines from the service panel to the receptacles at my audio setup.
I would recommend running dedicated lines with separate circuit breakers as the first step to reduce noise thru the AC mains.


Very good advice by David.

Specifying your budget will help, but it also lends itself to defeating your Thread Title.

How much should a person spend to get a decent power conditioner?

I'm curious about how best to treat my AC and stay within my budget.

Every power supply/conditioner I have had, across multiple locations/states has yielded improved performance (from lower cost to moderate/higher price points) in each system setting.

First you have to decide what your needs are. Do you want surge protection with some filtering to reduce some extraneous noise from your AC mains and components? This is passive conditioning.
Or do you want a power regenerator which takes the incoming AC from the grid and your service panel and cleans the signal (reducing noise) then regenerates a new sine wave to power your components, (Active power conditioning). These are needed in areas of an unreliable power grid or excess noise from old power lines and transformers, or areas of heavy interference.

The archives are full of threads with recommendarions.

@helomech- I believe the brick wall technology was developed by Zero Surge out of Frenchtown NJ, who sell their own units, from two outlet jobs to industrial sized panels. 

On a complete sidebar, a helomech sold me my motorcycle. You don’t happen to live in beautiful Cenla do you?

Thanks, helo.  I'm sure I will get varying opinions, but I am going to seriously investigate Brickwall unit.  I did  not see any prices in the link, maybe I just missed them.

I am wondering about the possibility of positively affecting the sound stage. My power company is notorious for surges and outages so it’s not just aurally motivated, but protective as well. I am curious, if it’s all snake oil, why would people invest thousands of dollars for conditioners and power cables?

People invest thousands in conditioners and power cables because of their audiophile nervosa/insecurities and placebo effect. They also have more $$$$ than they know how to spend. First World problems. Manufacturers take advantage of this fact. If power conditioners really make such a big difference, why do companies like Parasound not produce any?

I’m not saying they can’t make a small improvement in a home with noisy AC, but most noise is component induced --from noisy transformers or less than ideal grounding schemes. Incoming AC is rarely the true culprit.

If you’re most concerned with surge protection, get a Brick Wall:

https://www.brickwall.com/pages/the-worlds-best-surge-protectors

These don’t rely on MOVs and will protect as well as any four figure "conditioner."

It’s sounds like you are after both surge protection and trying to improve the sound? On surge I use a whole house, not expensive, but you need to replace when the pilot lites indicates the MOVs are no longer effective. Plus I use a very large commercial isolation transformer with its own surge protection panel feeding a dedicated subpanel to dedicated lines. The wiring isn’t costly, but the iso-transformer can be unless you are sourcing the naked transformer and have a way to install it to meet applicable code. (My unit is about the size of a large air conditioning box and sits outside- it is weatherproof and was built to spec as a finished product).
My concern about black boxes that actually do anything is that they affect the sound. I haven’t used any of the (end) point of use for a while for the main hifi for that reason, though virtually every other expensive appliance and my second hi-fi system do use point of use surge protection.
Dedicated lines are nice, no guarantee of noise free from common grounding with house and no surge protection. I would look at subpanel type protection for the dedicated lines if you can do that.

I’ve never messed with high powered regenerators which can get costly -- I was always concerned when they were (only available as) smaller units that they constricted current to the amps.

Helo: you are fortunate then to have a reliable power company.  I just installed the Parasound Halo A21, and I have not experienced any buzzing or popping, I am wondering about the possibility of positively affecting the sound stage.  My power company is notorious for surges and outages so it's not just aurally motivated, but protective as well.  I am curious, if it's all snake oil, why would people invest thousands of dollars for conditioners and power cables?

Even if you have obvious noise problems, a power conditioner is likely going to be useless, especially for component-induced noise from amp transformers and the like. If you have audible buzzing, hiss or hum, try using a "cheater plug" for your amp and preamp cables. If the noise ceases, a power conditioner definitely won’t do anything for you. There’s a reason why so many supposedly great power conditioners end up on the used market. Most are complete snake oil.

If you want a lower noise floor, put your money where it counts: in a better amp and preamp, or integrated. No power conditioner can substitute well designed circuits with high quality parts.