Line Conditioner:To plug or not to plug Big Amp in
Hello. I am on the market for a line conditioner, the Belkin Pure AV PF60 seems to me is a good bargain.
I have both vintage Threshold and PASS Labs power amps.
What attracted me to the Belkin PureAV PF60 is that it has an isolation plug outlet for Hi-Current power amps.
Can you hook up a Threshold power amp like an SA/4e or Pass Labs 350.5 >into the Belkin PureAV PF60 or any line conditioner ? Or is the power amp with high current too much for the Belkin? Both these amplifier have tremendous amp pull. Especially the Threshold SA/4e pure class A amp. Which is an incredible power amp by the way
Had tried other conditioners in the past with different power amps years ago and it did not work out. Either the line conditioner started to hum or reset. Or the power amp would sound thinned out it was not worth it.
I want protection on my Threshold and Pass labs amp. Currently plugging power amps directly to the wall.
Questions ??? :
Is there anybody familiar with the Belkin PureAv PF60 line conditioner ? Can it support a big hungry power amp ? Or am I just better off plugging my power amps directly into the wall and cross my fingers. Can a sudden loss of electricity hurt your equipment while your listening to it ?
I want protection but at the same time don't want to diminish my sound greatly. My electric is average as a suburb should. Once in awhile loss of electric like most people. No major logistic problems like some with the bad surges or electrical storms. Which I just unplug my equipment to be safe.
Not familiar with Belkin, but I think the amps would be better off into the wall directly. At least the 350.5 I have 250.5 and it sounds just a tiny bit slower and less dynamic through SHunyata Hydra 4. I called Pass about it and they said "no power line conditioners for this amp". You can try the Belkin, but I wouldn't bet on the performance since Hydra(passive and not current-limiting) seems to constrict it(didn't with my other amps). My X250.5 has a magnetic breaker, your X350.5 should have one as well. As far as I understand, this is the protection. Don't know about your Threshold amp, but would think the same would apply as far as power conditioning. As always, it is still worth a try if you want to find out if it will degrade the performance or not.
In any case, I doubt any power conditioner will do anything for brief loss of electricity. You'll need back up power for that to keep the current flowing.
For the price of the Belkin, consider at least one dedicated line [3 is better] and perhaps a whole house suppressor at the panel. Few standalone AC units do anything good for most amps, esp. high power, high draw amps such as yours. A few tout "zero insertion loss" but claims and reality often diverge widely/wildly here.
That said, I've had good experience with the AudoiPrism units which actually seem to substantiate their claims. My units also cost less than some power cords, and the build quality is second to none. You might also consider the Blue Circle units and those from Audio Magic.
Forget about the Belkin stuff or Monster stuff for that matter. If you are into Pass Labs or Threshold, I would recommend the latest product lines from PS Audio, namely the Duet or Quentet to start with.
I don't trust any line conditioner for my big amp before as they all cut out a lot of the bottom end. Not any more with the Duet and the Quentet mentioned above. It even smooth out the top end as well in my case. Well worth the price. Of course, you get to have good power cord to complete the link.
OK. Sounds like forget about the Belkin line conditioner.
Is there any line conditioner than can support a very Hi-current power amp such as the Threshold SA/4e, Pass Labs 350.5? Or just go directly into the wall with the big amps.
Has anybody tried the Belkin PF-60 with moderate to high power audiophile amplifiers? I am using a PureAV PF-30 for a small office system and absolutely love it - cleans up grunge in very dirty AC with no apparent dynamic compression. Best bargain power conditioner I have ever used. Given over-achieving little brother, wondering how well the PF-60 works for high current applications?
Comments above are all theoretical - anybody actually try this thing?
I have hooked up my two Pass XA.5 amps directly to the panel on two dedicated 20A circuits via two 15' runs of JPS Labs in-wall AC cable with Furutech IEC connectors. The cable goes through the floor behind each amp. There are no outlets. This direct connection resulted in a much lower noise floor. I've never had a problem with power surges. More details are on my system page.
You can call Pass Labs, but I don't think they recommend the use of power conditioners and will also discourage experimenting with different power cords, though some on this forum have reported improvements with some power cords over the stock ones.
My Odyssey Audio HT3 (150 watts X 3) is plugged into my PS Audio Quintet. I do not think there is any current limiting going on. Although Klaus of Odyssey Audio prefers his amps be plugged right into the wall, the Quintet greatly lowered the noise floor and hum I got without it. I also have a whole-house surge suppressor, so I am fairly confident about surviving the vagaries of the grid.
When I talked to JPS Labs about what I was planning to do, they suggested that I would get even better results by using a top outlet and one of their better power cords, because the cord would filter out even more noise. I never tried it because I wanted to save the money and avoid all of the connections. It sounds pretty good the way it is.
Hi, Joe another option to consider is the PS Audio Soloist Premier, It's a in-wall line conditioner and top quality outlet all in one without the need for extra powercord, I run my front end gear through a Quintet and my current hungry Halo A21 on the Soloist, This of course is assuming you have dedicated lines if not my first choice would be the Quintet both options wont limit current. hope this helps.
You must have a verified phone number and physical address in order to post in the Audiogon Forums. Please return to Audiogon.com and complete this step. If you have any questions please contact Support.
