Power conditioner or outlet?

denon1

I think there are some power conditioners like Audioquest Niagara range or Shunyata Denali that have the technology that makes power amps sound better plugging  them in by providing more current.

They provide more current than what? To provide more steady state current than would be available direct from the wall outlet, you'd need a generator, not a simple power conditioner. It's the conservation of energy law.

kalali

The power conditioner I use is an old 65 lbs. hospital grade transformer-based cube with eight outlets. It puts out a consistent 124 volts whereas the adjacent wall outlet is normally around 113-115 volts. I can’t claim it’s a “good” conditioner since I have not made fair comparisons but it continued to deliver the 124 volts even when I plugged in my wife’s hair dryer ...

That sounds like more of a voltage regulator than a simple power conditioner. As mental points out, it’s not so much the voltage that’s critical, but the current, and no simple voltage regulator can increase the available current - it’s the law of conservation of energy.

But that doesn’t mean that your solution isn’t an effective one for you. I use both power conditioners and a voltage regulator in my system.

n80

I’m aware that nothing is completely lightning proof from a direct hit but I suspect if I’d had anything in place between my TV etc and the wall outlet I might have saved my gear. How do you protect super expensive audio gear?

Something like these products can be very effective.

kalali

A good power conditioner will/should have no voltage drop with a high wattage hairdryer running with everything else plugged into it.

This is completely mistaken.

For one thing, it depends on the rating of the power conditioner. Many good power conditioners are intended for low current use. They simply aren’t designed to be used with "a high wattage hairdryer running with everything else plugged into it."

Moreover, a power conditioner can’t generate current. And it’s very common for sudden high-current demands to cause voltage drop - that’s a function of the service you’re receiving from the electric utility as well as other factors, such as the quality of connections in your service panel and your house wiring itself.

Some people assume that if they have "200 amp service" that the utility can deliver 200 amps, but nothing could be further from the truth. It means only that the service panel can safely distribute 200A. In practice, it’s common for the total available instantaneous current to be much less than the rating of the service panel itself.