Power conditioner some say yes and some say no.

A power conditioner is just like the "Miracle carburetor adds 100 mpg to your car’s gas mileage". Stop falling for the claim that there is something "wrong" with the AC from your wall outlet!

Sometimes there is issue with the ac from the wall. In this situation I am told a power transformer can be helpful but I also am told that if you don’t have ac issues then a conditioner is unhelpful and can be detrimental.

I pulled my power conditioner from my system about a month ago and so far I hear no difference. But I am in the middle of a major system change and only heard my previous system without it for about 2 weeks. My new system sounds great so far without it. I originally purchased it in my previous home where it made a huge difference. So I agree that it depends on your specific power situation.

There is an excellent recent article on this by John Atkinson in Stereophile; you know, the guy that does all the measurements. It’s worth the read. Of course, there are many other articles on this, as well.

From what I’ve read, there are many factors that affect "line hash" and other power issues. Generally speaking, you are much more likely to have measurable "line hash" if you live in a larger city, as opposed to a burb or more rural area with good or reasonably good electricity delivery infrastructure. The age and/or quality of the wiring in your home is an important factor, as well.

I’ve been using a Monster power conditioner for many years. I honestly can’t recall hearing a difference when I started using it with the system I had way back then. If there was one, it was likely very subtle, which is why I have no clear recollection of this. Usually, when something blows me away, like speakers or a component I heard even 50 years ago, I remember that component, its model number, the shop or place I was in at the time and who I was with. So, I’m relatively certain whatever difference there was with the Monster was subtle, at best. At this point, I wouldn’t dream of leaving it out of my chain because of the protection it provides to my components. Best way to arrive at your own conclusion on this is to try it. Worst that can happen is you take it back for a refund.

Best to just try it for yourself. Sell if it doesn't do the deed.

Some forum advice just increases nervosa. You already have experienced there is a camp with and without.

Tube gear are the only components I seem to gain much improvement on when using power conditioners.  While conditioners can greatly reduce the noise floor, particularly with SET amps, they often negatively impact the dynamics and soundstage from my experience.  I have had recent success using isolation transformers (eg. Equi=Core), which I find reduces the noise floor without negatively affecting the dynamics.  These products are a relative bargain in my view compared to other products.  I'm a huge fan now.

Why are you out $4000?

I have never found any power conditioner to be wondrous. The ones I have used - and they ALL claim not to harm the signal - are as deleterious as beneficial. I don't find the idea of a whole system conditioner too appealing. I have found upgraded individual power supplies for each component to be highly efficacious. YMMV 

Consider; the thousands put into a conditioner could be put to work in, say, better speakers, and no one can tell you whether you would prefer that to the highly conditioned, lesser speakers. ONLY a direct comparison would tell. All manner of unsupported claims are made, with very little sensibility and real world experience applied to the claims. :(

Power conditioners are one of the devices that are highly dependent on your situation. Your exact house. Most of the time they are beneficial for most people. I replaced mine with a high end power distribution strip (Cardas I think). The experiment lasted about 30 seconds. No question the power conditioner improved the sound. Mine is a 25 year old Cinepro… a very good one for it’s time). My power amp goes right into the wall. We have buried power lines in our neighborhood, and I have half a dozen or so Quietline filters around the house.

Occasionally I read about someone who has clean power and does not benefit from them (and could tell… not people that religiously do not “believe” in them.

Depends on your power and the line conditioner used. I'm using VIBEX PLATINIUM which does mot limit output and improves the sound with better stage, dynamics bass detail and quietness.

Impossible question to answer because there is no way of knowing what "a" power conditioner is. They are not all the same you know. If you get a good one it will be better. If you don't it won't. Yes it really is that simple.

I worked for Roger Modjeski for several years. He was always of the opinion that if you designed the power supply of a component properly then additional power conditioning would not be needed. In his system he used an inexpensive power strip, mainly just to have the ability to power on/off all his components simultaneously. However, Roger did tell me that he felt the best type of power conditioning was to use balanced isolation transformers. Equitech is a company that makes these, and Torus makes unbalanced versions.

If you want a real bargain check out the link. It says DIY but Chris will build it for you for a nominal fee. These are essentially the same Balanced Power Technology units that were offered years ago when Chris was still in business. I bought two of them and am very satisfied:

https://www.audiocircle.com/index.php?topic=172708.0

I've auditioned or owned a number of pc over the years, ps audio powerplants, Audience Adept, Shunyata Hydra. My BPT 3.5 Signature with further diy mods has remained my favorite for years. This is transformer based pc, great on everything with exception of tube amps. It does soften transients as has every power conditioner I've tried with exception of Furutech Flux 50NCF. This is with 845SET, 300B custom built monoblocks and diy modded Prima Luna Dialogue Four.
All these pc's superior to no pc in my room. I have three dedicated 10awg Romex ac lines and far upgraded grounding system for whole house. Upgraded ac receptacles and power cords as well. Amazing to me that a pc and entire dedicated ac distribution system wouldn't be an upgrade. Plethora of switching power supplies in various equipment would mandate pc in itself.

It's the internet.  The internet specializes in conflicting opinions.  You're looking for an answer to "Would it make sense?"  The answer is yes and no.  Even if you go with the majority opinion, there's no guarantee that's right.

The reason I am out $4000 is because I gave a dealer $4000 worth of gear on consignment to go towards the new Keces but the dealer got Covid-19 and passed away before he could transfer the funds. My Niimbus headphone amp ended up costing me $1800 more than what I had arranged with the dealer but at least I was able to get my  original $7200 investment on the Niimbus back. Instead of dealer cost I had to pay full list price. All in all I lost $5800 but the Niimbus is beautiful and maybe one day I will be able to afford to try the Keces. Apparently I would have to wait for the next shipment to arrive.

His family thanks you for donating to burial service.
As you found out, it is not prudent to prepay to an individual during a pandemic (of the unvaccinated.)

Live and learn. It could have cost me more but at least I got my gear except for the Keces for now.

Furman. 
 Have 2 of them,  first one bought about 1991 or 92? Maybe?

still in use. They make good products.

also, we use a early 2000’s monster plug in strip, 

still rocking along.
   All components unplugged if gone for extended time. 

I use a Furman P2400IT for a few reasons.  1. The power from the wall fluctuates between 118 - 124 volts.  2. The Fruman eliminates potential ground loops, line noise, yada yada yada.  3. Protects my system against power surges.  A friend had his house struck by lightning last year.  So it could happen.  As someone once asked me, does it make sense to spend 10% or less, of what you've invested in you system, to protect it?  https://furmanpower.com/product/20a-prestige-symmetrically-balanced-power-conditioner/#  This biggest single improvement it makes is the improvment to my state on mind knowing it's there.  

In my case I have to use one -- one of those old Tice units (badly reviewed sometimes) and the big old "power block" storage device. 

I bought the set simply because my house is wired is at 30A, my power-amp if used at higher volumes caused the lights to dim and if we were also using the air conditioner and/or washing machine we'd trip the breakers. The conditioner/power storage set eliminated the problem.

I thought I heard some reduced dynamics when I first plugged them in, but I had just gotten through reading someone who said the Tice units "stangled" the sound of his system. I don't hear it now. I don't know if my initial impression was biased from his comments, I've gotten used it or what. I will say I enjoy the hell out of my system and until I move to a place with more robust wiring, I'm stuck where I am and it's not a bad place at all -- I like being able to "open it up" without fretting about the breakers.

I should add I'm kind of a 'budget' audiophile -- what I have is what I could afford.

Again, I’m agreeing with jason bourne 52. I suspect power conditioners are a cottage industry exploiting the placebo effect. Having practiced medicine for 30+ years prior to retirement, I am familiar with this effect. It is relatively easy to install a power conditioner, just plug it in. But to make a meaningful improvement in,say an amplifier’s, performance, one must disassemble the device and modify the power supply, usually by installing increased capacitance.

A new descent Furman can be had for 125-220$ with lights, and good over all over current protection. 
 We have horrible power here, as mentioned the wall voltage, goes up, down, 116 up to almost 123, the Furman shuts everything down in a millisecond when voltage gets above a specific voltage. 
 Can be a pain in the butt at times, but I feel safe knowing my audio is protected. 

I bought an Audience AR6 three houses ago and it helped a lot with noise.  Each time I’ve moved I have just plugged it back in.  Been here two years and never checked.  Maybe I’ll unplug it for a time and see if anything gets worse.

JD

“As you found out, it is not prudent to prepay to an individual during a pandemic (of the unvaccinated.)”
 Caveat emptor. 

I found power conditioners have a detrimental effect on power amps, whether they be low powered valve or big ol' current dumpers, they rob dynamics etc. On source components for me the jury is out.

In my experience you gain more advantages by having your hifi on a completely separate ring from your main fuse box and rewire the ring with good quality mains cable and wall sockets. The next thing you can do is star earth your equipment to an outside earth spike/rod, again use good quality earth cable.

All this would cost far less than $4000, spend the rest on a system component upgrade, whether it be source, amplifier or speakers.

I live in a 1901 colonial and am convinced that my electric sucks. I just purchased a isotek 6 port power conditioner from crutchfield that I'm gonna try out.

My biggest issue is faint audible speaker hum when connected to my power amp, but when I just recently tried to connect my subwoofer to speaker level connections off same said amp (as opposed to preout RCA) my amp hums something wicked.

I tried a line isolation plug for the power amp (kinda help diminish the speaker hum), but did nothing for the subwoofer.

I'm gonna try to run everything through my integrated amp, but I'm also gonna try the isotek.

I'll let you know what audible results I get, but if it doesn't do anything... back it goes.

I was using a Audioquest Niagara 5000 for my entire system. My dealer recommended I plug my Diablo 300 straight into the wall. My jaw hit the ground. The amp came alive. I could hear the sonic improvement instantly. 

That's promising!

Hello,
First, Do you have the ability to run a new dedicated 20 amp line to you equipment? If you can, please do that first. Also, if you can have the electrician drop in a better grounding rod. 8’ of copper coated grounding rod or two tied together. $20 each is very little to spend for a big change in sound.  The grounding rod that is there might be to inadequate for a music system. It was put their first safety at minimum code. If you did that or cannot do that the I say look into the Puritan line of products. They not only have one of the best power conditioners I have heard but also ways to help fix the grounding by adding a dedicated grounding system and the hardware to easily get it connected to your gear. They have recently come out with a special plug that looks to filter the ground so if you live in an apartment or a shared environment you have a better ground point to feed from. Regardless you should try the Puritan PSM156 power conditioner or double the outlets and filtration the PSM1512. The new product by Puritan is called the Ground Master City. If you live near the Chicagoland area this is the store where I bought my Puritan PSM156. https://holmaudio.com/
They let you try before you buy. No risk to your wallet just your time. Believe me, you will not want to take it out of your system. 

I bought a power conditioner when I go too the point it was a great way to have everything plug into the one unit. I built my own power cords and now it we are going to be gone for any period of time I only unplug the PC. As for improving the sound, I cannot say. YMMV

I say yes and no.

I plug my Primaluna Evo400 right into the wall. It is the only component plugged into that dedicated circuit.

The rest of my components (2 analogue and 2 digital) are plugged into 2 Furman AC-215As. Each Furman has only 2 sockets. One Furman for the digital side and one for analog. The AC-215As are set into a thin hardwood sled that rests nicely behind the rack and below the 2nd dedicated circuit.

Keeping the signal and power cables crossing at 90 degrees eliminated the occasional slight intermittent noise coming from the speakers.

Wall outlets. How charming. 

Seems to me that it would depend on what the needs are. Voltage regulation, DC blockage, filtering of RFI and/or EMI. Conditioners differ in there ability to affect these different issues. There are conditioners, voltage regenerators, and filters. Some use a combination of these. I have no experience with any of the aforementioned devices.

At the moment I plug my Pass XA25 amplifier direct to a dedicated line. My Aric Audio Pre is on a second dedicated line. My digital equipment is on a third separate dedicated line run through a Emotiva CMX2  into a PS Audio Ultimate outlet (a balun transformer). Outlet ->PS UO->CMX2 -> equipment.

As you found out, it is not prudent to prepay to an individual during a pandemic (of the unvaccinated.)

Effective treatment plans, for various patient situations have been developed with very high success rates to avoid both hospitalisation and death, working for both vaccinated and unvaccinated. There is no new vaccine for the Delta variant of Sars Cov 2, that I have been made aware of 5/9/2021.

A prominent research out of Israel indicates that natural immunity is 13 times better than vaccines, and 27 times less likely to be symptomatic.
https://www.zerohedge.com/covid-19/ends-debate-israeli-study-shows-natural-immunity-13x-more-effecti...

+1 for Puritan power conditioner
Which will easily deliver sufficient current flow for almost all systems, while providing noise separation between devices. I have over 1Kw of current drawing devices plugged into mine.

There are devices that do not support such current flow, Puritan is not one of them.

This is a good interview with Nelson Pass on the topic, as he takes a practical view: https://www.stereophile.com/content/power-according-pass

Wall outlets. How charming.

How does the term electrical recepticles work for you :-) ?

I use a couple of fairly inexpensive units mostly to add outlets, offer some protection from brown and black outs, facilitate cable management and separate analog from digital components.

@unsound - what results did you hear? Improvement?

I use shunyata triton typhon combo on my main system and hydra on my vintage tube system. The key things I notice are more details, and much better focus and depth of sound stage, even noticeable by my wife. That’s a biggie. 

@mitchb - thanks for sharing your system page. I like looking at what is out there in people's systems, so again, thanks for taking the time.

@rixthetrick, I haven’t compared with and without,  as not using them isn’t really an option,  I need the extra  receptacles  they provide.

@clio09

’If you want a real bargain check out the link. It says DIY but Chris will build it for you for a nominal fee. These are essentially the same Balanced Power Technology units that were offered years ago when Chris was still in business. I bought two of them and am very satisfied:

Agree 100%, the BPT products are terrific ! I’ve had his BPT 3.5 Signature plus unit for 11 years and still consider it one of the wisest audio product purchases I’ve ever made. Every component sounds better via this balanced isolation transformer than without it.

As others have pointed out, individual circumstances will obviously influence the outcomes of different users/different power conditioners. For me a very positive net gain in sound quality. The late Roger Modjeski was right in regard to the balanced isolation transformer. I don’t have experience with other brands of this type of power conditioner.
Charles

@charles1dad - I was using the Torus RM15+ for quite a few years and before that had the original Running Springs Audio Haley. Both were very good, but do not provide balanced isolation.

I have 4 dedicated lines for my system, the BPT is plugged into one (sources plugged into the BPT), the amp into another, and the electrostatic speakers plugged into one each. If I had the space and the money I would get an Equitech unit that hooks up directly to the main house panel.

At least I was able to install 3 dedicated power lines to my music room and I have my amp plugged into a Hydra2 plugged into a dedicated line and the rest of the system is plugged into a Hydra 6 plugged into a dedicated power line. I don’t hear any noise or hum but what I do notice is that sometimes the sound is spectacular while other times the sound is just good. The Keces IQRP 3600 was more of a “what if?” after thought but it will be fun to one day try. What does help is keeping the system on 24/7 but even still the sound improves with music play. 

I worked for Roger Modjeski for several years. He was always of the opinion that if you designed the power supply of a component properly then additional power conditioning would not be needed. In his system he used an inexpensive power strip, mainly just to have the ability to power on/off all his components simultaneously.

@clio09 I've found this to be true too- you really have to regulate!

If regulation isn't an option then a power conditioner can do some good- but it had better actually be a real power conditioner and not a glorified power strip (which describes most of the 'high end audio power conditioners'). If you don't push them too hard the PSAudio power regeneraters are quite decent.


The best conditioner I've seen was made by Elgar for commercial industrial use. It has the ability to regulate line voltage and put out a clean since wave (with guaranteed distortion less than 0.5%) right up to full current, some of which can support 28 amps continuous! These units are older as Elgar got out of the business decades ago and so have to be refurbished with new filter caps for their power supplies and the like. But they do offer improved sonics!


Its the 5th harmonic of the AC line frequency that is arguably the most pesky. This can occur when the line transformers on the telephone poles are pushed past 50% of their total capacity of for that matter any transformer in the chain between the power plant and the wall outlet. The 5th harmonic is hard to filter out because of its low frequency (300Hz) so the smaller 'conditioners' simply can't do it. It can cause power transformers to run warm and make noise, diodes to radiate more 'diode noise' and synchronous motors to perhaps run the wrong way. You can google this topic; Fluke instruments has a number of articles available.


Most of the 'high end audio power conditioners' I've seen are deleterious to the performance of our amps; I tell our customers to stay away from them or only use them for the front end of the system.


Many audiophiles understand that power cords can have a sonic effect (which is caused by the voltage drop across them- they are subject to Ohm's Law like everything else in electricity); consider that a glorified power strip forces you to use one power cord for a variety of stuff which might include two monoblock amps. If the amps are rated to make full power with 120 Volts available, there's good chance this won't happen if the voltage drop on the 'power conditioner' power cord is significant (2-3 volts is not unheard of). If the power cord or the connectors it uses (including the AC outlet) tend to get warm that's a Bad Sign. I've seen this phenomena rob an amplifier of a good 40 watts of output power- under those circumstances its easy to see how this could also be audible :)

The power in my old house, mostly ungrounded outlets, as well as the line coming in are atrocious.  Start the vacuum cleaner and lights dim for a second.  A used PS Audio regenerator made a huge improvement.

With sryeager being an exception, in general here are steps I find helpful.
1. Breaker box should be updated to move your room away from air conditioners, blowers, and other high draw breakers
2.  Add a whole house surge protector
3.  Put your equipment on an isolation transformer https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00008YMZO/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1
4. Use shielded power cables https://www.mouser.com/Wire-Cable/Cable-Assemblies/AC-Power-Cords/_/N-bkrhnZ1yzvvqx?P=1z0t1rp
5.  Stay away from Blue tooth and unplug wall warts.  Both generate high frequency noise which most linear power supplies are not designed to filter 
6.  If your equipment has rca and earth ground connected each component going to earth ground creates a ground loop