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Power Conditioners

Not sure if I placed it in the correct topic but here goes. I was just wondering how power conditioners work, as I want to buy one. There are conditioners with only filtered inputs and conditioners with some filtered inputs and some unfiltered. I believe the unfiltered ones are for analogue devices. But why should these go into the unfiltered part? If I buy a power conditioner for example with only filtered inputs, will I not be able to put my class A amp in? Or will it have a negative effect?
sjeesjie

Showing 3 responses by erik_squires

erik_squires
16,564 posts
 
So if wall warts go into the dirty zone, does it also mean the DAC and the record player? Only amp and CD player have grounded power cables so they go into the clean zone?



Dirty/clean is not about having a ground plug.  The ground plug is usually a safety, not a noise, feature.

But anything with a digital power supply and/or processor is something I try to put in it's own, like network routers and switches.
erik_squires
16,564 posts
 
Hi OP,

I think that the difference is whether they use parallel only parts, like for surge protection, or whether they try to do noise as well.

The issue is that parallel surge protection and filtering simply can’t get down low enough in the frequency range, so you’ll often see them brag about EMI/RFI noise suppression, but that’s in the 100kHz range.

The true series mode surge supressors are ALSO noise suppressors that work down in the 3 kHz range. That’s well down into the audible range of noise.  Some believe that anything in line with the electric company is bad, so they will avoid them.

Personally, I don't want to be connected to the transformer directly.  It's noisy, and may cause surges.  I'm good with noise filtering and series mode protection.

Best,

E
erik_squires
16,564 posts
 
This comes up so often I wrote a blog about it:


https://inatinear.blogspot.com/2019/04/power-management-for-frugal-audiophiles.html


Best,

Erik
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