Power Conditioners

there is a lot of snake oil in this category

I remember the Shunyata Hydra’s “7 element Venom Filter”

= 1 Littlefuse TMOV20R130E metal oxide varistor + a 70 cent capacitor soldered across each AC socket

not bad for a power strip they sold for $1995 - roll your own for $120 - $250 with premium outlets. I personally feel that varistors screw up the sound (squash dynamics) and that the protection they afford is not worth the degraded sonics.

and the beat goes on, la de da de da…

I own a PS P10 and could not go back. Hard to explain, but a layer of hash or grain is removed, a bit like polishing a window, and a sense of ease is imparted to the music. Be careful to only use components that have a peak power consumption that is within with the conditioner’s power envelope if you want to maintain dynamic capability. Using components which may seem to have moderate power consumption, but which require surprisingly high peak (transient) current, is I believe, the most common cause for dissatisfaction with power conditioners. Plug these into the wall instead.

Also own a couple of industrial 1KV 240:240V transformers that I picked up insanely cheap which do a splendid job on anything digital and phono/linestages. These were the real surprise package, as I have used other transformers before which squashed dynamics. These babies just let everything rip and really help clean things up a lot. Keep an eye out on the trade classifieds for bargains.

I don’t live in a particularly hostile AC environment. Hope this helps.

The only thing I do here occasionally is laughter from my electrician, that I asked if these things made a difference.

electricians believe the universe begins and ends with ohms law.

would you ask yours to design your amplifier?

you and the “power regeneration - ” thread guy may wish to combine as you are doubling up a lot