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Power Conditioning on the Cheap

This is my first post here after a bit of lurking, so please be gentle.  I realize this subject must come up a fair amount and I've read erik_squires blog posts on the subject, but I was hoping to get the community's opinion on the relative merits of a few relatively basic power conditioners.  I've narrowed my list down to a few options at a range of (fairly modest) price points.  From low to high they are:

Furman PST-8D

ifi Power Station

Furman Elite-15 PF I

Shunyata PS10 w/ Venom Defender

Audioquest Niagara 1200

In a perfect world where I didn't have a limited budget I would probably buy something higher up the line from Shunyata, but since we live in a decidedly imperfect world, these are my options, although I would welcome other suggestions that fit within this price range.

I should also probably mention that while I value subjective reports on the sound quality of various products, generally speaking I give more weight to objective measurements or at least arguments based in sound science.  More embarrassingly, I also place a certain amount of value on aesthetics.  Aesthetic taste being inherently subjective, (a debatable point, but for the sake of argument lets just assume that it's true) lets just say that when I lust after completely unobtainable equipment it tends to be from companies like Soulution or Pilium rather than Dan D'Agostino or darTZeel.

incorporeus

Showing 3 responses by mitch2

mitch2
3,706 posts
 

@lanx0003 

"the cost might not be as affordable as you think...If extensive work is needed to run wires in your home, the project could cost as much as a few thousand dollars."

I agree, everyone's situation is different.  I was fortunate to have commissioned the house construction so I was able to predetermine power distribution and other factors.  Having a basement helps with wire routing and upgrades also.  Some people can only resort to aftermarket products to improve their power so we all do the best we can.  Other than surge protection, it seems many of these products only "clean up" electrical noise if there is a problem to begin with.  So many factors can affect that and I am fortunate to live in an area with underground electric lines and to have dedicated lines and really no power noise issues whatsoever.  I was not this fortunate at all of my former living arrangements.  I currently use an Isoclean 60A3 II Power Conditioner on my front end components and nothing on my amps and preamp - all run from dedicated 20A lines and it works/sounds great.  I am not sure how much benefit the Isoclean provides (if any) but it doesn't seem to hurt and it gives me 6 outlets to run my digital gear from.

mitch2
3,706 posts
 

For the money, you may consider dedicated power lines to your listening area if that is possible for your situation.

mitch2
3,706 posts
 

@pesky_wabbit 

despite claims of elaborate filtration all they contained was a varistor and a capacitor

Not surprised, a lot of products consist of normal stuff in a fancy box.  After you install your dedicated lines, if you want to spend just a little money for protection and filtration, check out the Jon Risch ac filter described here and here.  I made two of them years ago and they continue to work great.  Take Five Audio in Canada used to offer a kit for this.  Unfortunately, I could no longer find the original links but you might ask around on audio asylum.

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