Power line conditioners- to use or not to use? That is the question?


If you are in the "yes use them" camp.  Which ones etc.?

If you are a "no". Why?

Right now, I use outlets I built from hospital grade outlets bought from an electrical supply house.  I plug my amp directly into house wall outlet.  In speaking with a friend he highly recommended using a power line conditioner.  Specifically a panamax mr4300.  Swears by it.  Thoughts?
polkalover

Showing 1 response by randy-11

a used Topaz will cost $200 or so

none will do anything other than 'protect' from noise on the AC input from your utility, etc. and protect from power surges - noise generated by your own components needs to be solved via 1-3 below

1st you will want to makes sure your DAC and/or streamer, computer, file server is galvanically isolated from the rest of the system
2nd - hunt down and break all leakage loop currents in the system

3rd - use a star-quad type cable on your DC power supplies (wall warts)

4th is the isolation transformer

*** Good speakers, room treatments, and source recordings will be of primary importance, and ALL the above secondary ***

There is a 45 page long thread on ComputerAudiophile on how to do this and what to get (but you will need 2-3 days to wade thru it, and there is no summary AFAIK).