Powervar 1200 - How good?

They perform true power conditioning for the least amount of money...period.

I have a modifed powervar 12 and it sounds great.Sure does give a black background.I did add 3 - .47 sonicaps to the recepticles--1 cap per recepticle.

I have 3 caps left over if someone wants them.There are new .47 sonicaps --second generation.The cost was 8.50 per cap--i will sell them for 20$ and pay shipping.They take the powervar to another level in cleaning up the line.

I owned one. I did notice an improvement in detail and clarity. One thing I did not like was the transformer hum, which was constant.

I'd estimate they are very good. They do what they are supposed to do and are well designed and built. Hospitals and other places that have labs with very touchy micro electronics use them. Some equipment manufacturers actually require you to buy the Powervar or Oneac's for the warranty and or service contract to be effective. In printing, imagesetters I know are this way and cost tens of thousands of dollars but without the power conditioner in front you're sol if you have problems. As far as audio goes I can't say I can hear a difference but knowing my gear is protected and the lines are clean is good enough especially considering these things cost so little compared to "audiophile" conditioners.

Hi,

I have been down exactly the same road with exactly the same units you mention and more too. When downsizing to my current set-up, I received a modified Powervar 1200 in a partial trade for my BPT-3.5 Sig.

It had Porter Ports instead of the stock outlets and extensive use of chassis damping and ERS Cloth. It was really quite nice with those mods. I added Auricaps accross the outlets and hardwired a Z-Cable Heavy Thunder AC cord instead of the stock cord to very good effect.

There are a lot of similarities to the BPT 3.5 sig ... not quite the same background blackness nor the seemingly absolute isolation from other electrical devices in our apartment, but surprisingly effective and quite nice for the money and time invested.

Good luck!

Scott