Puron Placement

I purchased my first Puron about 6 months ago. I installed it in a power distributor that is plugged into the same Furutech GTX-D (R) wall outlet that my system is plugged into via a Puritan PSM 156 power conditioner. I was so impressed with the sound improvements, which were consistent with the reviews I had read, that I purchased two more units several months later. These devices are a huge bang for the buck.

I had read in previous reviews about trying the Purons in different locations within a system to determine the best fit. I initially placed the two additional Purons in the same power distributor as the original Puron with the intention of later moving one of the Purons to the first outlet in the Puritan PSM 156 conditioner for comparison.

I listened with all three Purons plugged into the power distributor for several weeks and heard nice improvement over what the original Puron had rendered. I felt the additional two units were well worth the modest investment. I then went on vacation for a week, went through the implementation of a new software system at work for a couple of weeks and promptly forgot about moving one of the Purons to the Puritan power conditioner… until three days ago.

After letting the system warm up for about 20 minutes, I listened to two songs with one Puron now plugged into the first outlet (closest to the power input) of the power conditioner. Although it was only a short session, I noticed a bit of an increase in dynamics and reduction of background noise compared to having all three Purons in the power distributor. I thought to myself “glad I remembered to try this”.

I then attended to other matters for about 4 hours but left my system on while I was away. Upon returning, I was somewhat shocked with how the sound had become bigger, denser, and more powerful. The slight increase in dynamics I noticed earlier was now a big jump. I hadn’t touched the volume control, but the loudest peaks in the music were noticeably more powerful and forceful in the way live music sounds. The tone of instruments was more dense, rich and colorful adding to the sense of power and liveliness.  

The soundstage had grown in width and depth, but especially in height which gives an impression of more three-dimensional volume. It is hard to describe, but it is as if the sound projects and envelops me more. The darker background allows decays to linger longer and reach farther to the edges of the soundstage giving you more of the sense of volume. This was particularly noticeable with the decay of cymbals and percussion transients reaching much higher towards the ceiling of my listening room. Image density and edge definition are also enhanced by the quieter background.

There have been slight improvements over the last 3 days, but nothing like the initial 4-hour settling period yielded.

I am still surprised how much of a difference just changing the location of one Puron has made to the sound of my system. Thanks to those who previously recommended experimenting with placement of the Puron filter. Your advice was spot on.