Richard Gray's 400 Pro = Emperor's New Clothes??

Not nice, container@163.net. There is nothing wrong with a solid system that you can afford and that is still a big step up from mass market gear, which I think well describes Rotel (very good headphone outs, by the way). And Rega makes great turntables at their various price points. Enjoy your system, Robreuland.

container@163.net.

I took your advice and upgraded my system and agree with you, power conditioners like RG 400 Pro are very audible.

Definitely made my system worse. (Not a joke).

Albert, when you feel up to it, try a Furman IT Reference 20 (or 15). I heartily agree with your general skepticism about power conditioners, but the Furman actually works and makes a very notable difference (for the better) in my system. I know you’ve heard this sort of claim many times before, but lo and behold, someone finally delivered.

FWIW, I have the RIchard Gray stuff hooked up in my video system, which is totally separate from the hi-fi system.
The hi-fi uses 20amp dedicated lines and shunyata hydra/anaconda, etc. One noise I simply could not eliminate was a electrical snapping sound whenever the air compressor for my airline arm kicked on- the compressor is located in a separate room (more like a large closet) with separate power lines. But, even after adding an expensive relay supplied by Kuzma for the compressor, the zapping noise would still appear. Almost sounded like the stylus being pulled across the record.
The solution was to plug the air compressor power cord into the Richard Gray step-down transformer, which is a big ol thing, takes 220volts from the wall and brings it down to 120v. This may have nothing to do with the quality of Gray's 'proprietary' conditioning technology, and everything to do with the use of an what I guess is simply a big isolation transformer. But, damn thing works. It is also used to power the projector and a host of tube amps, processors, etc. for the video system.

I went from a mid-fi higher powered system with 90dB speakers to a low-powered SET system with 97dB speakers. I first noticed a fairly loud 60Hz hum when I simply connected the higher-eff speakers to the older setup. It was even more noticeable when I added in my 6 wpc Art Audio PX-25 amp. The hum from my new speakers was audible from listening position 14-17 feet away.

I tried several obvious things to get rid of it - I cleaned up the contact and re-grounded the breaker panel to it's connection with my copper water pipes. I replaced all the outlets in my house and grounded those to the romex line, etc. etc. Nothing worked.

A dealer loaned me his RG Pole Pig and RGPC 400. Cleaned everything right up. Musical background was dead silent. Individuals notes stood out with greater clarity - yada, yada. Pretty amazing and no noticeable loss of dynamics.

Ultimately, though, I couldn't justify the cost of the RG equipment. I bought several surplus industrial 2.4KVA Topaz Ultra-Isolator isolation transformers and wired them in balanced configuration yielding 120dB common mode noise rejection. Worked out just as well as the RG products at a fraction of the cost. I plan on adding some filter units to the mix for even better AC.