Symptoms of UN-CLEAN power

@jerryg123 Are you using a dedicated line? If you are plugging your gear directly into the wall, how are you protecting from outages (no surge protection) that may damage your gear? 

I live in a quasi-urban area and my house is only 11 years old. I have no meter to test how dirty my AC power is..but I do occasionally have outages and so I am assuming if you lose power on your line your gear suffers by shutting off and on in mid-stream. 

My electric line comes in my house underground and I have noticed that in the past few days that the Panamax I use shows 116 Volts and not the typical 120 or 121 Volts - I assume because the ground has been frozen the past couple of days here in the NE. I understand that lower voltage can damage an amplifier as it makes it work harder to maintain the same static power. 

Overall I find this thread confusing. Those that put in dedicated lines swear that it is the best thing one can do to clean up power BEFORE your gear has to deal with it.

Others claim their gear has power supplies that are DESIGNED to clean up dirty AC. Which may be true but finding proof (white paper; article by mfg, etc) of that on a particular amp is not easily accessible. Heck, PS Audio and others  manufacture both Amps and Conditioner's - as well as wall outlets - so it would seem that one scenario is not better than the other in all circumstances.

And then there are the other third of audiophiles who seem to believe that a dedicated line WITH a conditioner is the way to go. So, it would seem I have three (four if I do nothing) options without any one of those choices being the consensus here in this thread. I attribute this to the fact that many audiophiles do not even bother with any of these options and cry audiophile FOUL at wasteful spending on gimmickry; which I find ignorant.

Fairly new territory I suppose, but after upgrading my power cables I was aware that the delivery of electricity is a real driving factor in better sound, which makes sense to a technical geek like myself. But the path forward is murky at best.

@curiousjim 

I just ordered an Entech noise analyzer and will provide my results when I get it. Will test the wall outlet and then an outlet on the Panamax I utilize. Have you tried other outlets in your house to see if they all test the same? 

For those that have these used these analyzers, would you please provide helpful input or experiences from your own outlets/gear?

@goodlistening64 yes I am on a dedicated line for over 20 years in this house. Also have whole house surge suppression. Never once has it triggered. I am also on the same grid as emergency services in our town, have only ever had 2 outages      in 20 years both due to a line cut. 

Surgue suppression is not the same as conditioner that alters the current and can throttle hi draw equipment such as power amplifiers, and or integrated amplifiers.

@goodlistening64 

Should of borrowed mine😁

Yeah, I tried it on three sockets on three separate circuits. The one with the biggest difference is the one the AR6 is also plugged into. 100 to 78 on the meter.  Not sure if it’s apples and oranges though. I sure hope I didn’t buy a very expensive circuit breaker!

@goodlistening64 PS is not manufacturing wall outlets they buy them from Leviton or Hubble and they are private labeled. Save your money and buy the same stuff on Amazon with out a audio manufacturer name on it. PS in mainly in the regeneration game and is at the lower tier in that category, at least that is what service techs claim. 
 

Big thing is do what makes you sleep better, dedicated lines, conditioning, surge suppression. I chose 2 of theses legs with no conditioning on my amplifiers. If my gear gets fried I have recourse (lol) with the suppressor manufacturer and my homeowners. Knock on wood no issues and when I travel I pull power from all devices in my chain. 

@jerryg123 I’m planning on getting a dedicated line done either this month or next. Needed to wrap up few system changes first. Almost done. Famous last words LOL

Living in dense apartments in the past gave me an appreciation for my conditioners.  For whatever reason I felt tense and nervous listening without a power conditioner.  I had rearranged my system and forgot the conditioner.  I couldn't understand why I didn't like the sound until it hit me that the Furman was missing.

@jerryg123  Good advice, thanks. I should have put a couple of dedicated lines in when I did the basement 10 years ago. Such regret that when my nephew told me he was creating a man-cave, I pretty much forced him into putting in dedicated lines..so much so I paid for one of the lines and sent him a couple of upgraded sockets to have his electrician install. Of course, his electrician was dumbfounded and my nephew (who is not an audiophile) was also incredulous on what I was telling him to do. I plan on using the Entech device to see how clean his dedicated lines are to what circuits I use in my basement.

Great to hear you have not had any surge issues! I told my nephew to plug his equipment straight into the wall and so far (maybe a year) he has not sent me an angry text that his TV was fried. So far, so good. A whole surge suppressor certainly would make me sleep better at night, although I have 5 power cables that need sockets, so I will have to use something to accommodate that reality when the time comes.

One last question, have you found that using a 20 AMP Power cord betters the sound coming from a 20 AMP wall socket/dedicated line, or using a 15 AMP Power cord in a 20 AMP socket is sufficient and sound-wise there is little to no difference?

Got my Entech yesterday and it seems to me that this device can only be helpful in communicating your overall home line noise.

I was happy when first testing a non-audio circuit that resulted in minimal noise. That convinced me that previous efforts to clean my power might have been beneficial. I then plugged in the Entech to a get it anywhere power strip in the same circuit and the noise was reduced by 75%. Great!! Now it's time to figure out all the negative affects any power purifying device contributes. 

LP

@goodlistening64 I have a mish-mosh of power cords, My Integrated amplifiers all have 20 amp Zavfino cables OCC. The digital and analog FE units are Zavfino and Signal Cable 15 amp as well as my subwoofers. 

@jerryg123 Thanks Jerry. I have a second Zavfino power cord on the way. I should have prioritized the dedicated line before I went out and spent over a grand on cables, but the first Zavfino cable was such a remarkable change that I could not wait.

Kind of crazy because I have acoustic ceiling in my basement and the panel is only about 40 feet away, so the cost of putting in the dedicated line would have been cheaper than buying the five power cables I installed. Then I could have gone with 20 AMP cables to begin with.

Hopefully- with the circuit I use for my gear having only have a couple of wall sockets along it's path- I hope to find out that it is "clean" enough (using the Entech), that I may just wait until I have another reason to have an electrician to the house before I go that route. 

In hindsight, however, it should have been the first priority for my system setup 11 years ago. 🤔