Synergistic Research Black Box -

I tried them in my system. They certainly work and impact the bass and if you have big problems they could be what you want. However they impart a certain tone to the sound, an artificial edge that I found grating. My room is heroically treated for bass management and room acoustics in general so in the context of a much more lively room they may work well

Reading the review it actually mirrors my experience with the BB.  What it reads like (and what I heard) is that the BB exaggerates and emphasizes the leading edge of bass notes. Now while this can be quite exciting in a way it is actually a coloration and nothing like real bass. I also found that I could hear the effect of the BB even when it was in the room next door.

The effect of the BB is an amped up version of the ART bass station which I have long used. I have four of these and over time dialed back to only using two, and in a position that minimizes their impact. It seems the BB is a tool that needs to be used carefully and sparingly if at all.

So while I have over $100k in SR components in my rig at present at least for me the BB is one I tried and returned. 

@shkong78 it's simply a sympathetic resonance device tuned to bass frequencies -- the ART bass stations are one single small cup and I presume the BB contains many such cups tuned to different frequencies

As @sgordon1 notes the BB is sensitive to mounting and location (personally I never liked the long spikes SR use on this and the ART modules, far too easy to bend and actually rather dangerous) -- I wouldn't be surprised if decoupling also works really well (I love what that does to my FEQs and one day will try it on my Atmosphere as well)

Net net my experience is that this thing does work, it does have an impact but like all bass tuning you need to try it and be careful in how you use it. That's why SR offer the 30 day guarantee and return

The Black Box has no power connections so your question is moot

As to the FEQ -- there are actually two plugs to be connected. The power plug (a wall wart) is fine in any sort of power bar or conditioner -- I plug mine into my PowerCell. In fact I find it sounds even better using a short pigtail extender I made -- that takes some of the stress off the heavy wall wart. With this setup you actually get 110% of the performance of the straight into the wall setup

The second plug is for the ground connection. This must be plugged into the same wall duplex as the FEQ (or the power strip or conditioner that is powering the FEQ). It should not be plugged into the power strip itself -- if you do you'll get 20% of the effect, in fact it may make the system sound worse than not using the FEQ at all!

If you do not have a pair of duplex outlets available you can of course by a SR ground system and plug the ground into that -- however this in turn will need to be plugged into that same spare outlet -- you will at least need only one outlet no matter how many things you then need to ground

Hope this makes sense - it can seem pretty confusing

@ozzy theoretically this is the same as using both outlets on a duplex and provided no other components share the strip (i.e. its just the FEQ and the ground) then I see no reason why it should not sound the same. Once you plug anything else into the strip then you are messing up the ground and that may be why things take a turn for the worse. I actually had a setup something like this back in LA where I had a bunch of MPCs plugged into an SR extension strip along with the FEQs, I still used a spare duplex outlet for the ground however -- it sounded OK.

 Anyway experimentation is easy but it's surprising how easy it is to screw up these grounds -- for example you should take care to dress the ground wire carefully so it doesn't touch the floor or have any sharp turns or coils in it -- keeping it away from other wires and floating freely is quite audible (in a positive way)

Exactly @ozzy  -- those grounding boxes really do work! You can also explore either springing for the (expensive) HD links or making up some improved ground cables using silver cable of your choice (or have your favorite cable maker build them for you)