To condition or not ?

I know some amp manufacturers say this as they think a PC might choke off current, but a TT motor would not draw enough power that this would ever be a concern?  I should think giving up surge protection would be a bigger concern? 

Thank You for your opinion.

I believe you have to experiment and use the method that sounds best to you unless you live in an area that receives regular lighting strikes etc. I have experimented with various power conditioners; sometimes the power conditions negatively affect the sound of some audio components.

You’re correct; they contradict themselves in the space of one paragraph. I see no reason why any of the named devices could do damage. Some might affect sound quality up or down, but that’s about it. And nothing protects against a direct lightning strike . Anything on an affected AC line would be toast.

There's only one concern with the motor-33.3 speed consistency, which ALL tables suffer from. Some more than others.

Get one of these for REAL TIME speed monitoring.

Eclipse Roadrunner – Sota Turntables

I put my turntable on a separate conditioner given that the motor is fairly noisy.

Plug the motor pod into a mains plug. We suggest omitting mains conditioners , filters or anything with surge protection as these can be highly detrimental for performance

I call BS or poor power supply engineering and/or virtue signaling.

Unless, of course, most power conditioners out there suck.... :D

But the current requirements of that turntable are going to be so minute that a fully regulated supply with an excellent reserve should overcome ANY issues with power conditioners. Why do they think the outside power is going to be much better?

Maybe I should sell a power supply upgrade.... :D

Last, if you live where I live you would never plug anything into the wall without a surge protector.

I put my turntable on a separate conditioner given that the motor is fairly noisy.

Now that’s an idea I support.  I use multiple Furman conditioners and keep the noisy things like TV and Ethernet devices on one, amp/dac on another.

I’d give them a call and ask for more info.

It sure seems like an odd thing to say. We are just going to be taking wild guesses. 
 

Of course, ultimately it depends on what it sounds like.

My turntable manufacturer recommend not placing vibration devices under it. However, I had a Silent Running Audio Ohio Class vibration platform ($3.5K) made for it and it made a significant improvement. It is easy to understand that their statement was just a generalization. The technology I chose was compatible.

Thank You all for your responses. We have brown outs here in LA during hot summer days and concerned with surges  from power ups. Like the idea of using a separate conditioner (plugged into the 1200) for the TT alone ? Thanks for the idea.

I've only had one experience with a conditioner. It was a PSAudio block, not a power plant. It killed the life of everything. I ended up putting in a 20Amp dedicated circuit.

Your Niagara 1200 is a well designed noise reducer.  I can’t imagine it would do anything but maintain or improve the operation of the table motor. 

Origin knows there is a lot of junk out there.

Niagara 1200 is one that has been reported many times to limit amp performance.

Line conditioning the cheaper ones surprises current ,they should tell you how. Many watts total.

the AQ Niagra  5000 is excellent , the Puritan ,very good except their cheap brass sockets copper night and day less resistance 3x better conductor 

I told them this through deaf 👂 ears, Shunyata upper line very good.

“reported many times to limit amp performance“

How can it limit amp performance? Not being argumentative, just curious to learn.

My understanding is that a basic regenerator will provide stability for the electricity supplying the motor. I have one dedicated to the tt.  

Some turntables already have a "conditioner" as part of their drive system. Turntables that generate a signal for the motor to run on would not benefit from a "conditioner" The AC lines frequency is held to very tight standards. Turntables with plain AC motors operate on the lines frequency. A regenerator might improve measured performance slightly, but you would never hear the difference. Turntables like my Sota use a three phase motor and drive it with a phase converter that has adjustable frequency. The computer then controls turntable speed by reading a magnet on the bottom of the platter. You can also tell it what speed you want it to run if you want to adjust pitch. A conditioner is worthless on a turntable like this because it is already doing the conditioning. 

It is much more important to spend money on better speakers or if you really want to blow your mind digital signal processing.

@carlsbad2 What does “reported to” mean?  Because by design, Niagaras do not limit current. Interested to know what would limit the amplifier?  You got links?

Reported by users here.  Of course there could be errors but confirmation bias would likely make the errors in favor of Niagara rather than against them.

 What is your basis for saying that "by design, they do not limit power".  I'm sure every manufacturer would make that claim.

On the SOTA, it IS a magnet but that is one half of the device called a Hall Sensor, used in many vintage DD turntables, like my Kenwood L07D, and by Phoenix Engineering which designed the speed control system used in the SOTA Eclipse. I agree that an AC regenerator would be redundant in the SOTA Eclipse system, because that job is done already by the power supply that is part of the Eclipse. However, if your turntable does not inherently regenerate AC, then an external regenerator might be of some benefit. At the very least, it will shield the other front end equipment from any noise in the form of EMI that might be put back into the AC supply for those other components by the motor itself.

Most TT motors draw less than 25W (which in a 120V system means less than ~0.2A), so I doubt that any conditioner (not a regenerator, but a conditioner that uses filters to remove hash from AC) suitable to work in an audio system would limit current draw by the TT motor. I would not put such a device on an amplifier, however, unless I knew it was rated to deliver a multiple of the steady state current draw of the amplifier.

Interesting opinions. As for amplifiers the 1200 has 2 high current outputs on the back, 15 amps rms max output listed . They suggest these for amps and powered subs. The other 4 outputs are listed ; linear noise-dissipation system 15’amps rms max output. Suggested for cdt , tt, streamers.

@detroitwing 

If you are having brownouts or flakey power,  a power regenerator is probably your best option, depending on how long they last.

My AR6 has two inputs for amplifiers, but I think it sounds slightly better plugged straight into the wall.

All the best.