Ways to clean up the wall power for SET amp?


Howdy,

As you will see from my threads I am embarking on an audio journey with DB99's and seeking a good set amp. Wright audio 2A3's or the mono 25's are most likely what I am going with (price to performance ratio appears great). Now I need help with keeping the power clean. What are some reasonable ways/products others have found to insure a clean line.

Thanks
tickfight
I would suggest starting with a dedicated circuit on your fuse / circuit breaker box.

Secondly, in speaking with an amp manufacturer he said that most amps aren't designed to have a transformer placed before it in the form of a line conditioner so that could be one reason why some amps sound worse when plugged into the line conditioner - check with your amp manufacturer.

As an alternative, use a passive bi-directional filter type of line conditioner.

I use a dedicated circuit, and the Foundation Research LC-1 passive line conditioner and an active line conditioner by Equi-Tec which creates a very black background.
I just added an Isoclean wall outlet to replace the standard outlet. I was _very_ skeptical about spending $180 on an outlet, but the improvement was undeniable. The sound immediately became clearer, heftier, and generally more refined with an improvement in bass punch, clarity, and depth. Quite simply, I believe the Isoclean outlet passes more power, uninterupted, to the components that are plugged into it. I also noticed a small improvement in gain and quieter background from the tweeter. Adding this outlet is like removing a thin haze from a good pair of sunglasses(that you never realized were hazy). Also, the Isoclean outlet has a substantial weight and quality to it. Your power cords essentially snap into the outlet and do not move or fall out like the cheap plastic outlets in most homes. Highly recommended.
An inexpensive Tripp-Lite line conditioner should do the trick. I cann't understand $100 for a power cord, expensive wall outlets, and really expensive line conditioners when the Romex power cabling in your wall costs $.15 a foot.
Although not SET my Cary SLM 100's like Bybees alone best, in my case I use them on both the hot and neutral. Tried power conditioners, sucked away too much of the drive and life. Tried caps on AC receptacle in combination with the bybees, same problem. I run each monoblock on seperate dedicated lines with dedicated ground. Getting Art Audio Carissa Sig. next week, we shall see what works best.
With the Wright 2A3's (if you go that route), the PC's are captive, so not even a consideration there. Get some good NOS tubes, and plug the amps straight into the wall...the one with the dedicated circuit, according to those in the know.
I dont have a Set setup, (then why reply?) I can tell you the dedicated circuits with the I/G made more of a difference in my system than any power cord. I had the work done by pros, they ran a #4 ground wire out of my house into a pole burried 6 feet in the ground with a few 20 amp dedicated runs back to the fuse pannel. The cost was what I would have paid for a pair of decent power cords, but well worth the results.

Since then I have tweaked by purchasing the Cyro outlets, and upgraded again my power cords, but that is just better frosting, not a better cake.
put a bybee on the + leg from the IEC to the transformer inside the amp.

worked well on my wavac.

rhyno
You may ask George Wright what he thinks, but I personally have found that, with the low-powered tube amps,cleaning up the power and or slapping on a power cord that costs as much as the amp does not make any difference to my ears. Those same things do make differences in the front end though. If I were going to invest in power for a tube amplifier, I'd invest in a dedicated circuit with an isolated ground and a good outlet. Just my opinion, of course. Worth all of .02 cents back in 77, while in the current economy I actually went into debt by sharing it with you!

Marco