When using a power conditioner, why is it advised to run amps directly to the wall?

Whether to plug your amps directly into the wall or into a power regenerator or power conditioner is situational dependent.  Hence the variety of opinions and experiences shared in this thread.  Each audiophile must start by assessing the condition of the power being received from his or her wall.  That is the fundamental flaw in the analysis reported by ASR.  Amir did not begin, or ever report on the condition of the power source that he used in his tests.  Hence his conclusions are worthless.  A power regenerator will do nothing if the power coming in from the wall is within spec in the first place.  One the other hand, if the power is subject to wide voltage fluctuations due to demand, for example in high demand locations, or if the power is corrupted by spurious noise from other users nearby, which might occur from industrial machinery, then some sort of buffer can be quite useful.  Only you can decide if the addition of such equipment is necessary or helpful.  Since each of us lives in a different location, there is no universal answer. 

I have some very powerful amps, (Michi 8) and I run them from my AudioQuest Niagara 7000 on a dedicated line. They actually sound better than straight into the wall outlet.

ozzy

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zlone’s response is unclear to me. Did the PS Audio improve or degrade the SQ from his amplifier?

Lower power amps can be plugged into power conditioners which may improve their performance but big amps need to go directly into the wall to give them unlimited headroom.

A quote from Vinnie Rossi audio site see below:

Mike

’’With active power factor correction (PFC) and superior regulation and stability, the power supply ensures maximum performance regardless of AC mains quality. Housed in a fully enclosed compartment precision machined into Brama’s solid aluminum body, it is fully grounded and isolated from the audio circuitry, performing like a highly-responsive, well-tuned engine.’’ See Vinnie Rossi here.

It may help audiophiles understand that while line level devices (DAC, preamps, etc.) are usually fully regulated, linear amplifiers almost never are. 

That is, your preamp has little regulators which, combined with the power supply keep the working DC voltages very stable within a wide tolerance of incoming voltages.  Common IC regulators are 5V, 12V and 15V for instance.  They are good, small, cheap and relatively low current.  Think 1A or less.  Definitely too small and heat producing to include in most amps. 

Linear amplifiers however, with linear supplies are almost never regulated at all.  Rare exceptions are the Krell FPB and Sanders Magtech.   As a result of not being regulated the DC rails move in proportion to the wall voltage.  Not something that happens with your DAC at all.   Your DAC probably gets solid DC rails at anything over 100 VAC out of the wall. 

As a result, having a high current voltage regulator not only keeps your equipment safe and functioning it also ensures your amplifier can perform consistently in much worse power situations than it would otherwise.   I wrote more about this here.