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WHICH POWER CONDITIONER IS BETTER PASSIVE OR ACTIVE WITH ISOLATION TRANSFORMERS

Looking to purchase a Power Conditioner to reduce the noise floor in my system as well as to protect my system from electric spikes. The two types of conditioners seem to be as follows:

  1. Passive conditioners such as an Audience AR-12 T4 which claims that passive conditioning with the use of chips is the way to go because their filtering is better accomplished without the use of isolation transformers. The proponents of passive seem to claim that the use of isolation transformers adds noise to the components in the chain.
  2. Active or non passive-An example would be the Niagra 3000, 5000 &7000 by Audioquest which all use Isolation transformers to accomplish the filtering. Most of the conditioners I see advertised seem to accomplish filtering with the use of isolation transformers.
  3. My question is what type is better and why? Any recommendations would be appreciated. My budget is $4000-$5000.00, would consider used, a/k/a pre-owned. 
  4. Thank you for your input. 

 

kjl1065

Showing 1 response by jfrmusic

jfrmusic
331 posts
 

Tried the PS Audio Regenerator,  an Audioquest active Conditioner and a Shunyata Gemini 8 passive conditioner. 
 

They all reduce noise and offer a black background 

In my experience amplifiers always sounded more open and transparent plugged into the wall

Again in my system the Regenerator and Active Conditioner moved everything forward highlighting the upper midrange and lower treble  while the Shunyata calmed everything down and opened up the soundstage and added to the image depth  

I purchased the Shunyata with a Gamma power cord  

I believe I have decent power to start so no wild fluctuations but even so the Shunyata improved transparency, imaging and soundstage especially with my digital components. The amplifier however stays in the wall.   
 

 

 

 

 

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