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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. 

 

128x128kjl1065
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jeffbij
86 posts
 

@kjl1065   +1 on the Regenerators.  I have very noisy, high distortion incoming power with significant voltage swings.  I bought a PS Audio PP12 and it made a world of difference, better than Furman I was trying out.  Everything is plugged into it, Classe monoblocks as well, and not coming anywhere close to overloading it. Infact, it worked so well that I bought a used PP10 for the bedroom system and haven't looked back.

 

mgw
62 posts
 

The PheonixNET made a significant improvement in my system. Pretty obvious, even down to a better TV picture.

Setting aside the title of this thread there is another issue about denying this guy the oxygen of publicity that he so desperately craves.

brskie
70 posts
 

My front end is plugged into a "Torus Power" isolation transformer and my amp goes directly into the wall. Sounds dead quiet.

rfauto
21 posts
 

I went down this same journey last December. I purchased a EMI noise meter to test my power and found that my electricity was actually really good. So, I decided to get something that was more of a surge protector and provided some additional outlets. My budget was $1500. I purchased an Audioquest Niagara 1200 power conditioner. After testing it I found that it actually added noise to my electricity. I returned it and bought a Furman Elite15 PFi. The amplifier outlets on the Furman brought the noise in the electricity to 0.0. The other outlets on the Furman added noise to my electricity. I use the amp outlet for my phono pre amp and power amp and use the other outlets on things where EMI noise doesn’t matter as much.

erik_squires
16,444 posts
 

I returned it and bought a Furman Elite15 PFi. The amplifier outlets on the Furman brought the noise in the electricity to 0.0. The other outlets on the Furman added noise to my electricity.

 

That's interesting.  So Furman uses LiFT, linear filtering, which is an active technology to clean up the noise.  The problem with EMI gadgets is understanding what frequency they are working at.  It's possible that LiFT is increasing noise well above audibility but decreasing it below 20 kHz.

In any event, I think what you discovered is the filtering capabilities of the series mode protection (SMP) built into the Furman which works at about 3kHz and higher.  

Personally in bad, apartment complex like environments I could hear it when my Furman was not in the system.  Everything sounded more hazy.

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