Any one measured the EMI/RFI attenuation performance of audiophile power conditioners?


Hello,

I was looking for a very good/robust power conditioner which will clean up reliably very noisy/dirty power supply that I have in my aprtment. While looking for one I went through catlogs of AudioQuest, Shunyata Research, Synergestic Research etc. but no one published charts showing attenuation performance over frequency range like you get for EMI filters from Schurter or Schaffner etc. which are in the industry for EMI/EMC compliance.

Since audio is very subjective, but contrary to audio reproduction Power and EMI/RFI reduction is completely objective and can be clearly demonstrated via attenuation charts.

Hence I am asking if anyone has measured the actual performance of these audiophile power conditioners. I am not denying someone saying they hear improvement after using XYZ product, but since I am talking about power conditioning or EMI reduction it's as objective as it can be.

I am not at all surprised to see all the manufacturers not publishing the performance data, else it would be used in other industries and research fields where it's far more critical and have far more stringent requirements on the performance of conditioner/EMI filters. But I am shocked to see even products ranging above 5-10K are following the same practice of not publishing the results.

Please note I am not a measurement fanatic, but I know where I can chase the measurements and where I can rely on my hearing to gauge the difference.

Regards,

Audio_phool

128x128audio_phool

I know, it's like talking about the weather.  I have the Niagara 5000.  It is also an obvious improvement for me.  Expensive and not as much fun as buying an amp, DAC or speakers but the improvement in sound is unmistakable for me.

@audio_phool 

I’m not well versed in power line noise and the resulting issues with a systems sound quality, but I thought that noise at 1Mhz was preferred to noise within the auditory frequencies and that such noise could be easily filtered.  Power conditioners and systems of conditioning like with Shunyata, or Audioquest claim to also limit noise generated by component such as switching power supplies.  So, I’m not clear on why filtering of 1 MHz signals is a key point of your post.

Audio consumers have complained for decades that power conditioner manufacturers don’t publish object measure of their products direct impact upon what we hear through our electronics.  Has anyone quantified what attributes must be measured and how they are measured?  I purchased the Everest and associated power cables on a ninety day trial and didn’t return it because it was the single greatest improvement that I had heard in my system to that point.  I recognize that this is subjective, but what group of measurements can be used to predict the listener’s subjective experience?

@tonywinga I don't understand whats in the performance data which needs to be kept secret even though the method of achieving the performance can be proprietary and hence method can be kept secret. In fact performance numbers are a thing to boast & if I was the mrketing head i will use them everywhere to market the product unless they are terrible & hence need to be kept secret.

Your example of Automotive industry exactly confirms the point which i said, except for the Audiophile industry, every other industry has standard norms and specs to be met, else the product is useless. In audio while sound is highly subjective and hence cannot be standardised the way it's done for other things, power conditioning or EMI reduction is something very well established & measurable thing, yet audiophile grade manufacturers of these products choose to ignore the specification and/or performance data.

@deep_333 I never said any of these products don't make the improvement/changes to the sound. My post was regarding lack of objective measurements/performance data for something which is completely objective. Will FDA accept a new drug if tomorrow the manufactrer will just say I saw improvement in a patient's condition?

 

Audio_phool

@vonhelmholtz I think you mis-read/interpreted my post. I was not highlighting the importance of noise reduction at 1Mhz, it was highlighted by Shunyata in response to my query about the performance data. They claimed that their Everest & Denali to have 68dB noise suppression at 1 MHz which is best in the field. But then I cited the example of $60 worth of filter from Schaffner to have Noise reduction of 70dB in common mode and 80dB in differential mode at 1MHz.
 

I am of the opinion that impact of power conditioning on SQ is dependent on various factors such as equipment, state of power, person's hearing etc. & hence can not be easily measured. But the performance of a power conditioner in terms of noise reduction is completely objective and measurable.

Audio_phool

@deep_333 I never said any of these products don’t make the improvement/changes to the sound. My post was regarding lack of objective measurements/performance data for something which is completely objective. Will FDA accept a new drug if tomorrow the manufactrer will just say I saw improvement in a patient’s condition?

Years ago, a group of engineers in a large manufacturing/test facility (defense/aerospace) were in deep sht with a certain kind of issue. The control system on some sensitive test equipment, one of a kind, one sole manufacturer in the world to meet specs, would freeze up due to some power anomalies that would occur in the midst of weeks long continual tests. Months of power monitoring with the most sensitive/most expensive equipment (that audio guys may have never even heard of) revealed that the monitoring equipment may not have been sensitive enough to catch weird sub-cycle spikes, etc or the ability to capture/characterize such anomalies in that industrial environment. There is nothing else to buy.

Solution: We isolated the control system on that equipment with some very expensive custom iso. transformers. The problem never re-occurred again.

If someone came back and asked me, "where oh where is the measurement/data trail that drove you to your grand solution?" All i could say is, "foff and don’t waste my time, the solution is in place!"...and that’s how it may work in certain types of industries at times.

FDA? Try and figure out all the complexities of the most sophisticated gadget in existence, i.e., the human body first..After that, we can talk about FDA and other crap (Most of your medication is apparently fixing one thing, breaking something else anyways).

Get a couple of engineering degrees, work in field for a few decades, start to get a feel for the limitations of what we can/can’t measure, how much we don’t freaking know in the grand scheme of things, etc, before you get really absolutist with some audio stuff. The internet read low info guys from the likes of ASR are the ones who feel mighty proud of themselves on a daily basis. They know everything there is to know apparently!