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Tweakers' Asylum Tweaks for systems, rooms and Do It Yourself (DIY) help. FAQ. |
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Tweakers' Asylum Tweaks for systems, rooms and Do It Yourself (DIY) help. FAQ. |
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In Reply to: Use of AC conditioner? posted by soldermizer on June 25, 2005 at 12:49:05:
soldermizer,I have only been using a power conditioner for a couple of months. In December I lost a television and DVD player when a surge while remodelling fried the power supply in the TV- actual smoke.
As I since bought a new tuner (Revox B-160) and amplifier (Audio Research D-130) for my office system, and took my old preamp (ARC SP-8) out of storage, I 'm determined to protect the system, and I was curious if a power conditioner would help the sound as well.
I bought a 6A output Powervar, a 30 lb unit that cost something like $450 new, but cost $45 on Ebay- with shipping another $35. This is a big clunky one with an isolation transformer and varistor surge protection. There is additional RF filtering.
I've plugged the sources and preamp into the Powervar, but as the D-130 can draw up to 1600W on it's own, so it is still plugged directly into the wall- as recommended by ARC. I've bought another isolation conditioner- an Oneac 12Amp hospital unit- this one weighs 43 lbs and will arrive this week. The Oneac will have only one client- the D-130.
I'm proceeding crefully- and cheaply with this as I can not hear much difference with the Powervar. It is not appearently restricting current and the noise floor is is a bit lower with the Revox, but the difference with the SP-8 sonically is practically nil. I could not hear an appreciable difference with the Revox tuner whether it was plugged into the switched SP-8 outlets or the Powervar- it was better than a direct wall connection. The greatest improvement is with the Toshiba 3960 which seems more dynamic and smoother- more solid. I've done some isolation/damping with the 3960 at the same time, so some effect might derive from the blocks of marble and sorbothane mats for that.
Though my lack of wider experience precludes any grand decison about power condioners, my impression is that if the equipment has carefully designed power supplies- like Audio Research and Revox, the sonic benefits are minor, while a modest piece of gear like the $70 Toshiba has more room for improvement.
From my brief experience, if you're using good components, I would consider first a simple Furman rack surge/conditioner for $35-$50 and compare with a cheap, used commercial isolation transformer type like an Ebay Powervar to try out before going for the very expensive audio ones. then, I would borrow one from a shop as I think the results are pretty subtle given the cost.
My results from some nice current Audioquest IC's- Diamondback and King Cobra- a $60 Diamondback far, far exceeded the benefits from the power conditioner.
Cheers,
Bambi B
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Follow Ups
- A couple of experiments - Bambi B 08:13:33 06/27/05 (1)
- Re: A couple of experiments...proving little - pmkap 10:06:34 06/29/05 (0)
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