Least Controversial, Reasonably Priced AC Upgrades


Hello Everyone

At last, the light is appearing at the end of my house renovation tunnel, and -- fingers crossed -- I may actually be listening to music in my new living room before 2005.

Having spent every last penny on marriage, family, Subzero refrigerators etc, I am trying for the first time to upgrade the wiring a bit and protect the equipment against surges.

Despite my enthusiasm for this site and a pretty decent system, I remain firmly in the dark ages on power conditioners, high end power cords, outlets, surge protectors etc.

The place where we are we are moving in the country apparently has frequent power outages, especially in winter when falling branches down the lines.

I have read many heated debates about power conditioners etc with some of you saying that they actually WORSEN the sound, that I would like to start with a simple:

dedicated line?
Albert Porters wall outlets?
a chunky power strip inside my new 6' component rack on casters?
a surge protector (Monster Cable?) to protect all of the above in my newly flaky electical district?

Again, simple, effective, not wildly expensive please.

The idea is to have a moveable rack of equipment on casters that I can wheel from the corner of the room to my listening chair for easy access, which will be tethered to the wall by one power cord only and with long interconnects to the amp which will be located by the speakers.

The rest of the spaghetti mess will stay neatly inside the rack, concealed by a ventilated door.

Thank you in advance for all ideas and suggestions.
cwlondon

Showing 1 response by kdl

Hi Guys, I guess it's the right time for me to find this thread. I just received 1K Xentek Extreme Isolation Transformer today, I also got 1K Todd Systems Isolation transformer 2 weeks ago. I run into isotrans due to a tip to use it in front of Lingo and it seems really good (Todd Systems). The problem with 1K Xentek is the hum noise, way too high compared with Todd and size almost double. I bought Xentek in hope of low hum (Todd has some but can't hear it at listening position), it seems I need isolation for this extreme isolation transformer from my listening room.

My question to your guys is do you really need 5kva isotrans? Is it too big and over kill?