power conditioner

Panamax and Furman are (now, and for more than two years) the same company - Core Brands. Their is not much difference between the two per se, instead it comes down to model and purpose. Furman is oriented to those who desire voltage regulation, which is very different than conditioning and surge protection.

I have a Panamax MR4300 and it is great. Conditioning can be observed on an oscilloscope, the voltage shut down from over/under voltage does work, the voltage meter is very accurate, front panel lighting has various illumination levels, I could go on... The price is reasonable too. 

Balanced power recommendations are certainly worth entertaining assuming the OPs specification of "reasonable cost" extends to $2500 and beyond. 

@falconquest 

And what about the High End Munchen 2015 - AudioQuest Niagara 7000 video you posted? I listened (at 1.5 or 2 x speed) the first 15 minutes and didn't hear/see anything worth remembering. 

@falconquest 

Poor choice of words on my part in my prior post. Please accept my apologies.

I had a knee jerk reaction given that in your previous post you had mentioned balanced power. I didn't hear anything in the video explain or otherwise address that. Additionally, while you did mention the Audio Quest Niagara, the OP mentioned he/she is looking for a solution of "reasonable cost". IMO the Audio Quest Niagara series (any model) doesn't meet that criteria. 

@atmasphere

Always a pleasure to read from you in any thread.

Could you please provide your opinion (succinctly) about balanced power conditioners, with an emphasis on whatever advantage they bring to the table in comparison to non-balanced conditioners?

Balanced power is nice if you can pull it off without introducing other problems. It is useful for lowering susceptibility to noise on the line. Often it is done by using an isolation transformer of some sort. If this is the case, the transformer should not be operated past 50% of its continuous rated power (else distortion will be a problem and that will overshadow any advantage brought by balancing the power).

Thank you, @atmasphere

I’ll keep your reply handy if you don’t mind. Of late where ever I might happen to post on this forum invariably someone throws out the notion of balanced power (and proposes a $2500+ device that purported delivers it) as though its a cure all for things audio plus the common cold.