I have never been happy with any conditioner or filter my system or in any other systems that I have heard. The only exception was with a friend's system when he lived in the city in a building that also housed a large amount of computer gear. I accept that others have had opposite experiences and so conclude that we are either in different circumstances (I live in New Zealand) or have different musical values. For me, the biggest improvement is getting good power cords. The next best thing is to provide a dedicated mains, or better still one for analogue and one for digital, or better still, one for each component. The next best thing is dedicated earths. There is a lot in the archives about doing this. One thing to watch out for is that if you use dedicated mains, but use stock cables the sound can get worse - specifically it can get gritty and bright. So good cords are always necessary. Another thing to watch out for is that dedicated mains is really about minimising the noisy connections on the line, so your key focus should be on ensuring the best integrity of every connection that you can get control over. The point about lines that are not dedicated is that they go through many connections as they weave their way from wall outlet to wall outlet - picking up noise as they go.
POWER: conditioners vs filters vs cords
OK. I've heard a lot of contradictory stuff on power accesories. I'm going to throw this out to the roundtable and hopefully clear up some of the fog. I've heard the following: 1) Most full blown conditioners ($500+) do everything better. They stabilize input power, clean up ground loops, filter noise and insulate against power surges. However, some compress dynamics. 2) Most surge supressor/filter units ($200-$350) clean up ground loops, filter noise and insulate against power surges. (but a good power conditioner makes the system sound better overall) 3) Good power cords kinda clean-up ground loops and kinda filter noise; their major advantage is a blacker background, better dynamics, soundstage and imaging. 4) If you have a full blown conditioner, better powercords are redundant and offer little advantage. Am I on the right wavelength here? I have a minor intermittent ground loop, and I know my power is a bit on the dirty side, infrasonic garbage wise. So the question is this: I want to improve my sound quality by cleaning up my power supply without blowing a small fortune. I'd like to invest between $200 to $400(list price) but I wouldn't be adverse to bumping the price to $650 if it REALLY makes a difference. What do you recommend? Your opinions on any part of this subject are welcome and product recommendations would be appreciated. Thanks, Morbius2130aol