Regenerator, Balanced Power, or Power Cleaner?


I'd like to take advantage of your experience.

Which type of power conditioner would you recommend:
Regenerator, Balanced Power, or Power Cleaner?

I have a Porter Outlet and measured it at several times of the day and night and the voltage consistently ranges 120 to 121 V

My system is a Toshiba Lap top w/ J River, W4Sound DAC, NAD C 356 Integrated Amplifier and Vienna Acoustic Beethoven Baby Grand. I rarely use the CD Player.

I'm planning gradually evolve to a First Watt amp with High Efficiency Speakers, CAPS Computer and near field listening.
I live in an apartment and will continue to live in apartments for the future

I'm primarily interested in Chamber Music.

I could spend about $2000 used if the sound quality improvement was significant.

Any thoughts would be very welcome
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Showing 1 response by almarg

07-13-14: Ivan_nosnibor
... the closer you get to the edge of that 5% window (and beyond), the more noise will slip past the cancellation circuits and affect the sound...that general malaise that tells you it's feeling kinda sick (and not in a good way). This is why people feel like regenerators reduce noise, they don't per se....
John ("Ivan"), and I say this with respect (given the many knowledgeable and helpful posts you've made in the past), none of this is true. Degradation in performance that may occur as a result of AC voltage that is too high or too low does not occur because "more noise slips past the cancellation circuits." It occurs mainly as a consequence of the voltage change itself. And regenerators certainly do dramatically reduce noise (and distortion as well) on the incoming AC, although of course not to an infinite degree.

As far as the OP's question is concerned, you've received several good comments but I'll particularly second the one by ZD. There are way too many variables and unknowns, involving the designs of the specific components in the system; the voltage, noise, and distortion characteristics of the incoming AC; and the designs of whatever power treatment candidates you may consider, for anyone to be able to predict what choice would perform best for you. Not to mention what choice would provide the best tradeoff between performance and price.

Regards,
-- Al