Review: Tritium Electronics AC Power Triphazer AC filter


Category: Accessories

I am compelled to write this review because I believe this is a product that results in instantaneous and dramatic benefits without any risk or effort, but it is offered by a company with practically no recognition in the audio community. The company is Tritium Electronics.

To realize the benefits of the AC Power Triphazer, this is what must be done: Turn off your component, remove the IEC power cord, insert Triphazer between component and power cord, turn component on and listen. That's it.

You will instantly recognize the difference. No careful analytical listening required. No second guessing about what you think you are hearing. No painstaking set-up or break-in procedures. You will notice greater presence of performers and instruments on the soundstage with spaces between them in much sharper contrast. Inner detail and subtle nuances in the music will be easier to recognize and follow. Bass will have better articulation and impact. The entire musical event will seem to emerge from your system with greater emphasis.

The nice thing about this product is that it does not replace anything currently in your system. It works with your present power cords and conditioners. It doesn't matter what your musical or equipment preferences are. I found it to be most dramatic when used with my cd player, but other components benefit as well.

If this product is so good, why haven't you heard about it? The only reason is the very small size of the company and it's struggles to get the word out about it's amazing products. If Tritium Electronics had the budget of a PS Audio, customers would busting down the doors in their rush to buy. In addition to the AC Power Triphazers, Tritium makes Triphazers for use with speakers and interconnects. The beneficial effects of these devices are perhaps even more profound, but it takes longer for them to break-in with the system.

As a way of compensating for its lack of recognition, Tritium offers a 90 day return privilege, but with the AC Triphazer, you will only need a few seconds to realize how good this thing is. If you have experimented and used components designed to improve power delivery, you already know that these devices can make a difference and are necessary to achieve higher levels of performance. But the wrong choices can be costly and detrimental. In the case of the Tritium Power Triphazer, the choice is a no-brainer.
Their website is www.triphazer.com

Associated gear
Audio Research VT200 200wpc tubed amp;
Audio Valve Eklipse tubed preamp;
Classe CDP .5 cd player as transport;
Perp. Tech P-3A dac with Level 3 Modwright mods and Monolithic Power Supply;
Rega Planer 25 Turntable and tonearm with Dynavector Cartridge and Lehman Black Cube with upgraded PWX power supply;
All ZuCable wire;

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PS Audio power Cord
PS Audio Ultimate Outlet
Synergistic Research Designer's Ref. PC
Tice Power Conditioners and pc's
Commercially used balanced isolation transformers
audiojerry
Audiojerry,

I concur with your assessment of the AC Power Triphazer. The impact of the triphazer becomes even greater as the unit "breaks in". I too use the triphazer on my transport, but have found to have a similar impact using it on my preamp and DAC as well.The results were more articulate sound, smooth, blacker background, pinpoint image placement and enhanced definition of the air "space" around instruments.This is indeed the icing on the cake,when used with other excellent power conditioning tweaks. I also use the line triphazers,speaker triphazers and digital triphazers as well. Granted, to realize the benefits of a triphazed system, does take a very long "conditioning time", but the end result is unbelieveable.

Ken
Ken,
I too concur with you and Audiogerry regarding triphazers from Tritium Electronics. I stumbled upon Mike at Tritium about a year ago through an ad on audiogon and was intrigued with his thoughts about how to preserve the musical signal through the chain of components. Intrigued but skeptical. After all what could a device that sounded like something Ming the Merciless would use against Flash Gordon do for my system? As it turned out - Plenty! For me triphazers have been the missing link. With them my system sounds more coherent, natural and as close to a live and real reproduction of the performance as I have heard. I have the speaker and line level triphazers in my system as well as Tritium's modified Acurus RL11 preamp. By the way if you are looking for a new preamp this modified Acurus will make your jaw drop.

This may be a small company but Mike has something very important to offer - a fundamental improvement in your system, no matter what components you have. It has made what I thought were very good components sound world class. As Mike likes to say "There is nothing wrong with your components, they just need triphazers!" Triphazers allow me to listen to performers making music not components making sound. I regularly go to the symphony, opera and piano recitals. I also live with a musician, so I hear a lot of live music. With triphazers in my system, I can now come home from a concert and not be disappointed when I play a cd. This is something I have not been able to say before.
A word of caution though, PLEASE BE PATIENT. In my system the speaker and line level triphazers took about 2 months to break in. This may sound like a long time but your patience will be rewarded.

I am now looking forward to having Mike modify a Parasound belt-drive transport and a Perpetual P3a Dac.

My hat is off to Mike. I belive he has something special to offer eveyone who loves music.


Associated gear

Custom built single ended 845 amp
Acurus RL11 preamp modified by Tritium (a real giant killer)
Custom modified CD player with bel canto dac
Custom built two way speakers
Tritium's platinum interconnects (WOW)
Acoustic Zen Hologram speaker cable.
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First some engineering background:

1) The AC line is supposed to deliver a single-frequency sine wave (60 Hz in the US, 50 Hz in Europe). It is supposed to contain NO harmonics (unless you count the 60 Hz first harmonic). Any harmonics that are present are BAD - they occur because of waveform distortion and other forms of electronic interference with the power system.

2) The power supply in each piece of equipment then converts this AC into DC appropriate for the particular device. In the process removing ANY noise or harmonics present (as well as the primary frequency). Some power supplies do a better job of this than others.

3) A power conditioner helps the power supply do its job by preventing at least some of the noise in the line from reaching the power supply. If the power supply were really well designed then the power conditioner would be unnecessary - but this is the real world.

Anyone who PASSED their engineering courses knows this.

From this it is obvious that any claim of a device "replacing missing harmonics" in the power line is total nonsense.

As for their other product claims...... most of them are "engineering doubletalk" or worse. They have used the word "skew" in a new and creative fashion (while it can describe types of signal inaccuracies, usually involving videotape travel, they use it as the name of some new distortion that only they seem to recognize). Nobody I know with engineering background has any idea what "aligning the audio magnetic envelope" might mean - but it sure sounds cool. Same for a "20-50% improvement in sonics". Their "technical descriptions" are relatively pure nonsense.

Do some of their other products make the music sound better?

There have been many products in the past that added specific types of distortion to music to make it sound "better" to some people (remember the Aphex Aural Exciter).
Since there is no relaible way to remove distortion from a signal after the fact, this MUST be what their TriPhazer products do (if they do, indeed, do anything). If you like the way their gadgets make your music sounds, then you should probably buy them - just make sure that you really feel the change they make IS an improvement. Personally I prefer to AVOID distortion as much as possible so I have no interest in them.

It's even possible that some of their products do something useful..... but the technical descriptions on their Web site are the worst pseudo-scientific drivel I have seen in a while...
Elizabeth's posts hereabouts have always been polite and insightful. Her reviews and thoughts are such that one would be crazy not to pay attention.
I have not heard these products but as an Electrical Engineer I must concur that the Tritium web site is not at all convincing - if anything it sends up red flags warning, "Don't trust me!"

I have contacted Tritium for clarification and patent references. I'll write a follow up if anything comes along that changes my mind about the plausibility of the alleged "positive skew" problem and this solution to it. As of now I think it's a made-up solution to a made-up problem.
I have known mike for long time . When I visted after about year, I was pulled in by mike saying I got it I got it! Mike say's listen, I heard some very clean sound. Where it was coming from I didn't know, I was thinking he got some new speakers. I went around the corner and saw these little junkie speakers. Not those,these I saw little black boxes. Triphazer's he said, Oh okay I said. I didn't know if it was the speakers or triphazer's. A few years went by,I started to DJ at friends bar spinning vinyl with a Kenwood 700M and very old set of band speaker's. Sounded bad ,after a few weeks I have to something ,so I went to mike and bought a pair of triphazers. I didn't tell anybody ,not even my girlfriend might have been dead before I got to use them! I hooked them up ,WOW. Okay lets see if anyone else notice's. Girlfriend walks in,Wow sounds really good what did you do. I'm not saying anything yet. doc who is into good sounding systems noticed just as he walked in What did you do, this sounds great.A few more noticed how clean the sound was . I told everbody at the end the night what I used. Doc,these little black boxes did this! This was a good blind test now that I have a good reference point.I'm hooked!! One other point for my girlfriend to notice that is amazing. PS. I told her I bought these,I'm still alive.