Is an isolation transformer better than a power conditioner?

@boostedis 

Once you have a good sounding and complimentary set of components and speakers one can very significantly improve their performance by methodically evaluating and adding carefully chosen improvements. Typically these are: speaker cables, interconnects, power cords, direct lines, power conditioning. Each is incremental… together several can add up to the level of a component level upgrade. 
 

Typically one would not add a $5K power cord to a $5K amp. But that being a cost effective move is not unheard of. I recently added a $2K power cord to my $22K amp. The improvement in sound was very important and obvious. I would say, I got a sound quality improvement worth at least $5K. The boost I got from my direct lines was similar… so to my power conditioner. All this stuff adds up to a much… much better system. This is how you go from a good to a great system for the least amount of money. 

While not often I have heard cables or interconnects that produced improvements worth nearly the total cost of the component… instead of upgrading the component. 

@ghdprentice Thanks for your response! Thank you for addressing what I asked about and not getting off on a tangent that wasn't relevant to the question. I was just reading about a speaker designer who cautioned to beware of changes that make an audible difference, but are not in fact improvements! He specifically mentioned speaker cables and how the electrical properties affect the sound in ways that are dramatic but not always welcome, but because you hear a change, you convince yourself that the change was good only for it to annoy you a few months down the road. Not at all saying this was your experience with your power cord upgrade, just making conversation. I fully agree that if you spent $22K on a component, it is reasonable to spend X on a comparable cable solution regardless of any expectations. It just wouldn't make sense to use Zip cord for a $30K pair of speakers, etc. 

Part of the allure might be how easy a solution these components are to use and install. Last weekend I listened to a Taurus transformer at a friends and have to say that at least on his system it bested the Shunyata (model # ?) by a wide margin. The Taurus was about half the price of the Shunyata. 

@boostedis 

Thanks for your comments.

I have heard this claim of “just different”.. or even about a realization after some time it wasn’t good. But it has always sounded like it was coming from a skeptic… a theoretical assertion… not from the experience of a real audiophile.

Over the last fifty years of being an audiophile it has certainly never happened to me. Differences in sound the sounds of high quality interconnects, cables, and power cords are easy to hear… although it may take a little while to clearly articulate them. Also absolutely reproducible and consistent across components.

However,  fooling around with the stuff that comes with inexpensive equipment, Bilken, Blue Jeans, Monster, and the like can be confusing and difficult to pick out the differences. But good quality purpose built for sound equipment is seldom difficult.

I recently heard a Stromtank power regenerator in a very familiar high end system. It was good to see/hear that it didn't color or change the presentation, just cleaned up the grunge. It is a good unit, though expensive.

The whole system including the active ATC 100 speakers was connect via Stromtank.