Any one measured the EMI/RFI attenuation performance of audiophile power conditioners?


Hello,

I was looking for a very good/robust power conditioner which will clean up reliably very noisy/dirty power supply that I have in my aprtment. While looking for one I went through catlogs of AudioQuest, Shunyata Research, Synergestic Research etc. but no one published charts showing attenuation performance over frequency range like you get for EMI filters from Schurter or Schaffner etc. which are in the industry for EMI/EMC compliance.

Since audio is very subjective, but contrary to audio reproduction Power and EMI/RFI reduction is completely objective and can be clearly demonstrated via attenuation charts.

Hence I am asking if anyone has measured the actual performance of these audiophile power conditioners. I am not denying someone saying they hear improvement after using XYZ product, but since I am talking about power conditioning or EMI reduction it's as objective as it can be.

I am not at all surprised to see all the manufacturers not publishing the performance data, else it would be used in other industries and research fields where it's far more critical and have far more stringent requirements on the performance of conditioner/EMI filters. But I am shocked to see even products ranging above 5-10K are following the same practice of not publishing the results.

Please note I am not a measurement fanatic, but I know where I can chase the measurements and where I can rely on my hearing to gauge the difference.

Regards,

Audio_phool

128x128audio_phool

Danish Audio group totally unique technologies in the $4-6k range 

3 well versed brands including Borrensen, AAvic ,And  the cable , line conditioner 

can’t recall the name begins with A , heard it vs the main stream brands and uses a bunch of active Tesla coils and other technologies to really lower the noise floor .

I am looking to buy one , the AAvic I280 integrated and line conditioner same group, is my go to hopefully later in the year , being married ,things don’t always flow as easy ,especially when you have a home and upkeep !!

Perhaps, if your power is very dirty, then you might be best to not use it. There is a current discussion on LiFePO4 batteries and pure sine wave inverters limping along on the Audiogon Forum.  Be warned, there is little forum interest in this topic and few with any experience.  I’m currently putting a system together based upon the rave review of my main go to guy on all two channel considerations.  Regarding conditioners, I use and can high recommend the Shunyata Everest 8000.  That said, getting off the grid has real appeal.

@tvad: Thank you for your kind words.  Indeed, we supply EMI filters for very broad applications around the world (including Antarctica).  Most of top U.S. universities (Caltech, MIT, U.C. Berkeley, and so on) use them in their R&D work.  Quantum computing here in the U.S. and in Japan use our filters to be able to work with very weak signals.  Nuclear power industry likes our filters too.  And, of course, various industrial applications.  If you don't meet or exceed published specification, you won't be in business for long...  Audio is a relatively small segment for our filters, just FYI.

Regarding impact on sound:  EMI filters (such as our CleanSweep) or any power conditioners are not supposed to affect sound in any way except to remove extraneous artifacts, otherwise they become a part of your sound path.  If you want to improve sound quality, then perhaps a filter shouldn't be your first choice...

Regarding measurements: people often make critical and/or expensive decisions based on measurements (think of a spot on a CT scan - was it caused by a spike on ground?).  Both tools and methodology must be considered and exercised carefully. If you are curious, here is a link to an article I wrote on the subject for inCompliance Magazine, a publication for EMC professionals.  Amazon-grade instruments aspire to provide "easy" and meaningful measurements, but you can get only that far on spirit alone without solid engineering foundation.  Their typical problems are insufficient bandwidth, lack of true peak measurements, and, importantly, missing common-mode measurements (i.e. between Live or Neutral to ground) - just to list a few.  This doesn't mean they are useless - any instrument, no matter how sophisticated, has limitations - just don't make surgery plans on that white spot on CT scan measured by Amazon...

Vladimir Kraz/OnFILTER

@vonhelmholtz Going off grid is better option, but that doesn't not answer my original question about measurements of power conditioning  products from Synergistic research, Shunyata etc. which given their price point, should be available from manufacturer himself. I'm not denying the improvements that you have heard with Everest 8000, but I read their patent on Noise Isolation Chamber and found that they are just running the power cables trough tubes filled with silica beads and/or mixed with Rochelle salt. So I'm very sceptical about the actual effectiveness of this method unless hard facts in the form of measurements are provided by the manufacturer.

 

@vk_onfilter thank you for taking time to reply. I agree to you that ideally power should not have any impt on the SQ, but if one has dirty power and it gets cleaned up then one should be able to hear the impact of it.

Regarding your point of measurements using Amazon grade instrument, while it's better than nothing but it does not really help in assessing the real life effectiveness and especially frequency spectrum where it is making any impact. It's like being in the middle of ocean and moving, you know you are moving but whether you armving in the right direction or not you don't get to know. To be more specific a lot of commercial products which are cheaply built ignore one of the main affect area of of around 100Khz which is caused by SMPS in LED and others, but if you use cheap device you won't know if it's really acting there.

Regards,

Audio_fool

 

@audio_phool

Give Shunyata a call and speak with Richard Rodgers. He is a valuable resource and can answer your technical questions.

Juan at @blisshifi can answer your questions regarding Synergistic Research power products and can most likely provide you with a contact at Synergistic Research.