Power generator or Power Conditioner?


What is the updated conventional wisdom?   Power regenerator or Power conditioner?  So many more companies manufacture power conditioners.  Stereophile reviewed both the PS Audio and AudioQuest products several years ago with recommendations seemingly nuanced against one’s home electrical situation.   What say you?

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Members are in a partisan two party system.  Those who vote conditioning and those who vote regeneration.   I vote with both parties based on the quality of your  mains supply.  My voting rules are as follows:

  1. Mains supply voltage is fairly consistent, the home circuit voltage is consistent (for example, no voltage drops from large appliances or air conditioning on/off sequences), mains supply is in a populated or industrial area or your home electronics subject supply to RFI; then, conditioning is recommended.  I use conditioning in my home in the NYC suburbs.  I use Shunyata and Audience
  2. Mains supply voltage is inconsistent or the home circuit voltage is subject to inconsistent voltage; then the recommendation is power regeneration.  I use power regeneration in my vacation home in VT.  I use PS Audio.  

https://www.stereophile.com/content/analog-corner-315-electrical-cure along with preceding stereophile reviews appears to tell a story supporting jsalerno's "voting rules".    

My question:  (perhaps answered elsewhere previously?).   What tool if any will help one determine if "Mains supply is inconsistent... or home circuit is subject to inconsistent voltage...."?   

I use the Synergistic Research PowerCell UEF SE to power all my equipment including my amplifier. It is an older model, but seems to do the job quite well.

Nice to hear!   I have further looked at my electrical situation from my 20 amp non dedicated outlet using a PS Audio Powerplant 20 (PS 20):  

      My input voltage on this PS20 reads anywhere from 120.3V to 122.3V.

     The output voltage (going to my system) on this PS20 is consistent:   119.5V

     Current pull (amps) from the outlet varies from 1.7 amps to over 3 amps depending on volume, and whether playing two channel or home theater...

??Any thoughts from the group whether I would benefit more from a power conditioner than this PS20??     (yes I reckon there is only one way to find out)

 

 

What do your distortion numbers and incoming sine wave look like on the P20 scope? It sounds like you have pretty stable voltage, maybe all you need is a good conditioner. I think that @jsalerno277 gave a really good answer, but in the end it is really trial and error with different products.