Power conditioner

One lesson that can be drawn from Fremer's electrical problems--remember, he thought the ATS for his new whole house generator was degrading the sonics even when the switch wasn't thrown and remained in "grid" position--was what was revealed by the team of electricians that helped him. 

If I recall, he had aluminum wiring, a corroded meter block and other issues due to age and condition of the electrical system. Those things are important to address before "band-aiding" a problem with a black box. It is money well spent and an electrical system audit does not have to cost a fortune.

When I installed my whole house back up generator, I consulted Rex, who helped Fremer, and did a wiring scheme that fed the hi-fi subsystem first, before the generator switch. The hi-fi is not backed up by the generator- in an outage, I have no interest in listening to the system, but wanted to support core functions in the house, including HVAC.

@audio-b-dog 

If I left the room for a half hour and came back, would I know if it was plugged in or not.

I think that you would know.

Well, if it remained plugged in, you would not know.  That is, until you returned and it was not plugged in.

When you degrade the sound quality, even just a bit, it is more easily noticeable than when you improve the sound quality just a bit.

Approximately 15 years ago, my local high-end store loaned my a Shunyata Research Python power cord.  The owner told me to use it with my CD player.  I was not a believer in such cords.  But it was simple enough to try.

I plugged it in, and played a song.  I was expecting no improvement or perhaps I would have to strain my ears to hear a difference.  So the first song was playing, and that is what happened.  I noticed nothing, but was not 100% certain.  So a few more songs played, and I realized that I was in the zone.  That is when it hit me, that that power cord was the reason.

To be sure, I put back my original power cord.  The magic was gone.  I immediately heard the sound degradation.  I put the Shunyata power cord back, and life was good, again.

Based on my experience with that power cord, I believe that you would immediately notice if your Venom v16 was absent.

@adeep42 

No I haven’t tried those conditioners. Just very content with what I have now.

Glad to hear that your PS Audio power re-generator works well for you.

But that does not mean:

Power conditioning is sometimes helpful but nothing beats a PS Audio power regenerator.

Your PS Audio power re-generator is designed differently than Audioquest's Niagara power conditioners, and differently than Shunyata Research's power distributors.

They all attack power issues from different directions.  And they also have overlap -- perhaps in grounding for the connected equpment and surge suppression, etc.

For example, the Audioquest and Shunyata boxes have huge power reserves, to handle instant power transient demands.

The Audioquest and Shunyata boxes stop noise, that is generated from each stereo's box, from traveling to the other stereo's boxes.  I do not know if PS Audio's re-generators have circuitry that does the same?

I have heard good things about all of the above choices.  I wish that I could audition each of them to hear which one takes the win.

I have heard the Shunyata Research Everest power conditioner, and it is amazing.  But I have not heard the others.  So I will not declare a winner.

This is a good review of Shunyata Research's Everest 8000 model (recently replaced by the Everest X model, for which I found no reviews):

https://www.theaudiobeat.com/equipment/shunyata_research_everest_8000.htm

It is a long read, and it is an informative read.  The second-to-the-last paragraph summarizes the box's prowess.

Finally, there is the warranty.  The Shunyata Research Everest has a lifetime warranty (noted in the review).  I do not know what warranty the Audioquest and the PS Audio have.

My Shunyata Venom 16 cost about $3k, more than most of my friends' entire stereos. In retrospect, should I have spent the $3k on a better cartridge? On a better streamer, which I am now listening to about half the time? Probably, but I had an old Monster Transformer with 8 receptacles that blew out. The guy who sold me my new speakers talked me into the least expensive Shunyata. I think the next steps up were thousands more. Unfortunately (or fortunately?) I don't have an absolutely open budget. Trade-offs I guess is what I'm getting at.

I live in the San Fernando Valley in L.A. where power is pretty good, and I have an isolated plug for my stereo equipment. I'm not sure I had a huge power problem in the first place, other than blackouts sometimes when we have a storm. Anyway, sometimes we do things on impulse. I guess it's part of being an audiophile. I no longer have that kid energy (it left at about 70) so I don't think I'll be testing out the theory very soon of whether or not I'd hear the Shunyata. Any 65 year olds want to give it a try?

@audio-b-dog 

On a better streamer, which I am now listening to about half the time?

If you can budget a Berkeley Audio Design, Alpha USB re-clocker, and a quality USB cable, and a quality AES/EBU cable, your streamer (any model) will sound much better

A more budget friendly re-clocker is the Singxer SU-2 (or for just a bit more, the SU-6).  I have read only positive reviews on that re-clocker -- but never heard it for myself.

My re-clocker did wonders for my digital playback.

I live in the San Fernando Valley in L.A. where power is pretty good, and I have an isolated plug for my stereo equipment.

I have seen videos and reviews asserting that most electrical noise is not from the wall socket.  Rather, it is from each of your stereo's boxes, which all generate electrical noise, resulting in all of your boxes being awash in the noise of all of your boxes.

I do not know the details on the Venom V16, but it might include circuitry that reduces noise that is generated by each of your components, from reaching your other components.

So even when you have clean power from your wall, Shunyata Research's power products (Audioquest, too) will lower your stereo's noise floor.  But I do not know if that design is engineered into all of their models.