Power cable upgrades, or Power conditioner?

Tim...you did not mention what your system consists of. If you are finding your system to be fatiquing I would suggest you look at your system components and how well they complement each other before looking at power conditioners and cords. While a power conditioner such as the PS Audio 300 may clean up your sound it may do little to alleviate your problem with fatique. The money would be better spent on a different CD player or DAC, which is the most likely component to be at fault. Next I'd look at your speakers and their set up. Your system should sound good with stock power cords provided you are listening to good software (some CDs will have you running from the room no matter what you do). Once you like the sound of your system you may want to try the PS Audio. I would be very cautious about throwing a lot of money at power conditioners, and especially power cords, without first finding components that match synergistically. That's really what this hobby is all about. When it comes to cables there is far too much snake oil in high end audio. To suggest that anyone should have to spend hundreds of dollars on power cables, not to mention hundreds or even thousands on interconnect and speaker cable to get good sound is ludicrous. I don't really agree with Tim Stewart from Sanctuary of Sound that it all starts at the wall. Where it all begins is with your source component and your software. Sure, clean power is a good thing to have, but I guarantee you won't hear anywhere near the difference that the right source component, speaker, or preamp will make. One final note: do not overlook your room acoustics and proper set up of loudspeakers. You may find a set of 3 Argent Room Lenses to make a huge improvement, certainly more than a power conditioner! Good luck and have fun with it.

Hmmm. I am wondering if any power modification is going to fix the issue of fatigueing sound. Generally power conditioners and good cords enhance detail, lower the noise floor and improve dynamic range (or some combination of those, depending on the products). They tend (in my experience) to change issues of sound character like tendancy towards fatigue only with analogue gear, where varying the speed of the turntable slightly affects the sound a lot. You might want to think about changing interconnects or speaker cables first, assuming you don't want to change electronics or speakers. I would suggest something like Cardas Golden Cross cables because, though they are not perfectly neutral, they error on the side of smoothness and warmth, which would help with the fatigue. But, if you do buy some sort of power product and it helps, please post about it.

. . . look into an Ortho Spectrum Analogue Reconstructor 2000 (AR2000). I know you are inquiring about power cords, but I have both a PS Audio P300 and about 9 high end PCs in my system. But, when I put the AR 2000 in my system, it did more to tame the digital "glare" than any other upgrade. Look at Clement Perry's review in the archives of StereoTimes on line and, if you are in the southeastern Michigan area, you are free to come hear my system with and without the AR 2000 to judge for yourself. At least it's an option.

Frank

PS - it retails for about $1,500 but you can pick them up used for $750-900.

A few more details. I don’t have dedicated lines and is not an option(where I am currently living any how), that would help I am sure, but I just can’t do it right now. Perhaps fatiguing was not the right word, but I am not sure what is the best description, after an extended listening period I notice it sounds, boring, not as involving, as it seemed at first. Perhaps it is the DAC and transport(which I feel is currently the weakest link, and being upgraded with already selected parts, with in the week), I am just trying to anticipate any further problems, but as it seems I may have cured my ‘problems’ with the new upgrade. Also as it seems I should do room treatment prior to power conditioning , I’ll do a search and see if I can get the basics from prior threads( I am sure this has been gone over time and time again). I am fairly confident that I have the speakers set up about as good as I can(in the current room condition that is), I have played with them for a long time, and I have noticed a huge difference. Seems like the conditioner should be one of the last upgrades that get done, Thanks for all the help and if any one has any further input or questions about the set up I currently using(having ideas on how to improve it) let me know I would love to hear as much input as I can. Thanks Everyone
~Tim

Hey Tim
I must completely disagree with statements such as "power conditioning comes last" & "cables won't do much for you". You just do not know what will happen at YOUR place until you try these things THERE, & in the right combinations. In my situation (you know of my rig) I had the right equipment but had the wrong cables, no AC line conditioning, no tweaks. Particular attention to all of these "insignificants" made all the difference between a very expensive yet mediocre sounding rig, and a clean, dynamic, fantastic system sounding well beyond my expectations. You really have no idea regarding the true potential of your existing equipment until you have experimented with it enough to find out with what synergizes it the best. Despite the significant gains that I have already realized, I really can't say that my rig has yet reached its' highest potential because I have no way of trying out all of the various permutations & combinations of cables, conditioners, & tweaks available.