Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion Advice from Axiom Owners blue circle mr-12000 line conditioner?

Yes Dan, "power conditioners" for audio equipment are members of the snake oil fraternity. The power supply section of amplifiers has a transformer, rectifier and filter capacitors which supply clean DC for the amplifying section to use; this is all the "conditioning" necessary. Since this is one of "The ten Biggest Lies in Audio" , which The Audio Critic covered, it's appropriate to cite the article again.

Good article JohnK, the Audio Critic seems like it might be worth 12.95 for their online subscription.

I think the term "Power Conditioning" is a loose term. Just like the words bright, harsh, laid back, etc., it can mean different things to different people. I will tell you this, I've had personal experiences in the past with various brands of projectors in combination with my other AV equipment.

Many of you refer to these as ground loop issues;vertical banding and other artifacts in the picture and/or sound. I can't say that I've ever noticed much if any difference in the sound after incorporating my TrippLite device. However, I will argue the fact that my Picture has improved greatly. This is true of VCR fed material, as well as DVD and/or television broadcasts.

I even have a dedicated 12-2 line, just for my AV stuff, running directly from the breaker box. I'm not sure if a lot of you provide feedback based on actual experiences or just articles you've read online, but I can tell you this Snake Oil product I bought does improve things for me, it is not all in my head.

Since we like pointing to links, I found this article recently that supports my findings.

http://www.hometheaterhifi.com/volume_12_2/ps-audio-upc-200-power-conditioner-6-2005.html

I also read an article once I can't find anymore which was written by Steve Williams, a Divisional Regulatory Engineer for APC supporting my findings.

Randy, another good article, I know my conditioner has improved my satellite picture by running the Sat cable through it, I can't say I've heard any difference in sound, but then again I've never done any comparison.

Thanks Mike.

In some conditions a line conditioner can hurt your home audio system, due to the fact that the conditioner is filtering the incoming power, and if you system has a sudden demand for more power, your conditioner still is going to condition the in coming power, rather than your components just sucking the extra power they want out of the wall socket..


I have to agree with rat on this subject.

Here's a quote from mdrew, from the 'Belkin PureAV PF60 prices down again' thread:

In reply to:

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Do you guys that are using these ever notice that the DB is lower? Maybe I’m imaging things, but I was just re-routing cables for a new rack and I could swear that when I’m powering everything through the Monster 3500, I can twist the volume knob around further and have the same volume as a lower twist without it. No difference is sound that I can detect, but man it sure seams a tad lower.

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He may indeed be imagining it, but it's interesting that the effect he's experiencing probably came up unexpectedly when concentrating on something else in his system... and also interesting considering a line conditioner owner would expect only benefit from the product. Just my observations.

It seems that in certain situations involving video problems, some folks (sirquack) have been helped by his Tripp-lite HT POWERBAR10 (I assume that is still what you use?).. but I noticed that even Tripp-lite doesn't list the unit in their 'line conditioner' section on their web site. There are no claims of 'conditioning' in the product description. It is a high quality surge suppressor with filtering, which is what I'm considering.

My point is that spending multi-hundreds of dollars on 'line conditioners' IMO, is overkill. In mdrew's case, perhaps even possibly affecting audio available power / dynamics? Just speculation on my part, but interesting nonetheless.

Ground loop problems can be very difficult to solve and if a power conditioner solves your problem that is GREAT.

But, the vast majority of power conditioners are simply not needed, they are oversold.

One other thing to consider is that the reason that the powerbar Tripplite surge protector works so well is that YOU HAVE A COMMON POINT GROUND FOR EVERYTHING. That is one of the keys to eliminating group loops, a good common ground.

it does look cool!!!

but yes i was hoping for an A/B comparison.

I kinda figured that it was alot of bullshit, but i was hoping for a different answer.

btw thanks for all the reading, Really good articles guys.