Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion Technical Questions Conditioner? Power Protection?

Hey Guys,

Spent the day listening to some high end audio equipment and a few things were brought up when talking about putting together a decent system, like adding a power conditioner and power protection. Are these components necessary and if so, which products do you recommend?

Also, I listened to speakers with and without an amp today. Wow, what a difference, not just louder but deeper and fuller. So i've got to add a decent amp now. lol! Looking forward to hooking up the old M50s to an amp to hear the difference. Probably going with ADA1000 5 channel.

Power conditioners which provide protection are an iffy proposition. Many power conditioners detract from sound quality. I auditioned several and ended up with an Isotek Evo3 Aquarius. I think it actually improved the sound quality compared to plugging directly into the 15 amp wall outlet. I also got an Isotek Polaris strip.

Don't know why that would be, but my ears told me yes.

Cost benefit ratio? Dunno, but I did it.

I have whole house Surge protection in addition to power strip surge protection at my devices. I never understood the value of a power conditioner other then to generate a sale. Any decent audio device should have enough filtering to reject any line noise.

The only reason I use one (a commercial Sine wave UPS with full battery generated output) is because power in my area is very poor. Brown outs and spikes are very common. Very hard on capacitors.

I cannot afford to replace my gear often, so protecting it with pure 120v clean power and keeping it cool and ventillated is important for longevity.

There are far greater factors to worry about than power conditioning when sound quality is the goal. A power conditioner may or may not help, its debatable, but chances are there are much larger gains to be made elsewhere first. As an electrician, I can see how a power conditioner may be warranted if you are near noise generating industrial or VFD controlled loads on the grid. Plants, mines, oilfield etc. Again, from a gear protection point of view.

well, i guess my main concern, being in sunny Florida, is lightening, does a conditioner offer any protection? I've learned that surge protectors, even those with battery backups, do not, as i've lost a few and the equipment they were attached too on several different occasions.

I would go whole house surge protector if lightning is the issue.

Lighting can enter in many ways so surge protecting your cable Line and telephone line (if you still have one) is also important. The whole house unit is designed to melt down ... I’d still be surprised if it could take a full strike. I don’t think any of these solutions are guaranteed to protect you from a direct hit ... just too much energy to dissipate. We do our best to minimize the damage.

P.S. I’m sure it can be done but I’m not sure what it would take to get you to 100%

Unplug power conditioner from wall outlet!

stick it all in a Faraday cage, unplug all ethernet connections, antennas, and other wiring running outside of the cage, and run it off of battery. 100% safe!

That should even help in the event North Korea detonates an EMP.