How much should a person spend to get a decent power conditioner?


Good day to all.  I am wondering if I need to replace my moderate power conditioner, or if 'stacking' a puck (inline style) conditioner at the outlet would gain enough to warrant the expense.  I understand minimal expense usually means minimal gain, but I'm curious about how best to treat my AC and stay within my budget.  Thoughts please.
128x128wisciman99
Saying the conditioner will 'limit' current is a theory.Where what it sound like is an actual experiment.I find MY conditioner (Furman REF20i may make the amp slightly leaner sounding. The treble is better, but the midrange may be a little thinner sounding, along with the bass.From the wall the treble is slightly harsher, but the mids are fuller and so is the bass. Some folks also find the attack is weaker from a conditioner. I do not notice this.And over twenty of so years I have slowly worked my way up the food chain, both in equipment, and conditioners.The Furman REF20i is all I need, though if I had $8K to throw away I would buy the Niagara.
Generally a conditioner is trading one thing for another. For me the gain in treble clarity and midrange purity far outweighs the loss of 'heft'. But besides conditioners I use after market power cords. long ones. 4 or 5 meter long.....And from the wall to conditioners two 30 ft long and two 37 ft long custom AC cords
I have no idea what’s on your mind; however, do some research into EQUITECH 2Q. Yes, they are very hard to find used ( that says buyers just don’t sell them. There’s a reason. Equitech is based on clear, fully described science, that will be effective as long as we use AC power.) Comforting. And they are not cheap. But they are permanent. This provides a solid base and you can experiment with the others. Don’t go paying for lights and floey dust. 
Most conditioners available to high end audio don't do a lot. The best of them is the PS regenerator, which really can deliver a proper sine wave.
The problem is it can't do a lot of power, although they are making some bigger units now. For the most part, we recommend to our customers that they plug directly into the wall as most 'conditioners' degrade the amp's performance.

The best conditioners we've seen were made by Elgar. These conditioners can deliver a low distortion sine wave right up to their rated current. The smaller conditioners do about 1000VA and the bigger ones we see do about 28 amps and so can run an entire audio room. They employ an enormous isolation transformer that is equipped with a feedback winding. A low distortion oscillator is used to produce a sine wave which is synchronously locked to the AC line, its output is compared to that of the actual output and an error amplifier applies the difference as a feedback signal to the feedback winding, while also at the same time bucking the isolation transformer so it also regulates the AC line voltage.
It thus eliminates spikes, harmonics of the line (the 5th being the most harmful and something that is very hard to eliminate), DC on the line and brownouts. THD of the output sine wave is typically below 0.2% at rated current. No conditioner offered to high end audio can do as well.
The problem is that Elgar got out of the conditioner market a long time ago, so their conditioners have to be refurbished. But customers of ours that have picked them up have been pretty impressed so it seems worth doing.
As others have no doubt already commented, the cheapest way to get clean power and protect against surges/spikes is to install dedicated 20a lines using higher grade Romex or similar wiring back to a dedicated distributor box & ground. You can also install some nice audiohile wpo(s) such as Furutech GTX-D NCF or SR UEF Black. And to provide surge and over-voltage protection, you can get your Electrician to install a device like this - https://www.clipsal.com/surge-protection#.W0Cta7gRVPZ

In my situation, I bought an apartment off the plan. To retrofit dedicated lines now due to the layout of my apartment would have been a messy and expensive job. So my solution was to buy a Gigawatt PC-3 SE Evo conditioner which features 3 independant filtering branches, incl: a high current branch with capacitive storage to improve impulse response, over-voltage protection, robust surge protection & an accurate volt meter which measures input voltage in ’true RMS’. The Gigawatt works very well in conjunction with my Furutech GTX-D(g) wpo, but not exactly cheap at around $6kUS!
@atmasphere

Quote: "The best of them is the PS regenerator, which really can deliver a proper sine wave".

Possibly true unless like me you were one of the unfortunate souls who bought a PS Audio Power Plant Premier when they first came onto the market. My unit was one of the duds that later ended up in droves on Audio Advisor and advertised as "refurbished". One of the worst purchases in the high-end realm that I ever made.

To the OP: Spend whatever it takes to acquire 'balanced power' via Equitech. I recently added a Son of Q to my main rig and the difference is profound. Just do it!
Possibly true unless like me you were one of the unfortunate souls who bought a PS Audio Power Plant Premier when they first came onto the market. My unit was one of the duds that later ended up in droves on Audio Advisor and advertised as "refurbished". One of the worst purchases in the high-end realm that I ever made.
I consider Elgar power conditioners to be much better. They were built for industrial commercial applications and simply had to work. They are not very pretty but they are reliable.
Usef isolation transformer = $150 - $500.

A good used power conditioner $250-$700.

All day long unless you are afraid to pull the trigger.
Hey y'all.  I've come across a very nice Tice Signature Power Block IIIb which I could not refuse.  Now, after searching the internet for days, I've found no owner's manual that is available online.  Does anyone out there have an owners manual you would be willing to scan and send?  It's a long shot, but we have not because we ask not.  I know it's pretty simple, you plug stuff into it, and it works, but there has got to be more to it than that.  I understand the high current for the amps and proc?  But how about the sub?  Should it remain on or be turned off if not in use?  What opinions are out there for using it as the 'trigger' for the Parasounds?  TIA y'all.
Amount of money that consist the financial blog it always depends on the quality power with just enough price.