Power Conditioners vs. Power Cables

Vector,

I have a HTS5000 that i use for audio.. I am very happy
with performance especially considering the price but i can
tell you from recent experience adding quality PC's will
make a "huge" improvment even with the 5100 in the chain.
Think of every wire and PC as a component of your system.

Good luck

I've gone with dedicated AC lines, good quality outlets, and then good quality power cords. If your amp(s) isn't too big, and you can't go to dedicated outlets, then a power conditioner would make sense to me. Many inexpensive power conditioners can limit power supply to big amps. Good Luck. Craig

I agree with Garfish as he is correct about some to many power conditioners being enemic or restricting current draws from the wall outlet.

But I do not believe the Foundation Research LC-1 and LC-2 in-line power conditioners fall into that category.

For example, the smaller FR LC-1 is rated at 6 amps RMS and 8 amps peak. That translates to 720 watts RMS of constant current capability and 960 watts peak. The LC-2 is rated at 20 amps RMS and 28 amps peak which translates to 2400 watts RMS of constant current capability and 3360 watts peak.

In comparison, I believe PS Audio's P1200 is rated at 10 amps, the P600 at 5 amps, and the P300 at 2.5 amps. Correct me if I am wrong as I certainly do not want to be inaccurate here.

As to the dedicated lines comment, it is my experience that a dedicated line does not clean up the AC noise and a quality oriented line-conditioner is still very much needed.

I am aware of only one area in which a dedicated line does clean up noise. And that is when a digital source is no longer on the same circuit/line as the amp, pre, and/or turntable. Therefore, the digital noise that the cdp injects back into the line remains isolated when placed on a seperate circuit/line.

And, of course, having a digital source is an excellent reason for using a bi-directional line-conditioner, of which some to many line-conditioners are not.

-IMO

Stehno,
You're indeed correct re keeping the digital line as far removed from the low-level analog one as possible. If you're system is still plagued by AC noise I'd try installing a dedicated line on the CLEANER phase of the house wiring, if possible, before going to a conditioner. This may entail rewiring a couple of the "dirtier" cables to the opposite phase, such as a refrigerator, fluorescent lights, motors, etc. I have an antique smal hand-mounted massager that throws more RF than a Scud missile!
Have fun.

To get back to the original question for a sec, and also try to answer the one Warren raises, there are 2 basic reasons often given as to why an upgraded PC could and frequently will give an improvement even after a line conditioner:

1) The in-wall wiring is typically much heavier in guage than stock power cords, so this helps explain why an improvement could be realized by replacing the last 6 feet with something heavier.

2) The greatest need for EMI/RFI shielding is in the immediate vicinity of the audio system's components themselves - due to their intrinsic radiation of same - and stock power cords are usually unshielded, so this helps explain why an improvement could be realized by replacing the last 6 feet with something shielded.

Then you've got your better connectors, high-purity conductors, exotic dielectrics, optimized geometry, mechanical damping, and even built-in filtering on some. But why should any of that stuff, which is usually associated with interconnects and speaker cables - in other words, cables in the signal path - make any difference with cords that are simply carrying the 60Hz wall power to the component?

Because the output signal of any active component is not simply a 'magnified' or 'converted' version of its input signal; it's a brand new signal, derived from or modulated by information contained within the input signal, and created out of the power being fed that component - drawn from the wall and modified by the power supply - as its raw material, which is why power cords (and power supplies, and receptacles) can and should legitimately be thought of as being in the signal path. Although this viewpoint may not be as satisfactory as the above two factors in helping to explain why it is that the last 6 feet of cable - after miles of cable which presumably ignores most of these considerations (or at least the hundreds of feet of cable connecting your service's local power line transformer to your house's breaker box) - could make a positive difference, it does help explain why a cheap stock cord which also ingores these considerations (and maybe to a greater degree) could only make things worse.