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
if you hope a furman will fix cable rfi and hum you are on wrong track...

that is where cheaters may help but you MUST keep a component grounded w three prong - typically the preamp....
a wall wart is a digital switching power supply, i guess you refer to them as a puck...
anyway, well documented and measurable the trash they dump into power line as well as RFI generated....

cleaning that up = good

if possible get a linear power supply...

seperate circuits also help a lot....ideal is three w digital, low level analogue and power amp all on dedicated lines...

inhave four w DAC olso on a dedicated line...
snakeoil for sure....

a wall wart is a digital switching power supply,

They're used to power laptops and tablets, also small components like some DACs and streamers. Their design produces dirty power to the audio device and allows noise to flow back down the AC line and contaminate other components. 
To eliminate this noise, a linear power supply (which contains no switching circuitry) should be used.
Many of the audio manufacturers offer an LPS for their devices, plus there are many very affordable aftermarket units on Ebay.





wisciman, daisy chaining 2 power conditioners is not an ideal way to lower the noise floor. You'll be running your components thru extra circuitry which will probably limit dynamics.

It would be preferable to use one conditioner for your analogue components and another one for digital devices.

helomech
If you have audible buzzing, hiss or hum, try using a "cheater plug" for your amp and preamp cables.
It's fine to use cheater plugs for diagnostic purposes - they can be very helpful for that. But it's not safe to use them as a "solution" for ground loop problems. It's never wise to defeat a safety ground.

There’s a reason why so many supposedly great power conditioners end up on the used market. Most are complete snake oil.
That's pretty silly. You can actually measure what a power conditioner does, so it's hardly "snake oil."