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Power Conditioning done by IC's & Speaker Cables

Can proper power conditioning be addressed in the middle and at the end of the chain by some of these new technology ic's and speaker cables?

I have about $5k retail tied up in 3 excellent in-line power conditioners from Foundation Research and the rest of the $5k tied up in interconnects and speaker cables.

I've been quite pleased with my power conditioners and cabling. But I'm also all for simplicity. If I could have superior cables and no need for line conditioners, I'd do in a heart beat.

To rephrase the question: Can some of these new ic's and speaker cables act as passive line conditioners and do as good or better job than active or passive power conditioners that you plug you components into?

I did have one manufacturer tell me that his cables would do exactly that.

For several reasons I don't buy it, but I'm all ears if anybody has had first hand knowledge or experience at this.

I would think that even if his cables did exactly that, one would still benefit from leaving the power conditioners in place.
stehno
sugarbrie
3,854 posts
 
I am no engineer, but my understanding is a well made cable will reject RFI, etc., except this just means the cable will not act like an antenna and pick up noise and radio signals. If the noise is already in the signal stream, I can't see how a non-power cable can help. If a well made interconnect and speaker cable is suppose to pass the signal through the system and out to the speakers without altering or coloring the sound, then the cable should pass the noise straight through with no coloration as well. You get perfectly reproduced noise.

Logically, if I am wrong, this would mean that a recording of AC noise (as music) would come out the speakers as complete silence. Not likely.
psychicanimal
1,738 posts
 
Bybee filters worked really well on my loudspeakers, but that's no substitute for line conditioning. Goto www.dezorel.com and download their "Noise Basics" file. It's a good starting point.

I don't believe a power cord should be a filter. But, what do I know?
sean
6,229 posts
 
Psychic: What is the difference of employing some type of "filter action" in a power cord or putting it inside of a fancy box ? Granted, one can go "whole hog" if you have a larger platform or chassis work with, but other than that, i don't see much of a difference as to how it is done or what it looks like. The bottom line is that the "junk" gets filtered / attenuated out of the AC line, whatever the means. Sean
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stehno OP
1,453 posts
 
That's a good point/question, Sean. From my naive perspective, I would think that if you can filter out the noise prior to processing in your source, pre, and amp, the results would be for the better.

Cleaner in, cleaner out. But again perhaps I'm being naive.

Can a speaker cable really catch just as much noise at the end of the process as could be caught at the beginning?

Or wouldn't the speaker cabling need the capability to filter out even more noise because whatever noise came in from the AC has now been amplified to one extent or another?

If the answer is yes, anybody care to name the cable manufacturer and model?
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