Who has dumped the power conditioner?

The effectiveness of a balanced power arrangement, such as the Equitech provides, can particularly be expected to be both system dependent and unpredictable. That is because its effectiveness depends on the happenstance of how equal the parasitic (and perhaps designed in) capacitances between ac hot and chassis are, relative to the corresponding capacitances between ac neutral and chassis, for each piece of equipment that the balanced power is supplied to.

See the second paragraph on page 2 of this paper, and also look at page 1 to see what is being referred to:

http://www.jensen-transformers.com/an/an004.pdf

Another reason for system dependency is that in an audio system with balanced signal interfaces between components, ac-related inter-chassis currents do not flow in common with signal return currents (as they do with unbalanced interconnects), and so at least some of the problems that might be helped by balanced power are avoided in the first place.

Regards,
-- Al

Almarg,

I really enjoy reading any of your posts. Besides your knowledge, your ability to communicate is outstanding. Thanks for the link and for the time you take to answer all of us seekers.

Al,

Thanks for the link. Unfortunately, I'm one of those people who is extremely limited in technical knowledge, so I honestly don't understand much of what you wrote.

You wrote: "The effectiveness of a balanced power arrangement, such as the Equitech provides, can particularly be expected to be both system dependent and unpredictable."

When you say "unpredictable" do you mean that in a given system, a balanced power unit will be unpredictable? I'm afraid that I'm noticing this. After my initial glowing account, the next day I was hearing some glare and harshness that was almost worse than anything I had before. However, late in the evening, the sound was better than anything I had ever heard before from my system. So it seems that the quality of power going into the unit is still affecting the sound.

I'm wondering if there's anything that can be done. When it's good, it's REALLY good, but when it's bad, it's pretty bad. I know that some have suggested adding some kind of filter or power regenerator upstream from the balanced power unit. Do you have any thoughts on that idea?

Onemug -- Thanks very much for the kind comments!

Turboglo -- By "unpredictable" I did not mean that performance would be inconsistent with any given system, I just meant that the effects would vary from system to system in a manner that could not be reliably predicted.

I cannot envision any reason why the Equitech might be contributing to the varying results you are getting. It's just that what it does is apparently not addressing some of the particular anomalies and variations in your electrical supply.

As you've seen in this thread, and no doubt in lots of others, reports of experiences with line conditioners and power regenerators tend to vary widely. I have no particular thoughts to add about them, as I don't use any myself (other than an inexpensive surge suppressor for protection) and I've never sensed the need for one at my location.

Best regards,
-- Al

Follow up:

I just wanted to update my situation. After consulting with some trusted experts, I decided to try replacing the stock power cord that came with the Equitech. It was suggested that the small copper conductors in the beldon pc were resonating with more voltage draw. I was pointed toward something with a solid core, so I ordered a JPS Labs Power AC+. This has totally fixed the problem and further opened up the soundstage. It's kind of annoying that I'd have to spend an additional $400 for an expensive power conditioner to be listenable. But, oh well. I'm thrilled with the way things are sounding.