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Pwr. conditioner necessary w/dedicated AC lines?

OK guys, now I'm REALLY confused. I have been using a PS Audio P300 (all of the latest revisions) as a mainstay in my system for about four years now. It seemed to always work wonders in a previous set-up, in a different house/room, which DID NOT have dedicated AC lines.

Fast forward to the present were I now have the good fortune of having a dedicated room with independent AC runs throughout. I have been using the P300 for the last 3 yrs. or so in this room. Well, on a lark, I thought I would try to run my tube CD player (Droplet) direct to the AC instead of through my power plant (which was set BTW on "tube") and WHA-LA! It sounds a LOT better! ?? What's up with this???
The dynamics spang to life and there is better extension in the top end. Again..what gives here???

The possibly scary part of this whole scenario is - what if I have been "chasing my goofy audiophile tail", all this time, swapping, changing, selling and buying gear based on an erroneous negative sound effect that was possibly brought on by my Pwr. Plant on my front-end gear?!? Arrgh!

Just to be sure that this was not a fluke isolated to my Droplet, I also tried a different CD player that I have on loan and the same effects applied (sounded better "straight" into the wall AC).

Can anyone else relate a similar effect? Advice?? Comments??? Thanks.
denf
albertporter's avatar
albertporter
4,927 posts
 
The Thor you mention sounds interesting.

The problems you previously had, loss of dynamics and micro detail is exactly my complaint with all power conditioners.

Perhaps the Thor is a better mousetrap, an improved version of Quiet Lines.
stehno
1,453 posts
 
Denf, I stand by my previous statement, one must do their homework regarding any component but particularly with line conditioners.

For some reason, as I and others seem to have indicated, on average there seems to be far more poorly designed line conditioners than perhaps any other component. That's why I always use the term 'proper' when discussing line conditioners.

Far too many times have I witnessed even the most popular brands (which often times are never the best) strip away the dynamics and/or induce their own sonic harm and/or do nothing.

Currently I'm using two 15 amp dedicated lines and one 20 amp dedicated line and three Foundation Research LC-100 dedicated and passive and bi-directional filtering line conditioners. These line conditioners are a bit costly at $3500 each and outweigh the cost of my Nuforce SE amps several times over, but a man's gotta' do what a man's gotta' do. :)

Personally, I've been using what I consider fabulous line conditioners for the last 5 years and I cannot imagine listening to any system without 'proper' line conditioning. It is that foundational when done right.

-IMO
zar's avatar
zar
160 posts
 
I had a dedicated 20 amp line put in last year. I then bought a used PS Audio P-300. I have my Aragon amp and the Power Plant plugged in the dedicated line. My transport, dac, and pre-amp are plugged in the PS Audio. I noticed a slight improvement with the dedicated line and then further improvement with the PS Audio. The 300 is not advertised as a power conditioner but as a power plant, it stabilizes and perfects the sin wave. I love mine and am thinking about getting it modified, an option I just stumbled across on the PS website. These posts are worrying me though I had and have no option of extra lines to plug my stuff in to. Before all my gear now plugged in the 300 were plugged in a power strip.
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