Hello WBF
Is it the opinion power in front of the wall is more important than behind the wall? We have read interpretations that the last six feet are the most critical, you can power cable and condition your way into great sound, but what about further back the pipe line?
Some guys run single dedicated circuits, others run multiple circuits. Some run into the inevitable ground loop issues with multiple circuits, others don’t, some filter claiming better performance.
Lots of variables, I know. So with that understanding, what’s your cup of tea? How are you supporting what you hear in terms of power, and whats important to you?
Thanks in advance for any response!
It's kinda' like asking, is the water in the river or lake more important than the water at the tap? Some install water filters at the sink claiming improved water quality and taste. But for practical reasons we rarely see water filters at the river or lake.
AC of course is a requirement. To the best of my knowledge all AC coming in from the street is dirty as it's the very nature of AC. There are AC filters, conditioners, cleansers, and/or purifiers and of course those are installed at the end of the chain, not the beginning. Just like a water filter. Where else would you put it?
As for me, my greatest sonic benefits are the result of treated AC. For 20 years, I've used several models of line conditioners. In all cases, these have been small dedicated, passive, and bi-directional filtering and work extremely well. Implying huge jumps in levels of musicality. This is in contrast to some other line conditioners that either do nothing or induce their own sonic harm.
But it's not just superior line conditioners. It's superior line conditioners with extreme forms of vibration mgmt applied to them. It also includes the line conditioners being cryo-treated at the factory. AC/electrical treatment also includes cryo-treated audio-grade fuses, outlets, plugs, IEC connectors and inlets, cryo-treated ic's and sc's (speaker cables). It also includes applying a form of vibration mgmt to the speaker cables. Oh, and it includes 4 dediated circuits / lines where the romex has also been cryo-treated. The cryo-treatment method applied is the sonically superor full-immersion method rather than the inferior vapor method. I also float the ground on all my components.
My current line conditioners (Jena Labs THE Two models) and previous line conditioners all come with built-in power cables. However, in my limited experience with power cables (primarily for audio shows) was in and of themselves (power cables) of small benefit. I've owned a $2500 pc and a $100 custom DIY cryo-treated pc that was actually superior to the $2500 pc.
Note: At an audio show the typical exhibiting room comes with several outlets all tied to a single 20-amp circuit and often times the nearest outlet is 10 ft away from the equipment. So my configure would be a 6ft pc from the wall to a custom cryo-treated audio grade power center and then my line conditioners would plug into the power center.
Anyway, at one audio show, a distributor asked me to try his latest $6k pc for the show so I said I'd give a try. Had it in for 2 days prior to the show I could hear no sonic difference between the $6k pc and my $100 DIY cryo-ed custom pc so I left the $6k pc in for the duration of the show. When I returned the pc to the distributor after the show, I thanked him. But I didn't have the heart to tell him his $6k pc was sonically no better than my custom cryo-treated $100 pc.
Superior forms of treated AC (or anything electrical) e.g. line conditioners, vibration mgmt techniques, cryo-treating methods, dedicated circuits/lines, etc has been by far the greatest sonic benefits of any other form of upgrades I've experienced - which are many.
One note about dedicated circuits / lines. Their sonic benefits are actually quite limited. In fact, with superior line conditioners in place I find dedicated lines to provide only one benefit. And that's with high current-drawing amplifiers. High-current-drawing amplifiers starve rather easily with every dynamic / complex music passage and even the smallest current-drawing component say a 23 watt 2amp preamp will rob the high-current-amp of the juice it needs at these times and render a performance as rather lifeless. The bulk of AC's noise comes from the street and not within the house. Hence aside from a noisy appliance or 3, dedicated lines in and of themselves do little more than dedicate the AC noise to a given circuit / line. The job of purifying / cleansing noisy AC is reserved for superior line conditioners.
For example. When preparing for a show, I'd get my favorite power cable and power center and configure my system using a single dedicated 20-amp outlet weeks in advance of a show to check for sonic differences. I would also add up the watts / amps of any show lighting and plug those into the same power center and run for weeks as if the system was under show conditions.
If I did not do the above things with the electrical, high-end audio would be quite boring.
But the important thing about electrical treatment is just like every other part of the audio playback vineyard. There exists many inferior products and methods and very few superior products and methods and it pays to hunt for the superior versions. Failing to take this distinction into account, you'll be very disappointed and will be out significant time and money and pleasure too. I also never trust the name brand of a product. Just because a mfg'er makes a world-class pre-amp or amp should never automatically imply the mfg'er knows the first thing about superior AC filterning / conditioning methods. They and others may claim they do, but such claims don't mean squat until you verify for yourself. To assume otherwise is a potentially huge mistake and we can all fall victim to that line of thinking.
