How important is power conditioner and dampers?

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Re: How important is power conditioner and dampers?

Postby accastil » Wed Aug 12, 2009 12:54 pm

different brands of power conditioners would have different results to different systems.
in the same manner as different systems would react differently from each other to different brands of power conditioners.

if you could home audition at least 3 different power conditioners to your own system and then to a friend's, you would understand what this is...

:)

going back to your question...
it becomes important if its the last thing youll have to do for an improvement. if you still have lots of room for improvement, you may push out on these and focus on other things with more impact to how you are hearing the sound.
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Re: How important is power conditioner and dampers?

Postby ProtegeManiac » Thu Aug 13, 2009 12:49 pm

accastil wrote:it becomes important if its the last thing youll have to do for an improvement. if you still have lots of room for improvement, you may push out on these and focus on other things with more impact to how you are hearing the sound.



Yeah, the power conditioner should be towards the last of your puchases. In the meantime just make do with one of those Panther extension cords if the number of outputs on your voltage regulator isn't enough.
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Re: How important is power conditioner and dampers?

Postby JoeyGS » Thu Aug 13, 2009 1:37 pm

On the other hand......I also would believe that in order that you can properly evaluate your components, one should feed it with clean power. One can start with the basics of providing an AVR (if power is not stable in your area) and a line conditioner (to clean the power line before it enters the gears). I would go this way as to prevent blaming the the component as sometimes poor sound output is due to dirty power. I have actually experienced this when we were evaluating my gears and we attempted to listen to a track. The tonal voice of the singer was different when the line conditioner installed and when it is not.

Hope this helps
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Re: How important is power conditioner and dampers?

Postby sonnysin168 » Thu Aug 13, 2009 1:42 pm

My Castle power conditioner/surge suppressor's ability was proven when a power surge hit our home a few months ago. None of my gear was damaged (one tv in another room, unprotected by pc/sc was hit). This is my main reason for buying this product, i.e. protection of my audio gears.

Also, I totally concur with Joey's observations.
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Re: How important is power conditioner and dampers?

Postby Shiro » Mon Aug 17, 2009 2:20 pm

Thank you for all the inputs. :)

Will probably get an AVR first to protect my gears from power surge. Then maybe to audition a line conditioner and hear the difference by myself

and judge whether it would be a good upgrade? We will see... ;) Again thank you for the suggestions and info!
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Re: How important is power conditioner and dampers?

Postby Bogart » Tue Aug 18, 2009 11:02 pm

If line conditioners aren't to your liking, try better outlets. They can make a huge difference! Good lucK! :)
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Re: How important is power conditioner and dampers?

Postby JackD201 » Wed Aug 19, 2009 2:17 am

AUDIO8 wrote:Power conditioners and powercords really improves the SQ but the sad thing is you need to spend a lot to achieve this.
If your system is not revealing enough it will give you a little or no improvement at all no matter how much you spend.
In your case the most cost effective upgrade you need is the power supply not the cord and conditioner.


I'm with Teddy on this one. In my most basic system comprised of mid-level CD Player, Integrated Amp and monitors the effects of the power conditioner and power cords which come to think of it cost about as much as the system in question :lol: was there but the impact was nothing profound. With the main systems however that are comprised of our big ticket items the effect of the conditioner was indeed at par with a hardware upgrade. I'm still not too into power cords even if I do have the good stuff. Even at this level I feel money can be better spent on bigger problems that might yet need improvement such as room acoustics and other hardware and accessory upgrades. IF HOWEVER these other problems have been addressed then the natural progression would be power conditioning and vibration control. There's no hard and fast rule when it comes to budget allocation only a concrete set of performance objectives by which any system configuration can be judged against by none but the actual owner. In other words only the final outcome matters.

I still maintain however that protection for one's gear is kind of like comprehensive insurance for your car. You hate paying for it, but dang! It sure comes in handy when you need it. Higher price does not guarantee better protection but the market has seen fit to let the ones that work survive and the ones that don't just fade away. As such look for companies with a history of good service and reliability.

For the record we at PureSound (aka VSA boys) don't carry any power conditioning products. In this instance, we're consumers just like everybody else.
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Re: How important is power conditioner and dampers?

Postby Nelson de Leon » Sun Mar 28, 2010 4:36 pm

AUDIO8 wrote:Power conditioners and powercords really improves the SQ but the sad thing is you need to spend a lot to achieve this.
If your system is not revealing enough it will give you a little or no improvement at all no matter how much you spend.
In your case the most cost effective upgrade you need is the power supply not the cord and conditioner.


Agree with this one. This also applies to ICs and speaker wires. Even if you use the best LCs, ICs, if your gears are not revealing enough, you won't notice the change. Yun nga lang, kadalasan, ang mga very revealing na systems and gears, expensive.

JackD201 wrote:
I still maintain however that protection for one's gear is kind of like comprehensive insurance for your car. You hate paying for it, but dang! It sure comes in handy when you need it. Higher price does not guarantee better protection but the market has seen fit to let the ones that work survive and the ones that don't just fade away. As such look for companies with a history of good service and reliability.



Precisely. Pagdating ng oras ng power surge, masusulit and AVR and LC.
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Re: How important is power conditioner and dampers?

Postby link » Mon Mar 29, 2010 12:07 pm

in my case it was different..instead of improving the sound the LC somewhat veiled the top end. When I removed the LC in the chain the sound improved. The product was a Chang Lightspeed.since then the Chang was relegated to HT duty. YMMV though...maybe its the system or my preference. Now my Audio rig is directly connected to an AVR mainly due for protection and not for sonic improvement.
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Re: How important is power conditioner and dampers?

Postby vintage_dog » Mon Mar 29, 2010 1:24 pm

Gau_Ban wrote:It makes sense to protect your equipment from spikes and surges.

However, you go here and download Issue no. 26.

http://www.theaudiocritic.com/cwo/Back_Issues/

Read "The Ten biggest lies in Audio"

Then you can make a more informed decision whether or not you should buy a power line conditioner.


peter aczel :rofl: some consider him the biggest joke in audio, but some folks adore him too. anyway, some folks say that the biggest lie of all is his 10 biggest lies in audio! :lol:
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Re: How important is power conditioner and dampers?

Postby JackD201 » Mon Mar 29, 2010 1:36 pm

Tell me about it VD. He's either deaf or only the empirical side of his brain is working :D :D :D :D

He surely gets the vote of the "Measurements Rule!" crowd. The guys who endlessly want to argue about double blind testing and derivations of Ohm's Law :headbang: He sude get along very well with my buddy Romy except Romy would tear him apart too since at least Romy likes tubes :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl:
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Re: How important is power conditioner and dampers?

Postby fld » Mon Mar 29, 2010 3:24 pm

best if you can try them out.
While in most cases, the powerconditioners does change the sound, some for the better, some for the worst.
In my case, I've always used powerconditioners and they do make a difference in my system.
However, powerconditioners have protected my gears esp when there are spikes and surges.
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Re: How important is power conditioner and dampers?

Postby Nelson de Leon » Mon Mar 29, 2010 6:26 pm

Di ba an AVR can also protect the gears against power surges?
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Re: How important is power conditioner and dampers?

Postby fld » Tue Mar 30, 2010 9:21 am

Nelson de Leon wrote:Di ba an AVR can also protect the gears against power surges?


not on very fast transients like lightning or surges.
avr regulates the electric current.
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Re: How important is power conditioner and dampers?

Postby timber715 » Tue Mar 30, 2010 11:38 am

I inquired about line conditioners lately from a friend and dealer of audio equipments, and was told that they do provide ample improvement but on the loud side of big woofers for them to big significant. he said that a good LC does provide enough power when ooomph is needed by the system. he said that on the low side of the volume knob, they hardly notice any change, though protection is a valuable asset for our investments as well. it was one of the best explanations I heard to date, though I do follow the thought that it stabilizes the electricity flow as well to make it clean.
my 2 cents...
cheers
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Re: How important is power conditioner and dampers?

Postby JoeyGS » Tue Mar 30, 2010 2:25 pm

You need a surge suppressor for the power surges. AVR only regulates voltage. However, some AVR brands may include surge suppressors, but check it out and ensure it works.

Nelson de Leon wrote:Di ba an AVR can also protect the gears against power surges?
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