Power Conditioners... the final frontier

davelarz

Well-Known Member
I've gotten so much good guidance from AK over the years, I felt it was high time for me to share some of my experience that might help somebody make a decision. I've been wanting to write something about this situation for a while but just haven't found the time. I'm home sick today, though, and gloriously alone in the house... so here goes.

I recently ended up getting a power conditioner after a long period of reading and cogitation and all-too-overwrought analysis. I was highly suspicious of the whole endeavor and not thrilled at the pricetag involved. But my curiosity was a tractor beam. Anyone who is in a similar quandary, here is my story. May it be of some use to someone.

First off, I have no affiliation with any of the companies mentioned here or in fact any audio brands whatsoever. But for some subsistence flipping of jazz LPs, audio is entirely a money-losing racket for me.

Now... to skip to the end, I ended up buying a Running Springs Audio Elgar, which is the entry level unit from RSA. It goes for $999 new, I got mine off Audiogon for $650 shipped from The Music Room in Colorado, which allows 30 days to return for any reason. This was an important factor in my purchase because I've never owned a power conditioner before and my understanding is that 1. They are very system dependent, and 2. They can actually make your system sound worse. My reading on the web (extensive reading - like most audio junkies I know, I'm more than a little obsessive/compulsive) brought me to the conclusion that there is only one audiophile consensus on power conditioners - try before you buy.

I didn't start on this endeavor with any sense that I had a "power problem." It was simply that after a system reconfiguration I found myself with an outlet problem - namely, I didn't have enough of them in reach of my rig. Recently I've done a lot of upgrading and tweaking and arrived at a system that I'm very happy with, so I'm really trying to get myself into the permanent set-up phase (as much as such a thing is ever possible) because I'm sick of dicking around with everything every other week. With a full-time job and two full-time kids, I don't have a lot of free time and much as I enjoy the dicking around it does occur to me often that I should be doing something else with that time rather than fiddling with the placement of my vibrapods.

Given my not-enough-outlets issue, I clearly needed some sort of power strip/distribution device, and I wasn't about to run all my gear through a Home Depot special, although maybe that would have been fine, but it just isn't how I roll. So I started investigating... and down the hole I went.

There was a pervasive narrative in nearly every power conditioner review I read, and as I said I read a lot of them, on the train to work, eating my lunch at work, laying awake in bed when I should have been sleeping. I'll summarize that narrative thusly: "I went into this review skeptical of power conditioners, I've had bad experiences with them in the past, but this particular power conditioner that I am reviewing right now is unbelievable, jaw dropping, holy shit, buying review sample how did I live without this..."

My approach to the audiophile affliction is to try as much as possible to simultaneously maintain a position of aggressive distrust and Buddhistic openness to possibility. There is clearly a lot of snake oil out there and balderdash lurks round every corner (I'm looking at you Shun Mook!). That said, over and over again my disbelief has been replaced with wonder. IC's, vibration control, power cables. At one time I felt convinced that these things couldn't possibly have a large impact on my listening experience. I now feel decidedly otherwise.

In my research on power conditioning I discovered that the PS Audio regeneration products - Power Plant Premier, P3, P5, etc. - have a passionate following, but also a decent contingent of detractors (I won't be attempting to explain how any of these products work btw because I don't know and I don't aim to know). The Shunyata scene is even more divided with a plentiful and vocal "con" camp, and my own bygone auditioning experience with Shunyata power cables was not positive so I ruled them out early. There are a lot of smaller, boutique companies that people rave about - Audio Magic, Exact Power, the Circles, Blue and Silver (I have a few Silver Circle Vesuvius power cords and think they are fantastic, best PC's I own, so I feel very positively about this company). The Blue Circle Thingee FX2 with X0e (oh the names of these things) gets a lot of rave reviews as big bang for your buck at $499 for 6 outlets. I really thought about that one but I must say... it's ugly. Check it out if you've never seen it. I believe it does what people say it does but the idea of spending 500 clams on such a thing is tough to swallow. In my system it would be hard to hide.

Passive versus active is a big question in the power conditioning universe, and then there's the whole regeneration business. The regen units are basically large amps and I wasn't into the idea of buying what is essentially another component, most of them really big pieces of kit. Also they can fail, based on my web reading, not that anything can't, but it seems like this is more often an issue with regeneration devices which makes sense to me.

Ultimately I settled on the RSA Elgar because everything I read about the RSA units was positive and one came up used at a good price from a seller that accepts returns for any reason. It's a passive unit, and based on my reading there is a (mild) consensus out there that passive conditioners do the least amount of harm, least likely to rob the music of dynamics, etc. This is something you read about a lot with power conditioning - people audition them and feel like the life has gone out of the music. To understate the case considerably, I was not up for this. The possibility scared me off the whole enterprise for a while.

But like I said - on forums I trust, the RSA units were universally recommended. RSA and Core Power Technologies (I seriously considered an Equi=Core 1200 but couldn't find one under a grand) were the only companies about which I couldn't find a single negative comment or review on the web. The only somewhat negative comment about RSA was on an Audio Circle thread (I think it was Audio Circle) where someone said his impression was that audiophile enthusiasm for RSA had cooled since the company was purchased by API around 2011. That comment was met by a chorus of enthusiastic audiophiles arguing to the contrary.

The Elgar is about breadbox sized (see the pic of it below next to my PrimaLuna amp) and very easy to set up. 15a PC in, 15a PC's out, non-current-limiting, six outlets in all. I ran my whole analog system into it - phono pre, pre and power amp (all tube units - Allnic H1201, ARC LS26, PL Dialogue Premium) and my turntable (VPI Classic 1). The Elgar sits on three carbon cones which don't attach to the base, so it's a little annoying to get it balanced at first but whatever. I put it on a 1.5" slab of maple butcher block which is standard practice for me with just about anything these days.

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Continued below...
 
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Initially I used the stock PC that came with it just to try it out. Using the stock cable, my initial impressions were positive with some misgivings.

The first thing I noticed was that the lights on my amps and pre-amps were brighter. My only prior experience with any kind of power conditioning was using a Pro-ject speedbox on a Music Hall MMF7 turntable, and that was the first thing I noticed then as well - the blue light on the MMF7 seemed almost twice as bright. In this case it wasn't that pronounced, but it was still very noticeable.

The change to the sound wasn't subtle with the Elgar in place. There was increased detail and air, soundstaging was noticeably deeper and overall the sounds themselves felt more precisely delineated and 3-dimensional. There was a sense of the "blacker background" as well that is often raved about with power conditioners, though I can't say that was the most striking thing to me. The dimensionality and precise delineation - this was what wowed me.

But there was also a little of that effect whereby the music seemed robbed of its energy. The best way that I can describe what I was hearing is that it was similar to what it's like going from a commercial LP from back in the day to an Analogue Productions or Music Matters type audiophile remaster. Generally I am a fan of the audiophile reissues (I'm a big jazz guy) and I'm often amazed by the heft and sparkle they bring to familiar recordings. And yet... sometimes the patented Hoffman all-tube no compression approach renders the presentation a little lifeless for me (especially when compared, say, to the right RVG mono pressing of a lively date, Blakey's Free For All for instance). That's what I felt like I was experiencing with the Elgar in my system - overall a very pleasing improvement in SQ on many different levels but also one that, at times, rendered the whole picture slightly less engaging and immediate.

If you buy a power conditioner new from RSA I think an upgraded power cable is an add-on option. It's made for them specially by Cardas and called a "Mongoose" though it is supposedly just a rebranded Golden Reference. I happen to have a Golden Reference power cable on hand, but it is very happily mated to my pre-amp, so once I wearied of the stock cable I chose to use the aforementioned Silver Circle Vesuvius II to feed the Elgar. I made this decision because this same Vesuvius is offered as an upgrade with Silver Circle's line of power conditioners (to the tune of $900! and it's $2000 new! how do these goddamn cables cost this much... I did not pay two grand for mine trust me). BTW I believe the one and only Steve Hoffman himself uses a Silver Circle power conditioner in his studio, though I admit the way he has written about it led me to suspect he harbors a rooting interest.

Anyway... swapping in the Vesuvius for the stock RSA cable made a massive improvement to the sound picture. The "robbed of its energy" business was gone entirely and replaced with an energy injection. Bass got both more expansive and lush and at the same time more controlled and less likely to boom. Pianos suddenly rang with eerily lifelike sustain, the soundstage grew again, deeper higher and wider. I won't go through the record by record "listening notes" routine - I have skipped that part of every audio review I've ever read. I'll just say that a number of albums I know well and never in the past considered sonic wonders, including a scratched up OG mono of Sarah Vaughan at Mister Kelly's, a '72 black b Grant Green I Want to Hold Your Hand, a David Byrne-curated anthology of Brazilian pop music, a shaded dog of Reiner's Iberia, and a handful of OJC's like Howard Rumsey's Lighthouse at Laguna and Barney Kessel's Easy Like vol 1 - all suddenly sounded like they'd been remastered while I was sleeping and emerged gigantic, vivid beasts that bore no resemblance to the serviceable lapdogs I remembered them being.

In conclusion, consider this another long entry in the I-once-was-blind-and-now-I-see genre of power conditioner testimonials. While reading up on the topic I came across more than a few commenters saying that they'd come to feel that power conditioning is as essential a building block for a great system as anything else you can think of. I'm not sure I would go that far. To be fair I was very happy with the way my system sounded before the arrival of the Elgar and if I'd never seen fit to move my stuff around for the umpteenth time and found myself in an outlet crunch I would be Elgar-less today and still very happy.

That said, I'm finding the nature of the upgrade with the Elgar to be very intense, different in a way that I find hard to describe. The whole picture, not just one aspect of it but ALL of it, feels more focused, more vivid, more spacious and sensually tangible. Every record I put on is revealing new delights. No single component upgrade I've made has had exactly this kind of impact.

So it goes without saying that for anyone out there who is on the fence about diving into this particular rabbit hole, I wholeheartedly recommend it. My experience with the Elgar has been very positive and it certainly seems like many other audiophiles are RSA fans as well. But it also is universally agreed upon that power conditioning is highly system-dependent, a YMMV enterprise through and through. In other words... try before you buy. All the best and happy listening - Dave
 
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No single component upgrade I've made has had exactly this kind of impact.

Easy to understand this comment as the difference between using inner/outer record weights vs. adjusting the VTA is easy to distinguish they are so different. I have some power conditioners, using one in the video system. Maybe I need to try that one again in the audio rig.
 
Wow. Thanks for taking the time to type out that experience report.

I'm lucky to have good, stable power. (Edit: no clue if its clean or not...) But I certainly would like to try out various power conditioners.

I also have zero protection on one of my setups. The one with sentimental value...
 
I'm in the Richard Gray camp and use 3 of them in my system fed by Quail Iron Lung Jellyfish power cables. They've made big improvements by separating out analog, digital and then running my SET monoblocks off their own conditioner.
Great review!
 
Wow. Thanks for taking the time to type out that experience report.

No problem - I owe AK a lot.

I'm in the Richard Gray camp and use 3 of them in my system fed by Quail Iron Lung Jellyfish power cables.

I was turned off the Richard Gray stuff - unfairly I'm certain - by a very negative Stereophile review many years ago that seems to me to have some animus behind it. Just looked for it and here it is - https://www.stereophile.com/powerlineaccessories/255/index.html. I have to admit, I'm unduly influenced by reviews, and even though this one really seemed dubious to me, I couldn't shake it.

I am a big believer in Iron Lung Jellyfish as well - talk about bang for your buck.
 
Sadly, you'll never convince some folks because they assume the villains exist at the power sub station. ;)
 
Thanks for the detailed post!

I ended up buying a Running Springs Audio Elgar, which is the entry level unit from RSA. It goes for $999 new, I got mine off Audiogon for $650 shipped from The Music Room in

Did a little Googling before I located this in your post, and the only outlet I found is The Cable Company which lists the Elgar for $3030.00. Sounds like you did pretty well for $650 used but where does it sell for $999 new?
 
Did a little Googling before I located this in your post, and the only outlet I found is The Cable Company which lists the Elgar for $3030.00. Sounds like you did pretty well for $650 used but where does it sell for $999 new?

I saw that too and I don't understand it at all. It has never sold for that amount. It is, possibly, a discontinued item but still... that's insane.

Here is the post on stereophile announcing it's release - https://www.stereophile.com/content/running-springs-audio’s-elgar-powerline-conditioner
 
Thanks for the informative post.

I pick up a used BPT Power Conditioner, it makes my system sound better too. Most noticeably I detect the proverbial "blacker background" and that my CDP/ DAC sounds better than ever.

Cheers
 
The bpt ppc was another unit I thought about - good price used, good reviews, and I like the utilitarian look of it. And yes, almost universally in pro reviews people mention that the most dramatic improvements they get from conditioners is with digital components. I have a DAC but it's powered by my computer... and I rarely listen to it so I can't really comment
 
Thanks for the write up. I've used a power conditioner on my bass amp before, and it certainly helped, but I've never considered one for my stereo. Maybe because the price might be more than my whole stereo system altogether. Still, I enjoy learning what the serious guys are doing, and I appreciate your down-to-earth style of telling it like it is. Certainly it's food for thought.
 
Awesome write up. I was always skeptical, too.
But I went a different route: I began with a non-audio power conditioner.

1. Needed more outlets, like you
2. I live in an old Brooklyn apartment built by 1935 Italians (stereotypically terrible residential laborers of that era) and I have seen the electrical . Wow. Amazing my place hasn't exploded yet.
3. I had hiss, hum, and buzz in my line.

So... I went to a guy's house who showed me what he was using. Some of you may have been in Peekskill for the gathering and saw what I brought with me; it's a hospital grade power conditioner. It cost me $25 on eBay and the two reasons I bought it are:

1. It worked in my friend's system nicely (heard it with my ears)
2. As a hospital-grade unit, it is constructed - without hyperbole - as something that can be the difference between life and death. It has to work.

Per regulation, hospitals must replace these units periodically . I'm not sure the exact interval but maybe every few years. When they get tossed aside they sell for cheap on auction sites. Shipping is usually more than the unit.

When I switched my system over the difference was obvious . Almost 100% of the noise was gone from the line. I can't really say what it did to the listening experience other than to mention what you and others have already: the blackness and austerity in the background was a pleasure to hear - or NOT hear. It made the music stand out better . I haven't done - nor will I likely do - as deep a comparison as you, but the difference was noticeable and the price was entry-level.

If anyone else has bought one of these please share your experience. I would be totally curious to see how it worked for you, and I would love to see the differences between it and the audio-tailored conditioners. It serves as a nice entry point to prove, for short money, that these things really work. How much you have to spend and how well they work is up to you. Which leaves me with the eternal question: "I'm happy with what I have but is what you have better?"
 
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Saggy - I lived in one of those Italian built Brooklyn apartments for years! - fourth floor walk up on Powers near Graham in East Williamsburg (right around the corner from the Giglio boys club) long before hipsters (like myself) took over. To give you an idea of how long ago this was, I had an 1100 sq ft floorthrough and sole roof access. I paid $400 a month. The building was in unbelievably bad condition and I think ultimately was torn down and replaced with one of those glass and steel mcmonstrosities. My landlord was the fredo brother in law of the made guy in the area, whose name I will redact but who used to give me football gambling tips when he had a few too many Ouzos in him, tips that had the ring of a little too much confidence if you know what I mean. Good times.

And I read about those hospital line conditioners and was of course curious. Saw them going on eBay for a song. I think ultimately, in the inimitable way of we audiophiles with more money than sense, I came to the conclusion that I simply wasn't going to be satisfied spending that little dough, even if the thing worked. But your testimony definitely makes me wonder.

At this point, though, I think I'm done. I've really had enough of crawling around on the floor rearranging cables and knocking shit over. I'd planned to go back into the wall at some point just to reference again - seemed like in all the rave reviews I read the money shot moment was when the reviewers took the conditioner out of their system, took one listen, and said to themselves, okay I'm buying this sucker. For me, though, the evidence is so clear it's just not worth the hassle. I had a 70's dexter Gordon one flight up on this morning before I left for work and I've always hated the way that record sounds (everything dripping in fake reverb) and today... well, you know you're digging a component when it's suddenly revealing the hidden pleasures of crappy recordings.

In conclusion, I am truly sorry I missed the Peekskill gathering. Pained me but was out of my control.
 
No problem - I owe AK a lot.



I was turned off the Richard Gray stuff - unfairly I'm certain - by a very negative Stereophile review many years ago that seems to me to have some animus behind it. Just looked for it and here it is - https://www.stereophile.com/powerlineaccessories/255/index.html. I have to admit, I'm unduly influenced by reviews, and even though this one really seemed dubious to me, I couldn't shake it.

I am a big believer in Iron Lung Jellyfish as well - talk about bang for your buck.


Good Lord, if Stereophile thinks something is bad then I am stunned. They are the poster children for sycophantic industry reviews.
 
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