aussie jimmy

ac cables and line conditioners;

has anybody got any experiences in this area that they would like to share?
was looking at the shunyata research hydra triton/talos, and am trying to gauge whether they are worth the investment, which can be quite substantial when you factor in the associated power cables.

Franklin229

I am no expert and have no experience with shunyata research but I am suspect of a lot of these devices. Not sure about you but where I live, the current coming off the grid fluctuates constantly, the wiring in my house ranges from 4 to 30 years old. AC is garbage in garbage out. A lot of these boxes are useless to me unless they stabilize the current. So I am weary of components that just say "filter", "power distribution" (fancy words for "it has many outlets"), "line conditioner". I would suggest buying something with a built in transformer/power supply that can give you steady and regulated AC. This may not be important for most amplifiers but it can affect front end gear like turntables, CD players, preamps, etc. Without doing this, I believe that it is a waste to buy expensive cables.

ltc

You don't design these devices to stabilize current, unless you want to play single tones.
These devices can augment an audio devices inherent PSRR (power supply rejection ratio), as well as provide a small increase in transient charge storage, but that is about it.

Of course, you should properly "burn in" your house AC wiring, but that is another story.

Franklin229

Not sure what you mean by single tones (?). The current in my house can be +/- 6 volts at times and bounces back and forth constantly. So on some occasions you see full swing. If you have very sensitive gear (my preamp will shut down if there is any surge in static or dramatic changes in AC), turntables, preamps, etc this is not good. Plus, there is a lot of noise coming through the wires as well-other appliances, florescent lights, low voltage lighting+. You will find that a lot of high end recording studios and data companies use similar power supplies for the same reasons-and the gear is way more $$$ than most home audio stuff. Some of the best components out there use a battery supply vs wall current to address this. The irony is, referencing my last post, that some folks (not accusing the OP) will run out and buy expensive power cords, interconnects and "filters" without addressing/acknowledging this core problem-Then of course the next line of defense in making a room quiet is maximizing acoustics but that's a whole different and deep thread.

ltc

If you are trying to design a line conditioner, your goal would likely to be the design of a low impedance (voltage) source rather than a high impedance (current) source.
Therefore, you are not trying to stabilize current, rather voltage, at least over the frequencies of interest.

Having accomplished this, your next task is a low impedance transfer cable assembly from the aforementioned line conditioner to the AC input of the audio equipment (which is presumably a linear AC/DC supply)

As most audio gear is designed for (110V) AC input, running them off of a battery would involve the use of an inverter or generator, which would bring back into play similar issues with "AC line noise".
There is 48VDC used for professional audio, but that is for another reason entirely.

triode

I can wholeheartedly recommend the Shunyata gear (I have the previous generation Hydra, into which all sources and preamps are plugged). Their cheaper AC cords do the trick quite well in my highly resolving system.

It's pretty easy to hear the difference conditioning can make - I have dedicated lines in my room (15 amp front end and 20 amp for amplifiers) and high-quality outlets, yet there is a clear gain in going into the Hydra vs straight into the wall.

cobalt

I have found the Richard Gray power company 1200C I have does a great job. After 60 years I think my house wiring is burnt in so this is the only thing that helps.

Most power cables don't require upgrading. However verifying that your house wiring is correct and that neutral and hot aren't switched at the plug is the best place to start.

LT Texan

I've got a Power Wedge and use it in the main system. it's 25 years old.

I took it apart and it seems mostly a low pass power isolation thing. (No iso for the amp outlets.)

What I don't get is that all hifi gear has power supply filtering included.

The stuff I build as my hobby (tube amps) has wide band power supply filtering.

So now that I know more about this 25 years later, I scratch my head on what these do in addition to that.

But I wonder if the off the shelf transistor amp could benefit from extra filtering?

LT Texan

YOW!!! Reminds me of a story.

My dad built 2 houses we lived in. He was an air traffic controller by trade, so don't worry he was qualified.

He told me a story about one of my high school friends calling him up about house wiring for one he was building...

"Hey Joe (my dad's name is Joe), I wired the house with live as white and black as neutral, is that gonna cause me any problems?"

I think my dad told him, no. As long as he or anyone else remembers.

I never thought about it again till this post.

I figure got the live and neutral to the right place, just with the wrong color wire.