[rippolito]

I have read that one of the disadvantages of a power conditioner is that they can prevent a power amplifier from receiving all the current it is asking for, thus preventing the music from achieving its full dynamic range.  For this reason, I have also read many posts in various forums to plug the power amplifier directly into a wall outlet, instead of one of the outlets in the conditioner.

In your experience, is this true, and if so, can someone please explain how the conditioner limits the current?

Thank you, in advance...
Ron

[toocool4]

In my case not, I guess you just need to get a power conditioner that can deliver a lot more than your power amp needs.

In my case I use a regenerator not a conditioner. The regenerator delivers far more current than what my system needs, hence the power amp is not limited by the regenerator. I run the whole of my system on the regenerator, I just calculated the maximum draw of everything in my system before I bought a regenerator. I bought something that gives my system everything it needs and then some more power in reserve, so in my case I have room for expansion should I need it.

[FullRangeMan]

The PC circuit have a current limit if it reach max usually there is a circuit braker or fuse tô prevent  disaster.

[Photon46]

Aside from the actual physics of whether or not conditioners limit current delivery, you'll never get a consensus from a group of audiophiles as to whether or not conditioners and regenerators are a positive when used between the wall outlet and amplifier. I've read more negative comments about power conditioners than power regenerators when used with amps (assuming adequate current delivery from the regenerator.) That said, every system and listener is different. Use what works best for you and don't worry about what someone else's experiences have been. I had to try several combinations of conditioners and regenerators to find what worked best for my system and I imagine that's the case for most. The one brand of power conditioner I'm hard pressed to recall hearing a negative comment about are those from High Fidelity Cables that plug into adjacent outlets as opposed to being inline with the amplifier. I've read comments from those who felt they'd gone overboard and bought too many of them, but everyone I've ever known who tried their products liked what they did for their system.

[Mike B.]

They can. There are times when amps are changing power supply caps, and when musical peaks can demand far more current input than steady state ratings. If the conditioner is not up to handling it the sound output suffers.

[rollo]

  Depends on which brand of PC. Some offer High Current outlets others do not. Do your homework.

charles

[rippolito]

  Depends on which brand of PC. Some offer High Current outlets others do not. Do your homework.

charles

Charles,

When a power conditioner has 'high current' outlets, do you know what they do differently than the other outlets?
Ron

[Photon46]

  Depends on which brand of PC. Some offer High Current outlets others do not. Do your homework.

charles

In my limited experience, the presence of high current outlets hasn't guaranteed improvement vs. the wall. My PS Audio Stellar P3 regenerator has high current outlets (those are not supplied with regenerated power) and my BHK250 amp still sounds better direct into the wall outlet. However, the regenerator improves the sound of all the front end components greatly. I'd also tried a Shunyata  MPC12a conditioner in the past with the BHK250, same story - sounded better directly into wall. Same story with my 30 watt per channel Decware ZenTorii amp, sounds better direct into the wall than through any of the six conditioners/regenerators I've tried. I do read posts from many listeners who say the big PS Audio regenerators are an improvement over the wall with their amps but I've not tried one of those. 

[Big Red Machine]

PS Audio, BPT, Shunyata, Audio Magic, High Fidelity, Audience, Furutech, Emotiva, Exact Power, Cullen, MIT, Richard Gray, Furman, Synergistic Research, Bybee, Acoustic Revive, Nordost, Silver Circle, Monster, Panamax, TrippLite, Topaz, Running Springs, Inakustik, and CorePower are the brands I recall trying over the years.

Anything with a transformer, unless it was really large, limited amp current. A Class A or AB amp has a tranny and if it is trying to draw current and is choked by a smaller tranny between it and the wall, then you have a limiting situation.

Passives are great if they can really do the cleaning they purport. Many of us have tried passives on amps and more actives on front ends with decent results. I've never owned a Shunyata that actually cleaned up the juice but I love their digital cable. The best actives I owned 3 times were BPT and Silver Circle (once). I make my own high fidelity units and they are literally running the juice through the magnet. Interesting but not a real cleaning machine per se. In the end everyone is stuck with chokes, caps, filters, clamping devices, crystals, fairy dust ROCHELLE SALT (potassium sodium tartrate), etc. like everyone else. And they also contribute a degree of choking. I have great power coming out of my wall so little work is required on that end other than system generated noise.

You need a device that solves your problem. Voltage fluctuations, brownouts, poor grounding, high frequency noise, motor noise, fluorescent light noise, etc.

Inakustik was the king for me until I tried the Puritan and now I am done. Everything except my server is through the Puritan.

Next house, next electrical; problem could mean a different solution. Go passive if you can unless you have a very small amp or buy  very large active unit.

[Early B.]

Remember -- there's always trade-offs. If you want protection, then don't worry so much about current limiting power conditioners. Besides, ALL manufacturers will claim their product isn't current limiting, so who are you gonna believe?

I'm been through several power conditioners. Like cables, just find one that does the least harm. I use Zenwave's modded SurgeX and it works great. With that being said, I'm interested in the trying the Puritan because it's the only one I've seen that shows measurable results that are supported by strong customer reviews.

 
 

[Randy]

PS Audio, BPT, Shunyata, Audio Magic, High Fidelity, Audience, Furutech, Emotiva, Exact Power, Cullen, MIT, Richard Gray, Furman, Synergistic Research, Bybee, Acoustic Revive, Nordost, Silver Circle, Monster, Panamax, TrippLite, Topaz, Running Springs, Inakustik, and CorePower are the brands I recall trying over the years.

Anything with a transformer, unless it was really large, limited amp current. A Class A or AB amp has a tranny and if it is trying to draw current and is choked by a smaller tranny between it and the wall, then you have a limiting situation.

Passives are great if they can really do the cleaning they purport. Many of us have tried passives on amps and more actives on front ends with decent results. I've never owned a Shunyata that actually cleaned up the juice but I love their digital cable. The best actives I owned 3 times were BPT and Silver Circle (once). I make my own high fidelity units and they are literally running the juice through the magnet. Interesting but not a real cleaning machine per se. In the end everyone is stuck with chokes, caps, filters, clamping devices, crystals, fairy dust ROCHELLE SALT (potassium sodium tartrate), etc. like everyone else. And they also contribute a degree of choking. I have great power coming out of my wall so little work is required on that end other than system generated noise.

You need a device that solves your problem. Voltage fluctuations, brownouts, poor grounding, high frequency noise, motor noise, fluorescent light noise, etc.

Inakustik was the king for me until I tried the Puritan and now I am done. Everything except my server is through the Puritan.

Next house, next electrical; problem could mean a different solution. Go passive if you can unless you have a very small amp or buy  very large active unit.

Ha, I was thinking of posting a similar message, listing all the power conditioners I've had over the years, virtually none of which did me any good. A great many of them are listed in your post above. Then I was going to add that based on faith I was going to try one of those Puritan units because of all the raving about them here on this forum. Based on my past experience, I have my doubts, but will give it a shot.

One unit I had which you didn't mention was EquiTech which started the rage for "balanced power" 20 or 25 years ago or so.  That thing weighed a ton, and turned out to be nothing more than a glorified power strip, same as the other ones.  I eventually took it out of the system and was walking down the hall to where I planned to put it in storage, tripped, dropped the thing and when it crashed onto the floor everything inside it came loose and rattled around. Picked it up, headed for the trash can, threw it in, and never regretted doing that.  Good riddance for bad rubbish.

[john1970]

I use two RM20 power conditioners from Torus power and find they have no impact on delivering power to the amps.

https://www.toruspower.com/product-ranges/

Best,
John

[artur9]

I have a Shunyata Guardian on my Odyssey mono amps and I felt it made an improvement in clarity.  My scientific-side thinks its because it uses a 20A plug and so is providing more power.  OTOH, I have no idea about any of this stuff.

Oddly enough, the Guardian on my preamp and DAC seemed to add a veil.

I am also curious about the Puritan for my source and preamps.

[FullRangeMan]

I have a Shunyata Guardian on my Odyssey mono amps and I felt it made an improvement in clarity.  My scientific-side thinks its because it uses a 20A plug and so is providing more power.  OTOH, I have no idea about any of this stuff.

Oddly enough, the Guardian on my preamp and DAC seemed to add a veil.

I am also curious about the Puritan for my source and preamps.

My scientific-side thinks its because it uses a 20A plug and so is providing more power.
Do you mean say 20A plug can generate more power?

[Big Red Machine]

I have a Shunyata Guardian on my Odyssey mono amps and I felt it made an improvement in clarity.  My scientific-side thinks its because it uses a 20A plug and so is providing more power.  OTOH, I have no idea about any of this stuff.

Oddly enough, the Guardian on my preamp and DAC seemed to add a veil.

I am also curious about the Puritan for my source and preamps.

You can't get 20 amps out of a 15 amp circuit with a 20 amp capable cable. Your 20 amp cable on a 15 amp circuit is just being extra cautious as it has the capability to handle higher amperage. Your circuit breaker is the limiter then. Even if you had a 20 amp circuit your 15 amp cable is okay because I doubt you would ever use more than 4 to 5 amps for your stereo anyways IME and measurements. If any of us is maxxing out our 15 or 20 amp cables we are in trouble, or putting on a rock concert with thousands of watts.

[Folsom]

Short answer: Yes they can.

Long Answer: Not all of them, and many that claim to be high current do.

[artur9]

You can't get 20 amps out of a 15 amp circuit with a 20 amp capable cable. Your 20 amp cable on a 15 amp circuit is just being extra cautious as it has the capability to handle higher amperage. Your circuit breaker is the limiter then. Even if you had a 20 amp circuit your 15 amp cable is okay because I doubt you would ever use more than 4 to 5 amps for your stereo anyways IME and measurements. If any of us is maxxing out our 15 or 20 amp cables we are in trouble, or putting on a rock concert with thousands of watts.

Thanks, one less thing to be audio nervosa about.  The circuit in question does appear to be 20A (has a 20A socket) but the electrical in this house is weird.
Question: The power consumed will remain the same regardless of 15A cord into 20A circuit with adapter and or any variation thereof?

[FullRangeMan]

Yes certainly.

What determine the power available tô your house is the power transformer from your condo  or your street.

[BruceSB]

Think you would be best off running your power amp direct to the wall with maybe a small Balanced Isolation Transformer (BIT) for your less power hungry equipment like your Phono Preamp, Music Server/CD player, etc.
My system sounded way better when I got rid of my PS Audio power conditioner as it did when I put a dedicated line in with a 20 amp (240 volt) circuit breaker with 27 amp rated shielded mains cable.
At the last HiFi show that I attended (late 2019) I specifically looked at people's stands and I did not see a single exhibitor running their power amps from a power conditioner!!!
All 'direct from the wall'!
Had some some interesting conversations with some of the exhibitors on the subject.
They wanted their gear to sound its best!
Just some thoughts.
Bruce

[Photon46]

Think you would be best off running your power amp direct to the wall with maybe a small Balanced Isolation Transformer (BIT) for your less power hungry equipment like your Phono Preamp, Music Server/CD player, etc.
My system sounded way better when I got rid of my PS Audio power conditioner as it did when I put a dedicated line in with a 20 amp (240 volt) circuit breaker with 27 amp rated shielded mains cable. some thoughts.
Bruce

FWIW, I would mention that in my and many others experience, previous versions of PS Audio regenerators are not comparable to current versions in terms of sound quality. My current version Stellar P3 imparts many more beneficial qualities to my front end than the earlier version PS Audio regenerator I had with balanced power output.