I was recently asked to test Isotek Titan power conditioner,
i know that my denon does have transformer inside,and transformer remove inteference.
and i didn't plug my tv, pc, pre, amp, sub together, they have different spur.
they did the blue horizon mains noise analyzer thing show 600+ from my true on line ups(i think it is EMI, i dont have AM around my area so no RFI), 0 from the titan
i did the a/b test thing, i read and know the theory behind this,
i still hear very low hiss sound on my speaker with or without the conditioner(placing my ear next to it , can't hear it from 10cm),
i still did the a/b test in the end, and i can say almost no diff,
i can't say that my system (2500w peak) overpowered the titan(4600w)
the question is,
what this power conditioner thing?
are there any relation between ac noise and system noise?
are they worth it?
ps. i dont see power conditioner being a snake oil here, but the cable for this thing is $600 i know stupid.
Oh, a special powerline analyzer, too? Super. Just super. Munster Cable has one, called Dr Noise and it subtracts the line voltage from the total and I tried one at my house, which is less than a mile away from a TV/Radio antenna farm and I could hear a baseball game broadcast. I plugged it into their $20 power strip and it did a decent job of removing the noise but the with the one I bought at Office Depot for $7, it was totally silent.
The thing is, once the power energizes the transformer, anything above some nominal frequency is gone because a power transformer's inductance won't allow high frequencies. Once it hits the rectifier and filter section, it's not going to have a high frequency component unless it's supposed to and even then, they often put the noisy section in a metal box, to prevent it affecting the rest of the device's circuitry. That doesn't mean noise can't get in from an outside source, but it's generally noise-free WRT EMI/RFI.
Power conditioning is often mis-used to describe what a power strip with a few MOVs (Metal Oxide Varister) does- they dissipate normal power surges as a bit of heat. No more, no less. The Law of Conservation of Energy states that energy can't be created or destroyed, it can only be transformed from one type to another. In all processes, energy is wasted and it changes to heat. If a powerline is supposed to provide 120VAC±10% @60Hz, a device should perform up to spec but if it's varying between 80VAC and 180VAC, it needs to be stabilized. Some of these high priced "conditioners" don't actively do much unless the voltage drops below some useful point and sometimes, they don't even stop the current after it passes the point of damaging the equipment it's there to protect.
If you measure wide voltage fluctuations, you don't need a power strip, you need something that can provide stable voltage and those are expensive. If the voltage is stable, something to soften the voltage peaks (called 'spikes') helps. Amplifiers rarely need much protection but anything with a processor will benefit from this.
Best practice:
Whole house protection at the breaker panel, with local surge protection where sensitive equipment is used. Motors, light switches, dimmers and anything making or breaking contact will cause spikes (upward OR downward- it does the same to the equipment) and it's best to minimize their effects.
With lightening, all bets are off.
