Is it worth spending anything at all on mains filters and regenerators?

[the_surf_doc]

I think it's useful if (a) you want one switch to power everything off, or (b) power outages/surges and want to protect the equipment. It does not many an audible difference.

Thanks. My previous regenerator did remove clicks and of course provide protection. I have no idea whether it impacted my system audibly, I couldn't tell either way. But it did stabilise the voltage output. Though I'm not wise enough to know whether varying AC is an issue when it comes to hifi.

 

[fpitas]

Thanks. My previous regenerator did remove clicks and of course provide protection. I have no idea whether it impacted my system audibly, I couldn't tell either way. But it did stabilise the voltage output. Though I'm not wise enough to know whether varying AC is an issue when it comes to hifi.

Generally not, unless your power is unusually bad.

 

[robwpdx]

The only thing I use is a Tripp Lite ISOBar. They are a mid-price industrial power strip and you can often find them used. When I had my house rewired they put in a whole house surge suppressor on the panel.

If you have a lot of lightning strikes on the power lines or your house itself, lightning rods and insurance might be in order.

 

[fpitas]

The only thing I use is a Tripp Lite ISOBar. They are a mid-price industrial power strip and you can often find them used. When I had my house rewired they put in a whole house surge suppressor on the panel.

If you have a lot of lightning strikes on the power lines or your house itself, lightning rods and insurance might be in order.

My power used to cause audible arcing at the outlets, and be very noisy until they installed power factor capacitors near my house.

 

[Snoopy]

I bought two cheap power filters for my setups from dynavox. And replacement powercables from monosaudio.

That stuff goes often enough on sales and u can get really good discounts with Amazon vouchers.

So it looks nice, doesn't break the bank.

I tried it with a Hifiman EF400 that had transformer hum.. didn't do anything.

But for my bedroom Setup I use a WiFi repeater with LAN to a raspberry pi4.

And the WiFi repeater used to have disconnects Every couple of hours.. but since I use the powerfilter it has been perfect.

Anyway I don't regret the purchase.
It's like buying some nicer furniture, even if a kallax unit would do just fine as well.

 

[Ken Tajalli]

Hi all,

I have been looking at the various ASR forum reviews of power filters, regenerators and the like and notice that not a single device of this type has received a recommendation. Just over a year ago I spent a not insignificant amount of my hard earned money on an IsoTek Evo3 Aquarius mains conditioner,

Oowch!

hoping that it would filter out noise from household electrical utensils that occasionally made it through to my power amps. This was my minimal expectation. But I also hoped that it might calm down the toroidal buzz which I can hear from said power amps (Cyrus Mono 300's, for the record).
The device failed in both tasks and was quickly escorted off the premises.

Got your money back I hope.

As an aside, the conditioner was lighter than I had expected and on taking a peek inside I noticed that I had paid for little more than a metal enclosure with some fancy internal wiring. I really couldn't believe it. I won't go as far as calling the device snake oil as I don't want to offend any serpents that may frequent this forum.

Some devices that work with SMPS with insufficient filtering (illegal in most countries) can inject switching noise back into the mains. Stuff like cheap PC power supplies etc.
This switching noise can pollute the ground wire, some analogue audio devices use for safety. As such a simple filter network can be beneficial.
I had such an issue, and my cure was to buy a mains filter-box from a TV, from salvage electronic parts, for £5!
I bet it does a better job than that of the IsoTek.
@ 8A, it can handle almost 2kW.

 

[dedobot]

Electricity is a simple at first look and an scary abyss in back.. What's works "here" is useless "there" and even dangerous "somewhere". The only safe place is to follow the established specifications 1:1.

 

[Gruesome]

My power used to cause audible arcing at the outlets, and be very noisy until they installed power factor capacitors near my house.

Maybe your neck of the woods is still on the original Edison DC?

 

[fpitas]

Maybe your neck of the woods is still on the original Edison DC?

Lol! It is still very rural. There's a dairy farm nearby that I suspect has large electrical machinery.

 

[Waxx]

Lol! It is still very rural. There's a dairy farm nearby that I suspect has large electrical machinery.

I also live very rural, actually on the final end (i'm the last house on thel ine) of a supply line with a lot of big farms arround, but my power is stable and the house wiring is done like it should (to standards of 35 years ago at least). The only thing we got sometimes here are powercuts (altough they are rare). I measured some outlets here and it's pure AC 240V 50Hz within 1% of the specs without any conditioner. Grounds are done right and still within spec.

My former house, in the center of a village had issues with the wirering, but a simple RFI/EMI filter and a true online UPS were all i used to clean up the lines. And I never had issues, even not with non regulated linear PSU's of old tube amps that i had arround then. I had a restored Klangfilm 6SELA 2524 converted to 8R output from the 1950's for a while (I was trading stuff, and this one stayed about 6 months in my house) and it worked perfectly (within it's limitations) on that power system. That has a tube rectifier and an and a very primitive filtering on the psu.

 

[the_surf_doc]

And if you're using poorly designed audio equipment you're better-off spending the same money you'd waste on main filters by buying some that is.

That's exactly what I did this week. Bye bye Cyrus amps; bye bye hum. Hallo Benchmark; hallo silence.

 

[Lambda]

hoping that it would filter out noise from household electrical utensils that occasionally made it through to my power amps. This was my minimal expectation. But I also hoped that it might calm down the toroidal buzz which I can hear from said power amps (Cyrus Mono 300's, for the record).

So you seam to have a actual problem... this is something ASR is sadly not testing for. most of the Snake oil "debunking" tests are done with an perfectly fine working system under "ideal" conditions.

not a single device of this type has received a recommendation.

And surprise surprise you can't filter whats already clean.

For what you spend on that glorify power strip you would have got an Actual isolation transformer.
Or one of this now popular portable solar/Battery generators.

 

[amirm]

So you seam to have a actual problem... this is something ASR is sadly not testing for. most of the Snake oil "debunking" tests are done with an perfectly fine working system under "ideal" conditions.

There is nothing "ideal" about the power conditions under which I test such equipment. The waveform is clearly distorted and has plenty of harmonics and noise:

I have also tested gear using highly distorted AC waveform and still no difference. You have been part of many such discussions so would be good if you don't make up stuff.

 

[amirm]

And surprise surprise you can't filter whats already clean.

What is clean is the DC output inside gear. As you well know, audio equipment rarely runs on AC so how "clean" that AC signal is or is not, is not material. Yes, there are some broken audio gear that let more noise through but that is why you should read my reviews of equipment before purchasing.

 

[Lambda]

The waveform is clearly distorted and has plenty of harmonics and noise:

And i assume so is the power at the_surf_doc all the time.
but only "occasionally made it through to my power amps"
so maybe distortion and harmonics on the AC (in differential mode) are not the problem
Maybe there is also Common mode noise and maybe if its only "occasionally" and not repetitive so a screenshot from FFT might also not be a proper way to capture this.

What is clean is the DC output inside gear.

And here we are... someone is having expansive amplifiers "occasionally" having Audible noise from the AC line coming trough.
not all the time. so the usual distorted mains is not the problem.

Yes, there are some broken audio gear that let more noise through but that is why you should read my reviews of equipment before purchasing.

And what of your tests would show us if an amplifier is "broken"?
How do you know what kind of occasionally EMI/EMC he is experiencing and with what amplitude.

I don't see any tests for Amps on CMRR or any on how they Handel EMI/EMC.
Or hold up time and brown out tests.