Equipment Recommendations - The Home For New System and Upgrade Advice

Mather said:
Is there a prevailing thought on what the best power conditioner/surge protector under like $3000 is? Any particular brand people trust? I currently use a big burly SurgeX on the upstairs system and it's been great but it's more of a gear protector than it is a conditioner, although it does do that too.. Just looking for what I might use on the new rig.
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I use a Furman PST8. It’s been a solid performer for many years.
 
mindhead1 said:
I use a Furman PST8. It’s been a solid performer for many years.
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I considered getting one of these as I like the iFI iPower supplies for my DAC and streamer, but I decided against it as my system is quiet and I’m not sure I’d get any sonic benefits.

audio46.com

iFi Power Station (US) Outlet Mains with ANC

IFI - PowerStation Outlet Mains with ANC The introduction Every audio system can be tainted by poor mains quality – a problem that affects many of us, especially those living in towns and cities. The quality of our mains power is further eroded by the abundance of cheap switch-mode power...
audio46.com audio46.com
 
mindhead1 said:
I considered getting one of these as I like the iFI iPower supplies for my DAC and streamer, but I decided against it as my system is quiet and I’m not sure I’d get any sonic benefits.

audio46.com

iFi Power Station (US) Outlet Mains with ANC

IFI - PowerStation Outlet Mains with ANC The introduction Every audio system can be tainted by poor mains quality – a problem that affects many of us, especially those living in towns and cities. The quality of our mains power is further eroded by the abundance of cheap switch-mode power...
audio46.com audio46.com
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Aha that's a good call because that's actually a brand I get dealer pricing on. I'll have to see what else they've got, I looked through Audiolabs stuff but forget to look at Ifi...
 
Yer Ol' Uncle D said:
A play on words. You gotta know the movie to get it...

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Ah, I was never into horror/blood and guts movies. I can recognize Pinheaded and that’s about it.

Anyway, my long term plan is to get a second 12” armboard and put the motor pod at rear center to make it look more like a UFO or sci-fi plane. Picture this with symmetrical left and right armboards 🤩

IMG_3072.jpeg
 
Mather said:
Is there a prevailing thought on what the best power conditioner/surge protector under like $3000 is? Any particular brand people trust? I currently use a big burly SurgeX on the upstairs system and it's been great but it's more of a gear protector than it is a conditioner, although it does do that too.. Just looking for what I might use on the new rig.
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Puritan PSM156. If you’re lucky you might even be able to find one with the Ultimate power cable in your budget. This is 100% on my list of upgrades. I have consistently heard from users that have compared this with other popular units that it arguably matches or bests the Niagara 5000, beats it with the upgraded cable, and is only really surpassed by the Niagara 7000 and stuff in the mega bucks category. And it is significantly more affordable vs the Niagara gear.

I personally know multiple people who have this unit, and it was used in multiple systems that I got to hear at Southwest Audio Fest, including my favorite system.
 
displayname said:
Puritan PSM156. If you’re lucky you might even be able to find one with the Ultimate power cable in your budget. This is 100% on my list of upgrades. I have consistently heard from users that have compared this with other popular units that it arguably matches or bests the Niagara 5000, beats it with the upgraded cable, and is only really surpassed by the Niagara 7000 and stuff in the mega bucks category. And it is significantly more affordable vs the Niagara gear.

I personally know multiple people who have this unit, and it was used in multiple systems that I got to hear at Southwest Audio Fest, including my favorite system.
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Now this is some hot goss baby.

Alright let's see if anyone up here has this..
 
Mather said:
Now this is some hot goss baby.

Alright let's see if anyone up here has this..
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I'm going to toss in one more wildcard, the Argento wall outlet. This comes in at $4k, but it goes directly into the wall replacing your normal outlets. A friend of mine got this installed, and he said he was a more significant difference than his power conditioners, and he was using upper end Synergistic Audio conditioners. I haven't seen these online, you need to find an Argento dealer. But something to consider.
 
Mather said:
Oh no way, nice I bought my Lyngdorf from Nick. I'll check in with him on it. Only thing is I don't think that has any surge protection so I guess THAT thing would then have to be plugged into a protector as well....
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"Massive 9,000 Amps Repetitive Rating, three dimensional, non-sacrificial voltage surge protection."

Meaning it not only has surge protection, but that means if it take a surge hit, it doesn't kill the unit.

www.puritanaudiolabs.com

PSM156 - Puritan Audio Laboratories

PSM156 Studio Master Mains Purifier The PSM156 builds upon the brilliance of the legendary PSM136 retaining the precision symmetrically balanced circuitry and 6 fully independent outputs. Increasing the number of independently tuned filter elements from 39 to 52 enables your system to deliver...
www.puritanaudiolabs.com www.puritanaudiolabs.com
 
displayname said:
"Massive 9,000 Amps Repetitive Rating, three dimensional, non-sacrificial voltage surge protection."

Meaning it not only has surge protection, but that means if it take a surge hit, it doesn't kill the unit.

www.puritanaudiolabs.com

PSM156 - Puritan Audio Laboratories

PSM156 Studio Master Mains Purifier The PSM156 builds upon the brilliance of the legendary PSM136 retaining the precision symmetrically balanced circuitry and 6 fully independent outputs. Increasing the number of independently tuned filter elements from 39 to 52 enables your system to deliver...
www.puritanaudiolabs.com www.puritanaudiolabs.com
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And it's a pain to find one that performs well with noise filtering but has the non-sacrificial surge protection. Was pleased when I finally learned of the Puritan gear and could stop searching. I think the 156 with the ultimate power cord is about $4k, @Mather, but probably worth it if you can up your budget. However, you can't go wrong with whichever model you get. I recall a 6Moons review stating that one of their powerstrips provided 80-ish percent of the 156's improvement, and for the price difference, that's a lot of value.

I have to wait until we upgrade the amp before picking up a Puritan. Need to find out if there's space left for a rackmount or not.
 
displayname said:
Puritan PSM156. If you’re lucky you might even be able to find one with the Ultimate power cable in your budget. This is 100% on my list of upgrades. I have consistently heard from users that have compared this with other popular units that it arguably matches or bests the Niagara 5000, beats it with the upgraded cable, and is only really surpassed by the Niagara 7000 and stuff in the mega bucks category. And it is significantly more affordable vs the Niagara gear.

I personally know multiple people who have this unit, and it was used in multiple systems that I got to hear at Southwest Audio Fest, including my favorite system.
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The testing on ASR is pretty much showing zero change but he does say it contains a filter, which many of these devices might be putting out fake stuff based on his conclusion.

Of course I always take ASR like a grain of salt. It's only one data point.
 
Jbraswell said:
The testing on ASR is pretty much showing zero change but he does say it contains a filter, which many of these devices might be putting out fake stuff based on his conclusion.

Of course I always take ASR like a grain of salt. It's only one data point.
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Yeah I saw that but to be honest their testing on conditioners/cables pretty much always shows this same result. I still trust the ears of multiple people over the straight math. But I do have to take into account that I may not really need a hard core conditioner as much as I simply need a surge protector. I don't have any hum or hiss and I never have. But one of the cheaper Puritan units might make sense for sure.
 
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