[krude]

This week I discovered that power conditioning and filtering is a thing, and it really makes a huge difference.

Decided to get an relatively inexpensive Taga PC 5000 to get a taste of what, if anything, will it do to my system ... and oh boy.

Taga has 4 levels of power conditioning, 2 through a built in transformer and 2 just filtered I think. Hypsos + Oor sounds completely different from each type ... and different still from the wall. Going up the ladder shifts the balance towards bright and open sound for me, so if this is what you're after, that's a way to potentially tune your setup. It can sound wide and spacious, but at the expense of warmth I found. After 2 days of going back and forth I left my DAC going through the DAC specific secion on the conditioner and went back to my wall socket (actually an APC with surge protection, but no audio grade filtering) with Hypsos and Oor, because it sounds the fullest and the warmest with that power and that's what I want for the 1266 TC.

If I was mainly using my Utopia or a darker headset I would probably keep it pluged into the conditioner at one of the levels.

So ... TL;DR you can actually tune your setup with power ...

 

[FooFighter]

Interesting, so it also means that "over conditioning" can also make things worse depending on the chain and headphone, right?

 

[TubyAndWobbly]

This week I discovered that power conditioning and filtering is a thing, and it really makes a huge difference.

Decided to get an relatively inexpensive Taga PC 5000 to get a taste of what, if anything, will it do to my system ... and oh boy.

Taga has 4 levels of power conditioning, 2 through a built in transformer and 2 just filtered I think. Hypsos + Oor sounds completely different from each type ... and different still from the wall. Going up the ladder shifts the balance towards bright and open sound for me, so if this is what you're after, that's a way to potentially tune your setup. It can sound wide and spacious, but at the expense of warmth I found. After 2 days of going back and forth I left my DAC going through the DAC specific secion on the conditioner and went back to my wall socket (actually an APC with surge protection, but no audio grade filtering) with Hypsos and Oor, because it sounds the fullest and the warmest with that power and that's what I want for the 1266 TC.

If I was mainly using my Utopia or a darker headset I would probably keep it pluged into the conditioner at one of the levels.

So ... TL;DR you can actually tune your setup with power ...

I hate to sound rude but have you checked for placebo? I'd imagine if you're getting a high end psu like the hypsos it should be able to account for an imperfect source of power.

 

[krude]

Interesting, so it also means that "over conditioning" can also make things worse depending on the chain and headphone, right?

Indeed that seems to be the case, although I think there could be more to it. I treat it as a tuning mechanism for the set at the moment. Now I'm tempted to try it against some totl conditioners and and see if there is a difference.

 

[FooFighter]

I hate to sound rude but have you checked for placebo? I'd imagine if you're getting a high end psu like the hypsos it should be able to account for an imperfect source of power.

I partially agree, at least that would be my expectation so far and I d expect a greater impact on sources not running through Hypsos like the feeding DAC

 

[krude]

I hate to sound rude but have you checked for placebo? I'd imagine if you're getting a high end psu like the hypsos it should be able to account for an imperfect source of power.

Have you ever experimented with power on a transparent set? If not and you have access to a transparent set with a decent system I would advise you try to do some a / b testing. It changes the tuning of H+O so much it is like a different amp, not better, but different. I had to apply a low shelf at around +3-4db and a high shelf around -3db to try to counteract the shift in timbre, this is a huge amount of EQ and I still didn't manage to swing it because it's not only affecting FR directly. Anyway, I always thought that cabling and power is snake oil ... well ... I eat some humble pie once again.

 

[FooFighter]

I haven't tried power cable rolling with OOR but I remember I could recognize a slight effect running my previous Gustard A22 DAC through a 500 Eur power cable vs stock and thought it sounded more effortless afterwards.
Now having the same cable attached to OOR and haven't even unpacked the stock cable

 

[krude]

I haven't tried power cable rolling but I remember I could recognize a slight effect running my previous Gustard A22 DAC through a 500 Eur power cable vs stock and thought it sounded more effortless afterwards.
Now having the same cable attached to OOR and haven't even unpacked the stock cable

I can't talk about power cables, not sure if they make a big difference (maybe depends on a cable), but power conditioners, especially those with transformers, seem to make a big difference for some reason. I literally spent 2 hours plugging my dac and amp into all possible combinations and saying "holy * this is not possible" ... after which I had to give up and admit that a) it does make a huge difference b) I like H+O best from the wall socket (possibly because it has very good power conditioning already)

 

[FooFighter]

So in the end power conditioning for the unconditioned DAC was the best choice for your setup, right?
Holo May L2 does have an own PSU though yet, right?

 

[krude]

So in the end power conditioning for the unconditioned DAC was the best choice for your setup, right?
Holo May L2 does have an own PSU though yet, right?

That's where I left it at the moment, but I don't want to say how much of a difference it makes for May in isolation. I still need to do some a/b testing for the DAC itself. All I know is that for H+O the difference is immense, but can't say it's objectively better.

 

[FooFighter]

Fair enough, that experiment would interest me even more for a DAC like Spring 3 without own PSU and built-in transformator which needs high voltage feed and therefore cannot be run through OOR

 

[You Kay]

This week I discovered that power conditioning and filtering is a thing, and it really makes a huge difference.

Decided to get an relatively inexpensive Taga PC 5000 to get a taste of what, if anything, will it do to my system ... and oh boy.

Taga has 4 levels of power conditioning, 2 through a built in transformer and 2 just filtered I think. Hypsos + Oor sounds completely different from each type ... and different still from the wall. Going up the ladder shifts the balance towards bright and open sound for me, so if this is what you're after, that's a way to potentially tune your setup. It can sound wide and spacious, but at the expense of warmth I found. After 2 days of going back and forth I left my DAC going through the DAC specific secion on the conditioner and went back to my wall socket (actually an APC with surge protection, but no audio grade filtering) with Hypsos and Oor, because it sounds the fullest and the warmest with that power and that's what I want for the 1266 TC.

If I was mainly using my Utopia or a darker headset I would probably keep it pluged into the conditioner at one of the levels.

So ... TL;DR you can actually tune your setup with power ...

Been there my friend. I too decided that any type of filtering/ power conditioning robs the music of dynamics although it does sound cleaner.

I prefer dynamics therefore I never looked beyond a good quality star wired distribution block like the MusicWorks.

 

[krude]

Fair enough, that experiment would interest me even more for a DAC like Spring 3 without own PSU and built-in transformator which needs high voltage feed and therefore cannot be run through OOR

Ok just did some a/b testing for May in isolation for you going between the transformer filtered 3A output (DAC specific) on the PC5000 and the mains, and there is a clear audible difference. Treble, upper mids, s region is a lot smoother from the conditioner and the bass is fuller. It is a clear audible difference. I didn't even have to check more than once to see a difference. It is not a huge difference like with an amp, more of a smoothness and fullness difference, but still enough to go "yeah, it is different" on the first try. Don't want to OT too much about DACs here, happy to talk via PMs.

 

[krude]

Been there my friend. I too decided that any type of filtering/ power conditioning robs the music of dynamics although it does sound cleaner.

I prefer dynamics therefore I never looked beyond a good quality star wired distribution block like the MusicWorks.

Indeed bass compression is one of the things I noticed when going into the higher levels of conditioning. One of the reasons I decided to go back to the wall socket with the amp.

 

[Tubewin]

Been there my friend. I too decided that any type of filtering/ power conditioning robs the music of dynamics although it does sound cleaner.

I prefer dynamics therefore I never looked beyond a good quality star wired distribution block like the MusicWorks.

This can be true. Amps tend to sound more dynamic when plugged into the wall directly. When I had my previous amp, gsx-mini plugged into the ifi power station, it did negatively affect the sound. Sounded less dynamic and engaging. I have my current amp plugged into the hypsos which is than connected to the power plant's 1000w filtered outputs. It sounded "warmer/fuzzier" with the Hypsos directly into the wall. With the Hypsos connected to the power plant, the haze disappeared, became less warm, but it still remained dynamic. I do not use the regen outputs on the power plant 3 for the amp. I've tried that before and there was, what I felt to be, a reduction in dynamics. I use the regen outputs for my dac/source gear only and the filtered/more powerful outputs for my amp.