[Toad]

ok, got a couple quick questions....right now i have my source (squeezebox), my dac (omz), my amp (wa6) all plugged into my brickwall surge protector...being that its an old house im in and the surge protector shares an outlet with a computer and whatever else i feel like i could possibly benefit from the use of a power conditioner...ive seen the recommendations around here and think i'd like to stick with a oneac or powervar unit, however i have absolutely now clue which unit i need based on the power rating and amps...i was thinking the oneac cl 1107, but i highly doubt im using anywhere near 7 amps with just those 3 things....so do you guys think the oneac PC360AT would suffice? ONEAC POWER CONDITIONER PC360AT - eBay (item 270258028737 end time Jul-28-08 12:31:27 PDT)

also, i should add that i currently do own two tripplite ls-600b units, but i don't see those mentioned anywhere on the forums, so im unsure as to just how well they will perform(tho if theyll do the job thatd be great)... if you don't feel like any of the above conditioners would be good for my setup and have another recommendation for a conditioner under lets say $200 i'm all ears....thanks

 

[infinitesymphony]

The Brickwall surge protectors already have line filtering. In my experience, adding a power conditioner (especially a cheap one) negatively affected the sound. The closer to wall power the better, IMO, so I would stick with the Brickwall.

 

[Golden Monkey]

Does the Brickwall have separate analog and digital sections? Just curious...

I wouldn't bother chaining conditioners by adding anything else. In fact, I'd take the amp OFF the brickwall and plug it straight in, and leave your digital stuff on the Brickwall. The DAC (and most digital stuff as a rule) is very susceptible to line noise and AC fluctuation, so you want those protected at least.

For me, I have all my stuff plugged into the Furman PL8-II. There's an analog section that has my amp and preamp plugged in, and the digital section has my OMZ and Denon CDP. I've gotten great results this way. I tried taking the MKV amp off the Furman, and A/B tested it, and didn't hear any difference Common complaints of power conditioning, especially for UPS units is that if you have an amp running through it you get a compression of sound stage and dynamics, but I think this is more applicable to larger power amps and such, not piddly littel headphone amps. I left the MKV on the Furman just for peace of mind against surges and to attenuate any random line noise. Everything is running on a new dedicated line to the fuse box anyway...it's a 4 outlet line we had installed for the computer, plugged into the other bank of outlets. As it is, I get no computer related line noise, so I'm happy.

Anyway, to sum up, don't connect another conditioner to your Brickwall. Ori says that a lot of folks that have had issues with DAC performance have benefitted from power conditioning for them, and is something he recommends. In fact, his own system at home has Powervars for his OMZ.

 

[Melchior]

The audio version of the brickwall 8 outlet units have isolated receptacles. If you wanted to be real sure though just get a pair of 8 outlet/2 outlet units + a quality power strip, that should do the trick just fine.

And just a little testimony to their effectiveness. I happen to be using my brickwall as the first line of protection for my PC and sound system. I have a UPS from the brickwall to the PC and a seperate power strip for the audio gear. That power strip has a "instant power cutoff" feature for power surges, which supposedly keeps the MOV's inside from wearing out by tripping the power strip the moment it detects a surge. Well, it used to be doing the brickwall's job, IE: first thing the UPS/stuff was plugged into, and it tripped here in sunny FL almost daily, very annoying. After I plugged it into the brickwall it hasn't tripped once in two years, even though some really nasty thunderstorms and some odd house power issues that were causing the lights to flicker and sometimes surge (read as high as 200+ volts on a meter when I was trying to troubleshoot it). Seems it was a power company issue as one day FPL had their truck outside on our pole and there hasn't been any trouble since then.