Mains conditioners, are they worth it?

[James the Albarry lover]

In my experience with Tacima it changed the sound quite abit, it tightened up the bass and got rid of slight fluffy edges. Mind you it's been a while sinse I've heard my hifi without it and these recent points have made me curious and I'll test it shorty with a normal 6 gang to refresh my memory

[Yomanze]

As with all these things there is no substitute for hearing the house mains, the room, your system etc. so YMMV! For example balanced mains worked great in my old home, but after over 2yrs in my new home I took it out and preferred the sound.

As for my experiences with the Tacima I would try finding an Olson no switch no neon mains strip instead.

[doodoos]

Can you not just borrow one from a dealer and find out first hand?

[James the Albarry lover]

I would but there isn't any dealers even remotely close to me so it's easier to just ask around here

[Macca]

Try it without the Tacima, see what you think. IME they can change the sound but they don't necessarily improve sound quality. I used to have a Belkin and I preferred the sound with it in the system, it gave a very pleasant sense of sharpness and clarity to the midrange. But I reckon it was a benign distortion, not a genuine improvement.

I also had a balanced mains unit for a bit, again it changed the sound but it wasn't an improvement. To me the sound was better without it.

You could also try with your amplifier plugged straight into the wall and everything else into the Tacima. You can degrade the sound of an amplifier by running it through a mains block or conditioner, although this seems to depend somewhat on the amp/speaker relationship and perhaps the specific block in question.

[walpurgis]

Not really concerned about having a mains conditioner as such for the system, but I would be interested in trying a DC blocker. I may get a kit and build one, they don't cost a fortune.

[James the Albarry lover]

Try it without the Tacima, see what you think. IME they can change the sound but they don't necessarily improve sound quality. I used to have a Belkin and I preferred the sound with it in the system, it gave a very pleasant sense of sharpness and clarity to the midrange. But I reckon it was a benign distortion, not a genuine improvement.

I also had a balanced mains unit for a bit, again it changed the sound but it wasn't an improvement. To me the sound was better without it.

You could also try with your amplifier plugged straight into the wall and everything else into the Tacima. You can degrade the sound of an amplifier by running it through a mains block or conditioner, although this seems to depend somewhat on the amp/speaker relationship and perhaps the specific block in question.

Yes I'll be trying my setup without it shortly once I can work up the courage to enter the tardis of cables, as for the pre amp idea mine is a passive so I don't have that option but good idea none the less

[Macca]

Yes I'll be trying my setup without it shortly once I can work up the courage to enter the tardis of cables, as for the pre amp idea mine is a passive so I don't have that option but good idea none the less

Oh yes, there are times I have looked at the rat's nest behind the rack and thought 'Not today.'

Re the amp what I meant was power amp straight into wall and digital sources through the Tacima. Running a turntable through the Tacima will make no difference, obviously.

[Yomanze]

Not really concerned about having a mains conditioner as such for the system, but I would be interested in trying a DC blocker. I may get a kit and build one, they don't cost a fortune.

Some really nice ready made boxes from ATL around at the moment. Based on the Lamm power amp DC blockers. PCBs and ready built boards also available. Am going to take the plunge myself I think as I do get intermittent buzz from DC.

[Primalsea]

I think that a good mains conditioner can do wonders but the passive ones need to be correctly specified for the current you are looking to run through it. This can have a huge effect on how well or terrible they work. I use a BT isolation transformer to isolate my NAS drive from my analogue gear. It seemed to make a difference.