Power direct from the wall, or Power Conditioner?

[mauidan]

Curious about the mix of people powering their Devialet straight from the wall versus from a power conditioner.

From the wall can include an audiophile caliber power cord and dedicated line or outlet.  

Given the all-in-one integrated Devialet, should we get better sound quality (straight from the wall) without potential dynamics limiting power conditioners, or, does the noise/grunge digital high frequency filtering benefits of a power conditioner out weigh any amplifier limiting constraints?

I currently have my D200 and Aurender S10 both plugged into a Running Springs Audio Haley conditioner, but plan to try the D200 straight to the wall, with a TWL Digital American power cord, this weekend.

Ciao
Kenreau

The RSA Haley is an excellent unit (I use to own one) and should be able to handle your D200 without amplifier limiting.

I have my D400 plugged into a PS Audio P5, which has no problem handling the D400 power requirement at the loudest levels
I listen to:

[Pim]

Speakers are 90dB@1W/1M so not super efficient but no slouches either. What I was saying and just re-read and can't understand how it might have been misunderstood is that at full volume and paused it is as dead silent as when powered down. It couldn't be any blacker/quieter.

I think what Pim was observing was that, like yours, his Devialet is quiet but without using loads of special plugs and wires anywhere, just cheap connection blocks.
Mine is too.
A very expensive strategy of getting power to a Devialet is certainly not necessary from the point of view of noise. Whether there is any other benefit, otoh, I will never know.

My 'strategy' does include turning off all lights and the TV (which I use as the display for my Mac mini) I really can't tell if it's the lack of grunge from the tv and dimmers/fluros or just because you pay more attention when you can't see but I can say I've had my most enjoyable sessions like that.

I'm not using fancy power cords but I can imagine that a well shielded cable can prevent grunge from the cable to enter the unit as an electromagnetic wave around the connector. Grunge coming in through the wires itself should be filtered out by the power supply and clearly they are with Devialet otherwise you would hear noise when you turn it up.

[kenreau]

Great discussion, thanks for all the input.  I was sucked into another project this weekend and did not get a chance to experiment.  

I just realized that I did not set up an actual poll for logging in the responses.  I don't see any user features.  Does that need to be set up by an administrator?

Thanks
Kenreau

[Manoet]

And therein lies the difference between "fancy" and/or ordinary for me. Even with my TV on/muted, isolated from the Devialet and using its own internal speakers or fed into the Devialet so I can (rarely) use my stereo speakers for movies etc the system is totally dead when cranked up and paused. Can't say about dimmers or fluorescents as none are used in the same room or in my dedicated A/V circuit. Although both are used in nearby rooms with zero influence or cross-contamination into the listening room. Additionally on my A/V power circuit and running from the PS Audio Dectet passive power supply I mentioned in my original post there's an iMAC, cable modem, Amazon Echo, Sonos 24/96 ZP90 and an Apple Time Capsule. Minus the tv, ALL of these are powered on and sharing power with the Devialet when testing for high volume grunge between speakers. The reason for that is because except for the TV and Echo they HAVE to be on for me to have a network and source component. If they're not on I have no Devialet or any other sound system for that matter! In my case there's more to it than "just" a silent Devialet. Additionally all of those ancillary devices except TV are within 6-12" of the wall-mounted D200 directly behind them. That "may" be why I kinda have to be a little more technically sophisticated/better prepared than you may need to be with regard to clean power or signal transmission. Not a good or bad thing... just the way it is. As I said before; "an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure." But still important to know everything I currently use power-wise is "passive" in nature and not "active" in any way! Instead of a single 120v/20A wall outlet I use 6 (1 in the wall/5 in the Dectet distributor). Not that I need all 12 outlets any longer with the Devialet but because I wasn't always using a "3-in-1" Amp/DAC/Pre and seems silly to start over and build a smaller one with fewer outlets when a perfectly good one with a few empty outlets is readily available. Sure I'm a little OCD but I'm not "that" OCD!! ;-)

[kenreau]

Manoet, I can appreciate (and relate to) the level of OCD you subscribe to and admire the level of consideration given to the parts selection and configuration. Cost must not really be a consideration as my quick estimate has to put this >$3K range.

This must be the 3rd time in the past few weeks I've read of people declaring the Furutech GTX receptacles the next best thing since sliced bread. I've got to get one, or two of those.

Thx
Kenreau

[Manoet]

As I said early on, if you want to start somewhere, that's the place and they're on sale at a few places for $175 (rhodium) and about $20 less for Gold. I wasn't that lucky since I jumped on them several years ago when they were new and had to pay $245 each for Rhodium. Occasionally they and various plugs, IEC's and cable terminations go on sale used so keep an eye out at all the usual suspect's sites. But knowing what I know today I would've paid double that! Yes they're that good! But no matter anyones financial status no one 'want's to pay a dime more than they have to! I personally know guys that swap out Rhodium/Gold for a different sound as the outlet swap is dramatically cheaper, more effective and repeatable than jumping on the high-end cable-go-round.

[completeluxury]

Ive just ordered a shunyata cyclops v2 for my system.

The shunyata stuff works a lot differently than every other power conditioner so it will be interesting to see how it performs when it arrives! its a passive conditioner so it doesnt alter the voltage in any way, theres no regulation, its just pure noise cleaning. The cyclops has no internal fuses/breakers/inverters/impedance so its a direct link from the outlet to the amp.

The other big pro for shunyata is that each outlet has its own filtering. Almost every other power conditioner already mentioned filters power that comes in but they dont isolate each point so the noise from each device plugged in feeds back through the conditioner and goes to the other plugged in devices.

i also bought furutech FI-50 rhodium male and female plugs with the highest quality furutech cable to plug the dev amps into the shunyata.

cant wait for it all!

[Pim]

Hi guys,

What does the rhodium do?

[Gentleman]

Hi guys,

What does the rhodium do?

Hi Pim.

I can NOT tell you what the rhodium will be good for but we have tried many different SCHUCO plugs (even the most expensive OYADE once) and for us the FURUTECH stainless steel / carbon / rhodium plug of the 50-series simply provided us with the cleanest and most enjoyable SQ ever. And as Guillaume mentioned last weekend during our shootout in Sweden these connectors seem to work brilliantly on all kind of cables!

Do yourself a favour and simply test it yourself.

In Dubio Pro Audio

Jan

[Manoet]

One of the guys in our local audio group of 5 just got his Cyclops V2 6 or so weeks back and of course we hacked into it 2 weeks after showing up. He's the only one in our group that's not retired yet and doesn't have time to build his own passive system like the rest of us. All of us question the CV 2's 'passivity' due to its internal componentry but if Caelin says so who are we to argue!?! Aside from that it's certainly dead quiet! Far quieter than the Hydra I was using years ago! Last weekend he brought it over and and borrowed one of my new back-up GTX-D outlets in rhodium and we installed it in place of the OEM Shunyata receptacle... I think its called a Z1 or something like that... appeared to be nickel-plated brass? I also swapped out his 20A IEC inlet with a spare F'tech 20A Rhodium IEC I had for an upcoming project. Took less than an hour all-told even with very minor metal cutting/grinding to mate the new IEC inlet to the V2. We then hooked it up to the D200 here. He "thought" it sounded better, quieter but couldn't say for sure till he got home, let everything burn a couple hundred hours then listen critically at his place for a couple weeks. Within a few days he was ecstatic! Says its far better than pre-modification! He said "best waste of a warranty he's ever done!" I told him all that's fine but there's this small matter of a F'tech GTX-D and a FI-33R 20A IEC. He said "I have new ones here for you but I'm holding them ransom till you come over and listen." The right answer and opportunity to mooch someone else's food and liquor!

As an aside the FI-50 carbon fiber 120V AC male plugs will interfere with each other when plugged into the Shunyata/Hubbell CV 2 outlet! Both can't be seated fully in either 120V receptacle at the same time and can't be parallel to each other when plugged in therefore remain in a slight V-configuration and partially "out-of-socket." We didn't find this out until after installing the GTX-D into the CV 2 which easily accommodate both simultaneously.

And as you likely know the FI-50 IEC housings won't fit under the Dev rear cover but its a worthwhile trade-off. Since mines wall mounted behind and half above/half below my roll-top desk I can't see the missing cover anyway