Mains conditioners

[aliEnRIK]

Grottyash:aliEnRIK:
Ive never had 'pops and clicks' going through my system

And the first hifi item I ever tried a mains cable on was my arcam A85 - a stereo amp, which sounded a lot better with bass than with the generic lead

alienrik, my question was about mains conditioners.

If a mains cable alone can make such a difference............

Lets put it this way. After my balanced mains transformer had a bit of a run in, I even had to turn the sharpness down on my tv! As for stereo, yes. My isotek sigmas had an effect on my A85 back then too.

Main problem with mains conditioners is most (if not all to some degree) strangle the power going to the unit. So it might be 'cleaner' and have more detail, but with a lack of dynamics to boot.

 

[steve_1979]

I've just tried a new £25 Tacima mains filter for the first time today and it doesn't seem to make much difference with my setup.

Test 1- Old CRT telly with freeview and DVD's. Neither the picture nor sound quality seemed to have changed at all. As before the the picture looks mostly fine but there is still a hint of 'snow.' The freeview signal strength did seem to improve silightly though, but only a little bit from about 50% to 60%.

Test 2 - 320kb/s MP3's played from a PC via an optical cable to a Yamaha RX-V365 receiver. I think that there might be a slight improvement in the sound quality here but it's such a small improvement you can barely notice it at all. The bass and mid range do seem slightly clearer and the treble seems to sound bit more mellowed.

Overall the difference is so slight (if at all?) it wasn't really worth the £25 outlay. However I will be upgrading the receiver to a Yamaha RX-V667 soon and swapping the speaker cables for Chord Carnival Silverscreen so I will test it again to see if the differences are more noticable with better quality audio equiptment.

 

[aliEnRIK]

Ive never tried a tacima on my equipment. Does seem to be very hit and miss with a lot of people

Probably does need a run in time though

 

[aliEnRIK]

Just to add, you shouldnt plug your amp through the tacima

 

[f1only]

aliEnRIK:Just to add, you shouldnt plug your amp through the tacima

Mine is, I found the sound from the Denon 1910 more pleasing hitting better bass & treble.

BUT from previous experience it can be a bit hit & miss on the Amp side of things, my Pioneer 1019 did'nt like it, as aliEnRIK says it strangled it, so I plugged it straight into the mains with no Tacima conditioner & worked fine.

I think the answer is just to experiment with the equipment you have & if you see improvements then go with it.

 

[MUSICRAFT]

aliEnRIK:
Ive never tried a tacima on my equipment. Does seem to be very hit and miss with a lot of people

Probably does need a run in time though

Hi aliEnRIK

So we're now on to mains conditioners needing to be run in

Perhaps power stations should run in the electricity before sending it out

All the best

Rick @ Musicraft

 

[aliEnRIK]

MUSICRAFT:aliEnRIK:
Ive never tried a tacima on my equipment. Does seem to be very hit and miss with a lot of people

Probably does need a run in time though

Hi aliEnRIK

So we're now on to mains conditioners needing to be run in

Perhaps power stations should run in the electricity before sending it out

All the best

Rick @ Musicraft

Electrons have been studied at the atomic level and they do 'change lanes' so to speak over a period of months until they finally settle with whatever theyre happiest with (the least resistant path)

 

[steve_1979]

I've just tested the Tacima mains filter again on my updated system (Yamaha RX-V667, better cables and interconects) and it still only makes the very slightest of difference which is barely noticable.

Still, considering I've now spent around £800 and the Tacima filter only costs £25 it seems like a fair price considering it does seem to make the midrange and bass slightly clearer. It also seems to have softened the treble a little bit too (which I like but some people may not).