There is also the question of whether or not the equipment is designed to cope with that anyway. A for-instance (rather than an attempt to go off topic) is the current audiophile lore on sound cards, which is baaad... all that noise in there... can't possibly be good, and yet there are several very highly desirable internal sound cards from manufacturers such as Lynx and RME, whose engineers obviously took into the account the environment in which they would work. Don't hifi box engineers also know about ambient and power-line fed noise?   

In order to pass FCC tests, a component cannot simply belt out RF or EMI to the point that it would clearly and obviously degrade other electronic equipment. There are still real world examples of that happening though, particularly with things like FM tuners.

One example I can give is that my old Dynaudio studio monitors, when used with their stock, unshielded power cords, would hum and buzz whenever my cellphone would receive a text message or email if the phone was within a few feet of the speakers. Replacing the stock cords with well shielded PS Audio cords completely solved the problem.

The Lynx and RME cards are certainly well regarded, but these cards are usually the brand's entry to mid-level products. In general their top line stuff is all external, and they connect to computers and DAWs via USB or FireWire. The vast majority of A/D and D/A processors at the pro level from Focusrite, MOTU, Apogee, etc are external.

Power cords and conditioners work hand in glove. If you're on a limited budget, I would go with something like the MiniBuss, and use stock cords or low cost cords like the Belden Asylum cords. If you can step up to something like the UberBuss level though, then you should really think about spending a couple of hundred bucks on power cord upgrades, first to connect the conditioner to the wall, and then on to your components. It's just a lot of trial and error. I've had a boat load of different cords through my system over the years, from many of the brands out there. Some of them made no difference at all, some sounded worse than what I was already using, and some were just different and not really better or worse.

I join this thread because I believe that I have a problem that may need a Power conditioner or a power cable :

With my Headphone on, I hear a Hummmm from my Eddie Curent 445 tube Amp. This is a tube amp with a separate PSU.  And the very strange thisgs are that :

- I tested tha Amp in another house, and the Hummm is gone !

- The Hummm disapear also when I put my hand on the 445 case. May be my is body creating some sort of "human mass"  ?

--> so there must be some bad electrostatic noise or bad mass in my house's AC circuit ? (I hope it cannot damage the 445 !)

Should I buy a power conditioner or a better Power cable ?

what do you think ?

I actually solve a lot of people's fanless chassis problems with that. Good call.

So, to add a distinctly different approach…

And granted this approach may not be 'realistic' for many, but this could just be a matter of one's 'dedication' to the art and science of achieving the ultimate in tunes.    

I have no regen units, isolators, added circuits, other than a non-inline rfi/mov filter upstream from the load, (Shunyata Defender).

What I do have is a dedicated single run of standard romex 12/2 w/ground feeding just the dac and amp.
It's terminated with (1 each) Shunyata & Synergistic duplex receptacles to which my Shunyata Python and alpha digital cables feed the the dac and amp.  And its no where near an ideal feed since it's 2 pieces of romex, simply wire nutted together mid way from the panel.
But I have added magic pixie dust in the form of WAQy chips to the main bus feeds to the panel and to this dedicated branch circuit that feeds just my ≈110 watts of audio system load.

The results along with many other tweaks are truly wonderful.
One of the reasons I did this is because the in the wall house wiring, being of the post and pillar type was simply inadequate.  I have measured 2 of the house branch circuits and my 2 dedicated feeds (a second dedicated circuit for the computer) are far superior, in every measureable and audible way.  Which stands to reason.

The thing is I probably have ≈ $750 in the dedicated run (exclusive of the Shunyata power cables) with the full pixie dust treatment.  And I added these enhancements over time so it wasn't a big all in one splurge of $$.

But the 2 components that lead me in this direction were finding a 'tweako' duplex receptacle and then trying the bottlehead power cable kit.  These 2 changes started a series of experiments, mostly with the Bottlehead kit power cable design just using better materials with further treatment of the cables.

This also lead to experimenting with fuses, after hearing from 2 HeadFi'r DIY'r types that they could be a HUGE improvement.  They were indeed.

And using the ASCC test as a measure, as the power cable refinements were added, the ASCC numbers kept climbing…

So fussing with the ac delivery straight from the panel with audiophool grade connectors and cables along with additional treatments and WAQy chips, along with tweako fuses, has lead me to my curent 'state of the tweak'.

The SQ is studendous and is still improving as I accumulate hrs., albeit in spurts and pauses here and there.
But it thus far has always re-bounded back after a pause or a rare 'toilet dump experience' where the SQ then proceeds to best the previous high water mark, in SQ.

Now why all of this should make changes of such magnitude, I can only surmise.  But if I were to guess it is all about being able to deliver all of the power the entire system needs/demands AS it calls for it.  Perhaps a way of perceiving this could be as a result of an increase in the resolution of the ac power feed as it's delivered.  It simply responds more quickly, akin to an increase in dampening factor or like a slew rate increase.
At least that's what it sounds like as the system continues to improve, as veils and electical/electronic limitations drop away and the SQ becomes all the more sublime. 
The specific SQ changes, all relate to allowing more of the original signal to 'come thru' and not get 'blocked' or masked or limited in some way.
IOW the original signal is being fucked with less and less as the ac power distribution system is refined.
Why or what the exact 'mechanism' is that is directly attributable to this, I real ly can only guess at, at this point, but the ASCC tests tend to suggest some type of causal relationship.

And with the addition of The Rok into the system the SQ has taken another mother-may-I step up, yet again, with more of the same type of SQ improvements as the music signal is fucked with less and less.

Exciting times in audio indeed.


JJ