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RE: Interesting post from another forum

Regarding power conditioners:

When I brought in a power conditioner as part of a review I made the mistake of plugging all my components into it. I immediately noticed and improvement as said it was great that improved my CD player, amplifier etc. Then a month later I noticed that while the overall sound was better it seemed to lack some dynamics.

I learned later that my AN OTO integrated amp sounded better just being plugged into the wall socket but that the conditioner did wonders on the noise floor of my Cambridge CD6 which has a slight noise issue in the treble but the conditioner completely takes that out.

I've had the opposite issue with cables - I brought in a pair of $1k silver IC cables and put them in over the $70 well reviewed copper - meh - didn't notice much difference at all - but I used the $1k Silver cables for a year - I accidentally broke it slightly and it was cutting in and out. So I put the copper ones back on and they were so so SO bad. I cleaned them too so it wasn't oxidization or anything. huge difference - I got the silver ones repaired the next day and dumped the copper ones. And I've always been more than a little skeptical of cables.

People often say they trust a magazine or not - but it comes down to the individuals. For instance you can say you trust Stereophile because hey they fired a corrupt reviewer - but they ALSO hired the corrupt reviewer in the first place! Which means that every issue of that magazine and every review that guy did is suspect - maybe thousands of sales went to an amp maker selling crap that could have been going to reputable makers. Not to mention the reader who bought something that could be junk. The Theta Data Universal was reviewed glowingly by Stereophile and that writer is now the head of TAS. If these are held up as the most ethical then I understand why the presidency is a game show.





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