Power conditioning is unfortunately one of those areas in audio that seems to be awash with ‘black magic’, with companies selling products that do very little for vastly overinflated amounts and where there is a basic lack of understanding amongst end users and consumers about the problems we face with our power supplies as they apply to high performance audio (and video) systems.

Back at the end of 2011 we wrote some basic educational articles about power, which are posted on our website. They are a decent read for anyone wanting a broken down view of each potential problem area and the different approaches there are for resolution.

It is worth pointing out that power regenerators (such as the PS Audio units mentioned) are very different animals from isolation transformers (such as those found in Torus Power / Bryston units). Whilst both contain transformers they are used for very different purposes.

In the PS Audio approach the transformer is used to provide power to what amounts to essentially an amplifier which takes a digitally synthesized sine wave and boosts it to provide power to downstream components. It is basically an amplifier that outputs a constant 120V. The sine wave looks very nice but the output has current limitations which in the case of the P5 can be easily found with higher powered equipment. The biggest PS Audio regenerator available is rated for 10A continuous. There are also reliability issues, since the power conditioner is active and is electrically quite complex with a large number of components. Even the new units have a failure rate in the low single percentage digits.

In the Torus Power / Bryston approach the transformer inputs and outputs 120V. The transformers in these units are oversized and can support very large continuous and peak currents. The transformer is used for two purposes. One is to provide electrical isolation of input and output. The second is to provide ability for connected components to draw more peak* electrical power than they would be able to from the wall. I realize this seems a bit counter intuitive but when you consider that energy is stored in the magnetic field of the transformer, and this is right next to your equipment with a low wiring impedance it makes sense. *most audio equipment uses transformer based power supplies which draw current only at the top and bottom of the AC waveform when the diodes conduct for very short periods of time to top up the capacitors in the power supply. The biggest Torus unit is 290A (enough to run a commercial facility!) and since they are essentially passive devices life expectancy is very long.

Everyone should, at the very minimum, have their equipment protected by a device with surge protection. Preferably one that incorporates series mode surge protection from Zero Surge or it’s licensees (Brickwall, SurgeX, Torus Power). At the next level up take a look at the power regeneration, passive power filter and isolation transformer approaches.