Mains Conditioning - my experiences     Mike Pickwell

Hi Don,

I read your article about your home-made mains mains conditioner and thought you might be interested to hear my similar experiences.

I recently purchased a mains conditioner second hand from ebay on a bit of a whim. I wasn't really looking to buy one but something about it looked purposeful and in the end it sold so cheaply I felt compelled to buy it.

As soon a I got it home I opened it up for a look inside and was surprised to find not much more than an off the peg IEC RFI filter inlet connected to an enormous toroidal transformer in turn connected to two 3 pin plug outlet sockets.

The unit is made by Avery Magnetics and the seller reckoned it was rated to 350w. It's a pretty agricultural looking thing not much more sophisticated than your bread bin monster.

Now I already have one of those cheap plasticy Tacima 6 way mains filters which I used to power my CD player, turntable and pre amp. I'm reasonably sure that the Tacima makes a small just about perceptable improvement to these devices and at the very least the screened cable will keep some of the interference at bay.

In the past I have tried the Tacima powering my two Linn power amps and felt that it strangled the dynamics a little. So the question was would the 350w mystery mains conditioner fair any better?

In short, yes it certainly does! The sound was immediately more punchy, the bass more weighty and authoritative and the background noise floor seemed lower. I don't really understand what it is doing but it is certainly doing something.

I have sent you a photograph of the unit.

Kind regards, Mike