Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!know!cs.utexas.edu!uwm.edu!csd4.csd.uwm.edu!info-high-audio-request
From: sse@BREEZE.bellcore.com (Samuel S. Epstein)
Newsgroups: rec.audio.high-end
Subject: Power Line Conditioners
Message-ID: <6424@uwm.edu>
Date: 19 Sep 90 13:02:48 GMT
Sender: news@uwm.edu
Lines: 35
Approved: tjk@csd4.csd.uwm.edu

I bought a Tice power block for my modest system,
naively expecting it to solve a problem with
very brief blackouts, which I confused with
brownouts. It doesn't address this problem at all.
When my house loses power for a fraction of a
second, the turntable and everything else still
go through a power cycle. When a surge (presumably)
follows the blackout, it can still trigger my
power amp's own protection mechanism, although
I'm told the Tice does have surge protection.

However, the Tice makes a very dramatic
improvement in the system's fidelity. Soundstage
is wider, with instruments and voices placed more
precisely. Bass is improved. When I was shopping
for preamps I faced a tradeoff of liquidity versus
what a salesman called "reach out and touch it,"
and chose liquidity. With the Tice, I retain
liquidity and get "reach out and touch it" too.
One sonic disadvantage is that the brightness of
my listening room (and perhaps of my interconnects)
has become more apparent. George Tice persuaded me
that this brightness was not a contribution of the
power block.

I haven't yet experimented with switching plug
polarity.

I had previously experimented with the Tripplite
LC-2400, with very unsuccessful results.

I'm using a MFA Magus preamp, Audioquest Emerald
interconnects, a PSE Studio 4 amp, and Vandersteen
2Ci speakers biwired with 3 runs of Tara Space and
Time and 1 run (on bass) of Tara TFA Return.