Dan D’Agostino, the founder of his own amplifier brand, explicitly recommends plugging his amps directly into a wall outlet rather than into a power strip or filter.
Does anyone here power their amplifiers this way?
If so, have you noticed any sonic or performance differences compared to using a power strip or conditioner?
Do you think this advice applies only to D’Agostino’s designs, or could it be beneficial for all amplifiers?
Does anyone know of a specific technical rationale behind avoiding power strips/filters for high-end amps?
I don’t know exactly what D,Agostino says but normally this type of recommendation does not mean use ONLY into the outlet on the wall that your builders installed. It means not using any power strip with features ( such as filters). A plain extension lead should be OK ( and necessary for practical reasons), but only if it can provide adequate current. The latter is certainly of concern with some of his high powered amplifiers and where current limitations may not allow full power to be developed.
If you are using one of D’Agostino’s big amps it might be worth talking to your electrician as a high power ( e.g. 20 amp) circuit may be worth installing.
NB: my amps are powered from dedicated mains ( no power conditioning). However the circuits are fed via a normal domestic consumer unit ( again dedicated).
Ive spoken with dan about it directly. He said his amps are built specifically to take the power as it is, coming out of the wall. Conversely he now runs his amps thru a strom tank and that in itself provides an isolation. He indicates that upstream components should all be filtered. I believe that he feels that any device placed between his thirsty amp designs is more harmful that possibly helpful. All of my amplification equipment and central preamp are dagostino design. Amps all are on individual home run, dedicated, oversized circuits and preamp is also on a dedicated circuit but pulls its power through a adept response power conditioner. All audio circuits are on an isolated ground leg in the breaker box with a separate ground rod from the balance of the home circuitry. My home is also further isolated on an transformer that serves only my home. It isnt noise proof but very quiet.
I believe the rationale is never having an amp lacking more power than it could possibly use. Full class a theory … always keep the hose full and dont rely on capacitors to provide what the cord should supply.
I would imagine it would be beneficial for any class a design amp. The music suffers as the availability of full power ( headroom) diminishes.
My conditioner chokes my amp so badly that when I first used it I thought I did something wrong. Directly from the wall is my only option. However, at AXPONA I spoke with a speaker/amp designer whose room was outstanding, and he said the Stromtank gets his highest recommendation.
The system I have includes a Shunyata Everest power distributor. When I asked Caelin the designer of the Everest about using the Everest to power my Spectral Audio mono block amps he urged me to plug these into the wall. He felt that with my speakers putting a potentially significantly low impedance load on the amps, that anything getting in the way of such loads, and the high current demands of the amps, using the Everest is not advised. He urged a 20a circuit for each mono block as well.
Thanks. But the StormTank is more a high quality energy storage than a filter.
I use the Synergetic research top of the line that have dedicated inputs for the amp.
I did raise this question because talking with my AD where i buy most of my gear, i ask him why sometimes the music sound better, there’s no harshness in the mids, the bass sounds tight. The music just sounds more right, clean and deep.
He told me to try to connect the amp directly to the wall because Dan recommends that.
I use the darTZeel CTH-8550MK2 that is not a power hungry but i like to listen music loud, one of the reasons because I’m considering change the amp for the Dan Agostino Momento power stereo.
This afternoon I’ll try to change the power connection from the filter to the wall.