Stereophile
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- Apr 19, 2013
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<p><img class="story_image" src="http://www.stereophile.com/images/1013fifth.promo_.jpg" /></p>
Long experience has convinced me that many audiophiles' stereo systems substantially underperform compared to what they <i>could</i> sound like. This is not because people haven't spent enough money on their electronics or speakers. Instead, people aren't getting all the performance they've paid for because they haven't devoted enough attention to all aspects of the initial setup, and/or to maintenance and updating.
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Reduced to its essentials, a stereo system is a machine designed to convert the electricity that comes out of your wall outlet into mechanical motion by the loudspeakers, which create the sound in your listening room. So we should start with the wall current.
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<b>Ayre Acoustics L-5xe line filter</b><br />Line filters, power conditioners, or whatever you want to call them are a controversial subject. Many audiophiles claim that the best line filter is no line filter at all. Others claim that line filters merely make the system sound "different" rather than more accurate. Part of the problem may be that the technologies that remove noise, especially high-frequency noise, from the wall current can have the undesired side effect of reducing the amount of electrical current instantaneously available to the power amplifier. Water flows a lot more slowly out of a water purifier than it does from a faucet.
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Until I began writing this month's column, I hadn't given much thought to the fact that while countless companies make amplifiers, preamplifiers, phono stages, and digital gear, as far as I know, only one of them
[Source: http://www.stereophile.com/content/fifth-element-81]
Long experience has convinced me that many audiophiles' stereo systems substantially underperform compared to what they <i>could</i> sound like. This is not because people haven't spent enough money on their electronics or speakers. Instead, people aren't getting all the performance they've paid for because they haven't devoted enough attention to all aspects of the initial setup, and/or to maintenance and updating.
<p>
Reduced to its essentials, a stereo system is a machine designed to convert the electricity that comes out of your wall outlet into mechanical motion by the loudspeakers, which create the sound in your listening room. So we should start with the wall current.
</p><p>
<b>Ayre Acoustics L-5xe line filter</b><br />Line filters, power conditioners, or whatever you want to call them are a controversial subject. Many audiophiles claim that the best line filter is no line filter at all. Others claim that line filters merely make the system sound "different" rather than more accurate. Part of the problem may be that the technologies that remove noise, especially high-frequency noise, from the wall current can have the undesired side effect of reducing the amount of electrical current instantaneously available to the power amplifier. Water flows a lot more slowly out of a water purifier than it does from a faucet.
</p><p>
Until I began writing this month's column, I hadn't given much thought to the fact that while countless companies make amplifiers, preamplifiers, phono stages, and digital gear, as far as I know, only one of them
[Source: http://www.stereophile.com/content/fifth-element-81]