will
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Hey Geno,
Glad the you found the thread interesting. I was hoping it might be based on your questions.
I think I mentioned further up, that I don't know what Steve thinks of the magnets, and I don't think anyone else has gotten input from him either, or at least not posted so. But Steve knows about them, and has not said not to use them. I have had nothing but improvement in sound from them, which causes me to think they are good, causing the transformers to produce smoother power, and guessing smoother/quieter power, being less noisy, is likely less agitating and heat producing, but I really don't know.
I have neither an Emotiva, or a Zen Line Conditioner so can't answer your question from my own experience.
When I was looking into upgrading power quite a few years ago, I looked into balanced systems like the ZLC, but I went with a regenerator because I was having enough voltage fluctuation in my power to make my system sound so variable it was impossible to tune to a consistent enough sound for my tastes. Could be 119 at times, to 122 or 123 at times, more voltage adding density and thickness, and less, leaning it down. My PSAudio P5 came with some sonic issues I would have preferred avoiding, but it gave me a very consistent power to tune from. And after fine-tuning it for a more open and clear sound with fuse, feet, a power cord I made especially to open and clarify it, a few passive noise filters, and fine tuning the unit settings, I grew to appreciate it quite a bit.
This leads me to say, I have never put anything in the power path of my amps that did not change the sound in some ways. Be it different receptacles, different power cords, different ends on the cords, different conditioners/regenerators/filters, different IEC inlets in the gear, different power supply caps and bypass caps, wires, resistors... sometimes with some sacrifice, and hopefully weighing on the benefit side substantially...Everything I have tried has made a difference big enough to make a choice, both in terms of power quality and flow, and the finesse in which different parts use that power.
So I don't take things like an Emotiva filter lightly, whether a big benefit or not, depending on too many things to know without trying it.
The main point being though.... the quality and dynamic flow of your power has a critical influence on your component parts performance, the electricity you feed the caps, resistors, wires, transformers etc... having a lot to do with defining your signal quality. So adding something to the chain is always worth serious consideration.
That said, things like the ZLC interested me before I realized voltage regulation was a big deal here. But I never followed through on learning about isolated balanced power. As I recall though, my sense of was that they would isolate your gear from bad power on your power lines, and between audio gear....and I imagined that might include DC offset, but can't say for sure. Question becoming, do you need DC offset assistance, or is your hum something else.
Steve's description of the ZLC says things like: "Unlike normal (non-toroidal) isolation, the Zen Line Conditioner emits no RF and has no vibration or hum!," "100% isolation from the noisy power grid," and .... "Having everything plugged into a single place, like the Zen Line Conditioner, creates a single-point ground scheme that not only eliminates ground based hum issues, but also improves the sound of your entire system with blacker backgrounds.""Fully balanced output where both the neutral and line are isolated from the wall outlet. This improves safety and blocks all the harmonics and noise from the power grid to greatly enhance the focus, imaging, and liquidity of your stereo."
It would seem your ZLC might mitigate most, if not all power issues. I would have to run some tests, but I think I have noticed more or less transformer hum/vibration with: different tubes, different vibration mitigation and weight schemes, different levels of noise on my AC..... and as I recall, based on picking up noise from proximity to EMI/RF from neighboring gear, or from cables not cancelling each other out, etc... Noise seems quite contagious with things that put out RFI and EMI if they are close together, and/or connected with power... And seemingly all of these things, your ZLC might solve to various degrees, but since the gear itself can create some of these noise making things, perhaps not fully???
Have you checked with Steve on this? Seems like it might be good, especially your having a lot of his gear and his power rig, eliminating some variables. And if you figure something out, please let us know.
I can say that here, weight on Herbies' Sonic Stabilizers on my input transformers; putting on some little strips of Ear damping material on input and output transformers; and careful magnet placement on them and the chokes, all these refined my sound...collectively, relatively substantially in terms of fine detail and space. I had a lot of mods done by the time I put on the Ear SD40AL damping strips, but it was pretty big-time here in terms of resolving cruder detail into more complex and refined fine detail. I am sure these all relate to how things began here with my power and system, but all good here.
Hope this helps,
Will
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