As you plan your music system, which product is the FIRST IN LINE? Yep, the Mains Conditioner. If you do NOT have a major league mains conditioner at the head of your system, you’re leaving dynamics and definition on the table.
Even if you have $100k worth of great gear… without a great mains conditioner, you’ve already lost the battle for resolution.
Your electrical service is very much like viewing analog TV back in the day. There is an obnoxious amount of snow in your picture, or in our case, audio signal. We can actually measure this noise in the AC line.
Please visit the POWER tab near the bottom of our home page. We show you how our line measures MAX (over 1000 units) in one part of our store and 761 at another part of our store.
I’m sorry to tell you we ALWAYS see equivalent readings in customers’ houses. Our goal is to make this ZERO, meaning there is no AC induced fuzz to dull your music (or picture!).
If you do not REMOVE the noise from the AC line, the fine details of your music will be obfuscated by this noise. The debris in the road masks dynamic range and fine detail.
Where you’ll notice the improvement most- is in midrange precision. Attacks on guitar strings or hammers hitting piano wires will be softer/duller, without a nice mains conditioner like Isotek. A stand up bass fiddle will sound blurry without the conditioner- once you’ve been exposed to sound WITH a fine conditioner. Most importantly, you will achieve a breathy immediacy in the human voice with a great conditioner than you CANNOT without it.
What’s a great example of this? Since “everyone” can stream now, pull up Shirley Horn’s
“Beautiful Love” to appreciate her exquisite voice and phrasing. With emotion and AIR like this,
how can you NOT want to squeeze out the last drop of Shirley’s delivery? This sounds great not just because of what is there. It sounds increasingly better as you get rid of what shouldn’t be there! It is the epitome of an example of where it pays to get snow out of the audio picture.
These are details that ARE audible. The better your system, the more improvement you’ll get from a great conditioner. These fine conditioners also protect you from line voltage spikes and nasties.
The good news is, a great mains conditioner doesn’t need to cost a fortune. Isotek of England makes two very special products at downright inexpensive prices. These are made in Isotek’s factory in Slovakia- not in the far east.
Isotek Polaris V5 $900
Polaris is a bargain and is very worthwhile if you can’t swing Elektra. Polaris is a 35dB isolation system with six outlets. Polaris comes with its own fine power cable called Initium. Initium uses nickel pins and a polyethylene dielectric. Initiums sell for $175 ea.
Polaris has one isolation network for the bar, not six as Aquarius does. Polaris will make an audible improvement and we recommend it for anything except the ultra high powered big dog amps out there!
Isotek Electra V5 $2000
Elektra is a GREAT conditioner that costs less than half the price of its serious competition. Elektra has six outlets. Two of these are full amperage circuits for high current devices like power amps. Each of the six outlets has ITS OWN isolation network, so there is no backwash or interaction among components connected to Elektra. The isolation spec is 60dB.
Elektra comes with its own great power cable, Initium. We suggest you buy additional Initium cables ($175 ea) to replace the cheapy black ones that came with your gear. Initiums use nickle plated pins and a Poly dielectric.
If you don’t have an Isotek conditioner, there’s no need to waste money with fancy power cables. If you don’t strip the noise out of the system to begin with, the extra advantage of cut above power cables can’t be heard.