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If I use good quality equipment, like a good dac, a good amp and speakers (with good measurements) and a good acoustic treatment, do I really need a power conditioner or power regenerator? will I get sonic benefits? Don't good devices already have great filtering for noise or pollution that degrades the sound? Basically I don't know if I plug everything straight into the socket or use some ''filter''. I think this question is valid and I think that many have it too, since spending money testing each product is not at all viable for me. I've been researching recently about power conditioner, power filter and etc, I always think about not very expensive solutions to improve the quality of my setup or at least have stable power without much noise. When reading in other forums and reading reviews, it seems encouraging, but it is very relative and depends on the setup of each one. I see that the question is not as simple as saying whether ''need'' (or not) from the moment you identify ''a problem'' as noise, hum or audible ground loop in the sound, often the noise may not be very noticeable and we think everything is ok (with degraded sound quality), until we test a product like that. Everything gets more confusing when we see that it's not enough just to buy a suitable power conditioner and ok, certain products alter the sound and can compress soundstage, bass or harm the treble, because the power is cut a little, the solution for this they say it's the ones' 'power regenerators'', but which are too expensive.

Hi guys, does cutting a 5v line on a usb cable work as a noise isolator? To begin with here is my audio chain. Computer - Usb port - Musical fidelity Async M1 Dac - Emotiva mini X amp - Hifiman He-500 headphones (speaker taps) Computer - Usb port - Musical fidelity Async M1 Dac - Stereo Out - Active Yamaha Hs80m Speakers I play Flac/Wav music, minimum 16bit 44.1kHz using jriver 19, Wasapi, Full volume, nothing in the dsp chain - cleanest possible. I own a Musical Fidelity M1 Dac, which offers async usb, but not galvanic usb isolation as we all know this can lead to all sorts of noise problems. It's self powered so I believe doesn't require power via the 5v of a usb cable. I tried playing back and forth with optical and Usb to see if there was any difference, as it's an headache to know you've paid lots of money to have a degraded experience, especially when there's talk of improvements such as isolating Usb etc. Trying both out with Jriver. Optical was connected via a Titanium Hd soundcard, no motherboard connection. Optical seemed to offer a faster attack and delay to percussion type instruments, like a sparkly finish to the sound, yet vocals seemed slightly recessed. Usb brings the Vocals more into play, they are more pronounced and focused, easier to concentrate on, and more analogue/warm , but the other sounds are slightly blurred, i can't hear that slight reverb finish at the end of a sound, its almost as if it has been cut off! Both have their flaws. I conducted a test. If I stick some electrical tape over the 5v pin on the A connector of the Usb cable, and play with the Dac connected via Usb, switched to Usb mode only, the sound seems to be more crisper. To define crisp.. If a percussion is playing , its attack is faster and there is no blur to it, i can pick it out among the sound in its own little space. It's not just percussion, it makes each sound a little easier to identify, more spaced out, but the soundstage hasn't changed at all. I hope this isn't placebo as I haven't got any monitoring equipment to measure the difference. The thing is, I would rather use an isolator to do this as there is a slight issue with covering up the 5v pin. A sine wave is introduced into the sound if I plug in speakers to my wall outlet. The speakers are connected to the Dac also, but the Xlr have had their ground pins cut. So why not removed the tape with the speakers plugged in? I did. And the sound via usb lost its crisp edge again. Any truth to this or is my mind playing tricks? Will a Usb isolator do the same as stopping the 5v from a computer touching the signal?

So, here's the deal. I own the PSB M4U2 headphones with a built-in amp. I then bought an Asus Xonar U7 external DAC/amp, thinking I could get better audio quality (Right now I'm using a port in my keyboard, sounds terrible). I get the Xonar today, but noticed a buzzing sound, stemming from ground loops. I had never heard of this until today. What do I do now? I want a DAC/amp (Basically I just want better sound) for around 100-150 $ (Prefferably around 100 €, as I'm based in Europe). I dropped 400 $ on some sweet headphones, but I've got nothing to back it up. I was looking at the E-MU 0204 E-MU 0204 USB it says it has ground lifts. Would that resolve the problem? Are there any alternatives?