What should a power conditioner do?
Contents
In essence, you want a conditioner to do only 1 thing: deliver power to your audio equipment in such a way that it performs optimally. A good power conditioner adds nothing (and leaves nothing) to the reproduction of sound on your HiFi set. It only prevents unwanted effects in the conversion of electrical signals to pressure differences (from the speakers).
How do you know that a power conditioner is doing its job properly?
What we hear when a power conditioner is doing its job properly:
- A stable stereo image. If you close your eyes and listen, you can point to where the musicians are playing. With a good system, that position remains relatively unchanged, even if you move to a different spot. As if you could walk around the band.
- From the lowest notes to the highest notes, everything is exactly in proportion. Instinctively it just “fits” when you listen.
- Experience the effect of a very low noise floor. You hear more (micro) detail, the music plays against a very quiet background.
With a balanced system, you experience that listening is not tiring, that the music is rhythmic, and that onsets, such as a vigorous keystroke on a piano or the plucking of a string on a violin or guitar, are reproduced effortlessly. You’re comfortable in the music and there’s nothing that subconsciously distracts you.
Listening
The stereo image offers peace of mind, but instruments are not really rock-solidly pinned in place. The size of the stereo image grows in width and height, but not in depth. It is also noticeable on Ofeliadorme ‘s album that the voice is placed far forward. So the Xindak emphasizes the top of the midrange. We feel that the filter wants to open up the soundstage a bit more. Something that can also be heard in the treble area. Cymbals, like in “Three Good Things” by Mammal Hands get a dry tap.
This means that the Xindak is not really neutral across the frequency spectrum. A metaphor might clarify what the Xindak does. If you take a picture and you have it printed on paper, you can choose either matte paper or high gloss. It is the same photo, but the result is different. High gloss makes the colors stand out much more by saturating them more. That’s what the Xindak does, it’s the high gloss version of a power conditioner. Whether you appreciate that is a matter of taste. The music still breathes and lives.
Ofeliadorme‘s album is built on the cantankerous sounds of analog synthesizers and that warm sound remains. Listening to some of the classical pieces from the playlist, it was noticed that strings can start to sound like a bag of angry bees. You must take this observation with the right grain of salt: it depends very much on the total setup whether this is also expressed in your system. The setup of your reviewer has a lively character and that is magnified. This can be adjusted later on.
Black
The most important thing a power conditioner brings is the (drastic) lowering of the noise floor. The familiar quiet background with soft passages, being able to hear nuances in bass sounds, like with an acoustic bass in an orchestra or ensemble. The Xindak lowers the noise floor, it is audible. The chosen way of filtering and the emphasis on the middle and high makes that the listener is not very aware of this.
Thereby a critical note. The Naim amplifier lets out a very soft noise through the speakers when it’s on. The Xindak adds a varying high frequency noise. It’s barely perceptible, but your reviewer’s “sheepdog ears” pick up on things like this. This says something about the degree of isolation in the internal circuitry.
The Xindak FP-silver cable
Out of curiosity, the thick, but still pliable, cable is connected between the amplifier and its own power conditioner. It then becomes clear that this cable “blows up” the sound. Everything becomes bigger and rounder. Fans of rock and progressive metal may appreciate this, the album ‘Black Market Enlightment by Antimatter did very well with this cable, but when listening to orchestral pieces from the classical playlist it quickly became artificial.
When the cable from your reviewer’s own power conditioner is hooked up to the Xindak power conditioner it has an immediate effect on the sound. In other words, you can direct the sound a bit by choosing a different cable. The lively character was reduced with the cable from the reviewer’s own power conditioner. This did come at the expense of the overall experience, the sound felt a bit ‘pinched’.
The lesson: the Xindak XF-2000ES is sensitive to the cable between the wall connection and the power conditioner. That says something about the degree of isolation that the transformer in the Xindak manages to achieve in practice.