AC Power Filter Power Conditioner - WAudio AC Power Purifier with Surge Protector

I think I have never written a review before. If you are on the fence about this product don’t be. The quality is fantastic. This power conditioner and good cables enhance the audio in your system. It is not snake oil! Filtered AC does in fact make an improvement. I would put this up against any conditioner I have seen up to and perhaps beyond the $1000.00 mark. For me it added clarity, widened the stereo field and made the silence pitch black. I ended up buying three of these. One for my headphone setup upstairs and two for my stereo in the living room. This is of great value for the money. I also added an upgraded power cable to connect it to the wall but when compared to the one that comes with this I heard no difference. Highly recommended!!!

Excellent product works extremely well

I’m going to combine one review for two items, because they are related, and so I don’t have to write two separate reviews: 1) iFi Power Supply 2) WAudio W3900 Power Conditioner... After the usual audiophile tweaks to my mid-low system (Teac CD transport, SMSL DAC, Schiit Freya+, Parasound Power Amp, Focal Chorus), I decided to try some some power supply tweaks—knowing that it could improve sound, or could be snake oil. The iFi power supply arrived first, so before installing this, I played and listened to one of my favorite test tracks, then plugged in the Power Supply to my DAC... Lo and behold, the difference was significant, and I could easily hear that the low end became much more meaty and solid. I was surprised what an improvement there was! I couldn’t tell any high end difference, which was fine, as I feel my system was a bit top heavy (bright) anyways, so this change went in the correct direction. A few days later, the W3900 came in. I listened again to my test track again, then unplugged my entire system from a cheap surge protector, and plugged everything into the conditioner. Surprise: Again, the difference was not subtle. This time, the conditioner effected the sound in a different way. It focused all the sound instrument more coherently, causing a major improvement in imaging. It seemed to do this by clearing out what seemed like some low level music details that was scatttered/floating over the entire sound stage... leaving the music very clean, and focused positioning of the musical instruments within the stage... So both experiments turned out great! Then I decided to test out what a YouTube reviewer said about power conditioners being inherent “current limiters”, and hence will hurt power amplifier performance. So I selectively unplugged my power amp from the conditioner’s “filtered” section, and plugged it into the “unfiltered” section... BOOM, the music went less focused again! So, done, all my components will go through the conditioner’s filtered outlets. I’m a happy camper. My conclusion is that power supply tweaks are NOT snake oil with the following caveats: 1) That your speakers or room acoustics are not max’ed out—and still have the extra capacity to reveal any improvement tweaks. For instance, if your room acoustics are so bad that even if you improve real sound quality, the room has no capacity to reveal the improvement... then no matter how real the sound improvement you achieve, it will not show up in a room with bad acoustics. (In my experience, the two most important and significant sound tweaks are speak placement, and room acoustic treatments. After you get these two items settled, then go on to the smaller tweaks like cables, power supply, etc. 2) The second circumstance when a power supply tweak won’t show is if your system is super high-end and already optimized to the max. In this case, a small change in power supply will have no noticeable effect, and may even degrade the sound somewhat.... Other than these two conditions, I think you will have great results and fun playing with these power supply tweaks!

Updated 8-31-2019: The parts quality on these filters is quite variable. The case itself, as mentioned in my original posting, is very solid and is perhaps the best part of the filter. The filter circuit itself looks, to my experienced eye, to be well and cleanly built. The noise filter circuit does its job very well for the price and in that sense it is a good value. The power sockets are the weakest link. The sockets do not grip very tightly so heavy cables may not sit firmly and can pull loose just from their own weight pulling at an angle. I have had one of the power LED lights burn out, though the filter still works. Again, for the money they can make a difference. I will continue the update at the end of the original posting below: =============================== I have a small home studio with some top quality gear. While everything sounded competent, I was not getting that "audiophile thrill". Way back in the Jurassic period, I ran with some Golden Ear folks and I developed and sold some power filters for them. We discovered that putting each piece of gear on its own filter yielded the best results. The power supplies in most equipment will cross contaminate each other, sometimes not much, sometimes quite a bit. Unfortunately, it is quite expensive for me to produce those filters these days. I decided to experiment with these filters, based upon some user feedback from credible sources. I purchased three of them initially, One on the power amp for the studio monitors, one on the D/A converter and one on the computer interface. What were the results? I just ordered another batch of three filters. Audiophile Alert: The average person could add one filter to their system and possibly be quite happy, depending upon your ears and the quality of the equipment and depending upon how "dirty" the power is at your location. Some people may not notice anything. For the hyper sensitive audiophiles out there, adding three filters to my system has elevated the quality of the sound in one of the most important (to me) areas. Ear fatigue. Everything sounds cleaner, a more effortless presentation. Fine details are more apparent. We are talking that last 10% that audiophiles crave. Your mileage may vary, but I just bought another three filters to use on the recording side of the chain. Purchasing six filters adds up to about $1000 by the time you are done. That is less than half the cost of one of my pieces of equipment and it improves the performance of all of them. I prefer to think of it as a $170 upgrade to each piece of equipment. I could not build my own filters for that cost and the build quality of the case would not be as solid. Totally worth it to my ears, but I understand that most people would prefer to just try one filter and leave it at that. :) ========================== So, now we are at the end of the original posting. These filters inspired me to re-design my original filters, and I have begun removing the internal parts and using the excellent case as a host for my own filters. It is very labor intensive and quite expensive from a parts perspective, but for my uses it is worth it. So, are the original Chinese filters still worth it? I think so at the price. Are my own filters in these cases better for audio quality, yes indeed, however if I were to sell them, I would need to charge at least $800 each. There would be a very limited audience for this kind of extreme audiophile type of filter. So, for $179 each, or whatever the current price is for the standard Chinese filter, I still think it is a good value as long as the circuit quality or other parts quality do not suddenly decrease..... You never really know which factory is building any particular batch of filters.

Bought 2 for home recording setup. 1 was great. Other was not, pilot light and black direct outlets ok but red filtered outlets were dead from first plug in. I opened up the metal box mostly out of curiosity. Supply wiring from circuit board to filtered sockets had obviously never been soldered. I did connect it and unit now works fine. There could have been no quality control and no final test to see if product actually works at the manufacturer. This product is too expensive to have to track down and complete assembly yourself. Otherwise very sturdy and nice orderly laid out inside and I like it; just need a different source of assembly to actually make the product. Careless manufacture.

Little to no info online, so I'll share what I've found. Quality construction and does what it says on the tin. Once I worked out some kinks (see below) I noticed a significantly lower noise floor between mic, interface, and cans. That being said, it had some weeeeiiiird kinks, and I had to try about 4 different combinations of how I plugged in my computer, USB hubs, audio interface, lamp, and external HDD enclosure. Before I got it right, really strange things were happening to my audio. I've no idea why. Nothing in my prior experience or knowledge explains why the sound would start to smear out over time, like jam spread slowly over toast. The lower noise floor I cannot scientifically attribute to the unit alone, as I took the opportunity to re-route all my power cables away from all my audio and video cables, whereas before they all disappeared down the same hole in my desk. Cable management is SO satisfying when done well, is it not? Anyhow, ymmv. I also don't know how the phase indicator is supposed to work. Mine is lit, but it looks half-lit, so my gut tells me that means it's getting a signal that's both in and out of phase, but moving things around didn't change that. I probably should've mounted it the other way round, or not so close to the underside of the desk, but until I know for sure I'll stick with what's working. I think a clue I found on the Asian version is to make sure to use enough of the filtered outlets. At first I thought I'd save them for something special, but usb3 generates a lot of noise (look it up) and I'm still repairing my hafler so no hifi review at this time.

I got this because i was having a terrible hum with my guitar amplifiers. I was running three guitar amplifiers plugged through my pedal board. It took me awhile to figure it out. This AC power filter conditioner was not the ultimate solution to my problem. The solution to my problem was 3 mono passive isolation boxes in the audio lines. But this unit is a very good unit and I am glad I added it to my set up, because running all of the equipment into one electrical outlet through this heavy duty power strip did seem to help some in other ways. This thing is built like a tank.

Picked this up as a surge protector for my amp, receiver, two turntables, two CD players, and a dual cassette deck. Amps sound best plugged directly into the wall so I didn't want a noise filter in between but I still wanted the surge protection. I did, however, want the noise filter for all my other components. I have the amp plugged into the direct line and protected, and the rest in the filtered outlet. Everything sounds better. The amp is still open, clear, and unfiltered, and the rest of the components running through it just sound clearer, more focused, and full of life. It's the best of both worlds. It's like putting on crystal clear glasses for your ears. It doesn't filter any of the sound. A common complaint with power conditioners is that they suck the life out of the music. It's subtle on a good system but it's kind of like the difference between listening to something live vs. a recording of it. This power strip keeps everything sounding live. I'd even say it makes everything sound more live. For those that think this stuff is placebo, think of it like an FM radio antenna. Depending on how clear and clean the signal is, the better your system sounds. I thought it was a hoax as well but apparently it isn't. I will say if you just need a surge protector this will at least not muck up your sound. Just be sure to plug the amp in the direct line and the rest in the filtered. Experiment with what sounds best for your system. In the end it's all personal taste.

Se nota una diferencia notable en la calidad del audio, la compré más como protección que como acondicionador de sonido, pero logró darle más claridad a las frecuencias altas, ampliar el escenario sonoro y la imagen estéreo. Las frecuencias bajas suenan más definidas. Lo uso con Cambridge Audio y bocinas Focal.

Like most of the reviews, for the price, and quality of build. Love it. For my home audio setup. Better spatial imaging. Very nice low and high frequencies now. Sounds smoother than before. I get louder listing leval at a lower volume from amp. Even my tv seems to look a little better.

Funciona muy bien, mejora el sonido de mis dispositivos.

Regrettably the reset button was missing or broken on the first two units that were ordered and then returned. Packaging seemed to be the issue. It was reordered a third time and this time it arrived in perfect condition! The unit is well made and will meet my needs. There are no holes on the unit to enable it to be mounted on a wall.

Considero que no vale lo que se pide por el, la calidad de observa por debajo del promedio, y la pieza que me llegó tenía problemas de intermitencia de alimentación ya que con cualquier vibración apagaba mi equipo, supongo por calidad de construcción. Decidí devolverlo.