Anyone experience with Audes powerconditioning line of products? E.g. ST900? For use on Supernait 3 plus Hicap, NDX2 plus XPS. THX.
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I have compared the Audes it to Puritan 156, Airlink BPS3000 and Plixir BAC 1500 MK II.
Plixir was the clear winner for me in combination with Naim and active ATCās. It really separates every note and instrument in a very satisfying way and gets you closer to a live experience.
The Plixir excels in pace rhythm and timing. The Audes was a bit more relaxed in my setup which took away some of the Naim fun. The Airlink was OK but much less black background than the Plixir and Audes with the Plixir being the āblackestā.
The Puritan is a different type of PC with active filtering and thereās lots to love also but it made some instruments sounding a bit unnatural in my set up.
What is the biggest reason for you to consider a power conditioner?
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Better not. Generally power conditioners donāt match well with Naim.
Unfiltered powerblocks, much more.
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Audes and Plixir are not conditioners but a balanced power supply. It doesnāt filter. I also compared all of the above with an unfiltered Puritan 108 purist block and all the above mentioned items bettered it in my setup.
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I use a 10kVA Topaz Ultra Isolator (-31 series, .0005pf interwinding capacitance) wired for balanced power for my Naim system. The balanced wiring cuts the VA rating in half.
From that, runs a Plixir Elite BDC 4A/19V to power my Roon Nucleus Titan.
Balanced is the way.
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Thank, @Hifi_Naim_CNNL for extensive answer. And congrats with your set. With B&W 805 D3 in my set I may have Prat to spareā¦;-). My biggest reason for pc is clean power. Audes and Elixir do not do any filtering afaik (I donāt know about Airlink).
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Perhaps my description is not right, although Audes themselves call it that, hence my title. But you are right.
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Good to know . So much better vs the Graham Hydra still on your profile ?
Then I think Plixir is the one you want. The power seems cleaner than the Audes cause the background is blacker with the Plixir.
You are in the Netherlands right?
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Still have the Hydra. Plugged in the Plixir. Demoing powerlines in 2025.
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Plixir or Audes, indeed. Tbh also dependent on secondhand market price. And yes, am in NLā¦
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Correct that neither do any active filtering to reduce noise. However, their balanced configuration will result in the cancellation of significant percentages of common-mode noise on the AC line. In a very similar manner to the way balanced XLR connections cancel common mode noise within line level connections.
This, however, is a passiveā¦in-built result of balanced wiring. So no active components are required to that end. Plixir used a soft-start function on their larger toroids last I checked. But this is not active after the transformer core has been magnetized and is stable.
As an example, my massive Topaz sees a reduction of 146dB of Common mode noise and 65dB of Normal mode noise (without restricting current more than a few fractions of percent, if correctly oversized).
Another benefit of balanced isolation transformers is they nuke DC from orbit; DC canāt make the jump from primary to secondary. And DC is a hidden evil for toroidal power supplies. All toroids are more susceptible to DC saturationā¦with just a few ma of DCā¦than R-Core or El-Core. Just a few ma of DC can reduce the current carrying ability of even a 400VA toroid by many tens of percent. Literally turning oneās 400-500VA toroid into, functionally, a 200-300VA unit.
The naysayers of using appropriately over-sized iso transformers usually claim concerns over current restriction. Ignoring entirely that DC will create orders of magnitude more current restriction, via the above means, than a correctly oversized iso-xformer ever could.
My rule of thumb: calculate the maximum current draw across all of your devices via their UL or other certification stamp on the rear, add 10% to that total, and then 2x that figure at minimum. I personally recommend 3x or more and have seen superb success using that formula.
The only ādownsideā to an isolation transformer is that all your gear must be plugged into that transformer. This is to prevent ground issues as the ground potential for things plugged into the xformer and plugged into the wall will be different. You do not want current flowing between equipment via ground. Ever.
The exception to the ādownsideā is that gear connected purely via optical means (toslink, fibre SFP, etc) can be connected elsewhere.
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Having one at home at the moment to demo, not on Naim though but on a Aavik amp and streamer. Will slot it in tomorrow.
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Thx CB01. I asume UL means Underwriters Laboratories? E.g. for SuperNait 3 its max current is (400/220=) Ā± 1.8A (see screenshot) Then Naim HiCap DR = Ā± 0,2A and Naim XPS =Ā± 0,5A
Total Ā±2,5A And then per your rule of thumb: => 5,5A or 8,4A . Correct? Thx.
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Exactly correct on all points. 
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Oh dear, so a Audes ST900 (on which I have set my mind), handling this setup above, with approx. 4,1A would not (nearly) enough in your RoT. And a ST1500 barely enough. Unfortunately, my finance also has a few RoTāsā¦
Nevertheless, many thanks for your insights and explanations. Onwards to the secondhand market.
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Also consider EquiTech, Bryston BIT, Plixir (obviously), and others on the used market.
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A Plixir BAC 1500 is more than adequate for your setup. I have the very power hungry active ATC
SCM40ās (244W each) and they the Plixir is more than enough for them.
Your Supernait 3 is āonlyā 80W and even Plixir BAC 1000 MK II would suffice. The BAC 1500 just gives you more room to be future proof and a bit more headroom.
Even though the SN3 draws 400VA maximum, it would NEVER use that much as you would probably blow up your speakers and it would be so loud that I would be extremely uncomfortable.
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This will definitely work but is also an excessive and makes things also unnecessarily expensive. If you consult Audes, Plixir or Keces they will agree that this is excessive.
With cheaper balanced supplies such as Airlink you might have to go for a BPS 3000 where with Plixir and Audes a 1000W BPS would be surely be enough in the case of @LammertvanRaan
I had a SN3 / Hicap DR and ND5XS2 and this setup definitely drew less power than my current setup. I also had my TV and AppleTV connected before without any issues and without dynamic restraints.
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All great audio is excessive.
Iāll add that if the companies citedā¦whom I deeply respectā¦advocated for my guidelines, they would never sell any product.
What Iām saying is that Iāve done the ācorrectā sizingā¦the more pragmatic and practical approach, and it just didnāt sound as good as grossly oversizing.
In my experience, killing a fly with a sledghammer may not be practical, nor mandatoryā¦but itās absolutely beneficial.
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