Weekly Q&A: Answers | Week of June 10, 2024

What is Balanced Power?

Question:

I think that I am late to the party in regards to Balanced Power. Would you mind explaining what it is and if it is a stand alone solution to power conditioning or does it work in conjunction with those type of components ? Specifically for my listening room remodel I had intended to follow Robert Harley's detailed advice from his May 2019 article "Building a Listening Room" in creating a dedicated sub-panel for power to the room . Would simply going with a balanced power unit say from the likes of Equitech be a work around to rewiring and creating a sub-panel?

-Michael

Answer:

Balanced AC power will reduce the noise on the AC line coming into your listening room through the phenomenon of common-mode rejection. But noise on the incoming AC line is not the primary source of noise in an audio system. Most of the electrical noise in an audio system is noise generated by the components themselves. Any product with a microprocessor or a switching power supply, for examples, will ge…