At some point Michael had AudioQuest power treatment my memory recalls one of the 5000 series.
I think it’s not that conditioners are better than regenerators, but that in top setups with a generally good power supply situation, certain disadvantages of both come into play and both make only sense iif the power supply situation is bad enough. So far my experience.
I was thinking about a ground loop as well. I worked in an R&D lab where we chased a ground loop for a few weeks. A raised computer floor and several hundred of miles under the floor didn’t help, but once found it was like flipping a switch.
I think that he solved his audio equipment problem, but most likely still has a problem for the rest of his home. I would suggest to him that he brings in an Electrical Engineer to do a full inspection.
I wonder how many people have a power system like the one covered in this article.
Nice setup, terrible couch.
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I gotta give you that one. 
Many of those with the big boys scenarios don’t have off the shelf stuff, often not even in terms of amps or speakers.
I agree. They seem to work better in different situations and I’ve used both. Fremer obviously needs regenerated power or to move house, his existing conditioner apparently not being up to the job.
Mains conditioning products from IsoTek and Shuyata, probably others, have leveraged into audio from industrial and medical applications. Regeneration is quite extreme and for many systems it is not required or out of budget. Conditioners are just cheaper to make. There are expensive ones, and I’m sure Fremer’s are expensive. IsoTek’s best regenerator costs twice as much as a P20.
I found my regenerator most effective with high draw valve amplification.
I’ve also decided that to add to digital vs. vinyl, there is a new classification of people between those who look better or worse with Covid-hair. Fremer definitely looks worse. I’m with him on that as well. I’m booked in for a chop on 22 April. Can’t wait.
Apologies to people with no hair, then again, these days you’re the lucky ones.
I am looking forward to hearing the difference when we switch our house to solar. I haven’t read any customer stories related to audio and the switch to solar.
My experience is that conditioners are always a compromise in terms of speed, openness and dynamics in very good setups (but can help if the power situation demands it), regenerators less, but they still are in a different way if an alternative power supply chain is optimized towards reciprocal isolation of components and HF/RF Isolation/protection, which they don’t seem to support well.
The best idea seems to be a large regenerator prior to the power distribution of the setup and then a power cabling/distribution system caring for the rest.
So rather something like this prior to the stereo (not mine).
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Your own power station is a good idea.
Good Class D amplifiers don’t suffer because their speed and dynamics are a result of their own power supply, which is a fundamental part of their design.
Had AQ 7000 at some point
Best,
-JP
He has a few conditioners. I tried a Shunyata power cable and it worked so I bought it. I also bought the conditioner but the cable did most of it. Many of his components have separate power supplies, which makes a lot of sense, but takes a lot of room.
Michael Fremer is just like my Hong Kong audiophile friend. My friend also is strictly into vinyl. he has heard the best digital like the DCS Vivaldi stack and it doesn’t hold a candle to his turntable is what he says. He says vinyl just has that special organic reality that digital can’t produce. I kind of get what he’s talking about as no matter how much I improve my digital, I could never reach that special sense of ease and naturalness I hear from my vinyl. Michael Fremer is not a complete wacko. I do agree with a lot of what he says.
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I say you will find no one who made comparisons at this level with a different opinion (except at a point where for some recordings vinyl reaches a mechanical limit)…but you’ll find tons of people claiming the opposite who never made a comparison at a meaningful level to judge the potential of both or who have a personal agenda and avoid more detailed engagement.
IMO for those who heard, there are things which are a matter of taste or preference and others which obviously can’t be.
In most parts of North America you can not go anywhere, without posts and transformers mounted in buckets on them.
USA has a rather strict National Electric Code NFPA70 for installations, but either nobody reads it or nobody performs inspections on it.
Also most houses have huge climate units / heaters.
The house we leased in Texas had 2 of them. 3.5 kW each!!! Wonder why the light went out in Texas when that blizzard hit that unprepared state?
The house had its own transformer on the post in the yard, mains cables came in through a steel 2“ !!! Conduit. The house was expanded a couple of times and the construction company must have thought that it would be really stupid to have only 3 conductors coming in through that 2“ conduit and fiddled in the power and Control cable from the main distribution to the climate expansion unit. Filling that conduit to 100%.
Before it complied with the National Electric Code and afterwards, well you can guess.
Than three further distribution boards in the house that we’re wired no less shady.
But it worked, the only power out we experienced was when the insulation of mains cable from the transformer to the house was beaten to damage by the Texas sun. Which is when we found out about that 2“ conduit.
By the way, if your electricity has harmonics / noise, adding any kind of contacts like Michael Fremers switch, is going to make it worse, lots worse.
In our house in the Netherlands we have a 2 kW DC/AC converter for the solar panels and all cheap trick power supply LED light, which doesn’t help SQ either.
However:
Linear power supplies are more vulnerable to noise on the mains than well designed switch mode supplies. Power regenerators can even have an adverse effect on the ultra dynamic switch mode power supplies in most class D amplifiers like Linn, NAD, etc.
I ordered switch mode power supply NAD units and hesitate to use a power regenerator, the turntable motor will do well behind a noise filter in the mains.
So, I recommend to truly try power regenerators on your system first.
But, I get why the Power Regenerators are so popular.
I’ve used both regeneration and conditioning, but always found switch mode power (Linn, Devialet) was best with conditioning than regeneration.
A big issue is not the noise and rubbish coming in from outside, but the noise and rubbish from the components sitting next to each other. In my office I have plugged in to the same socket two servers, a DAC/amplifier, subwoofer, computer, modem, two ethernet switches and more.
I would never use a device that does not have full cross-contamination isolation. I don’t know where PSA stands on this, I’ve not checked.
All connected to the same power conditioner?