Which first - power conditioner or network switch?

hi, looking at investing in a phoenixnet switch and PSM136 purifier to go with Oladra. Which one should I invest in first?

Power conditioning is foundational. By that I mean that it is a must. It will lower the noise floor for everything plugged into it. That will make the benefit of the network switch more apparent.

Other things I consider foundational are power cords, signal cables, resonance control, and room treatments/proper speaker setup.

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Thank you Kenny very helpful

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Have a look at AfterDark network switches

I agree with Kenny. I’ve invested in both over the past five years and the power conditioning forms a bedrock on which future upgrades can be built.

Until you’ve done this stage, you’d simply be hamstringing any improvement the switch could deliver.

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Switches are the latest cool shiny object - and for a really good reason: they can bring really nice gains in sound quality. The risk though with something being the latest shiny object is that all the excitement will cause some to jump to take the plunge before they’ve addressed things that matter more. I think we’re starting to see the same thing with grounding solutions.

This is not to say that it’s wrong to pursue the latest shiny object. It’s not! The goal of this hobby is to increase our musical enjoyment and there’s a chance that the the shiny object will accomplish that. It’s just that when dealing with budget constraints, the order in which we pursue things will better position us to reap the benefits from each subsequent move.

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thanks, where does proper grounding rank in importance on our quest? i have just installed a puritan power conditioner and wondering whether the extra hassle of driving another ground rod is worth it

sorry, Tony, don’t know about grounding but LOVE to hear about your Puritan and whether it was worth it?

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i think it was worth it - although i have only had it for 24 hours. note that im not a seasoned audiophile and don’t fully trust my ears yet. however i am very sensitive to and hate harsh treble frequencies, and straight away with the 156 plugged in i noticed that any harshness in the top end in my system has disappeared - or at least been greatly reduced. i expect i will get a much better picture when i get my oladra and some better power cables to my active speakers - for which i am also going to get the ones puritan make as they are a fraction of the price of high end cables and puritan certainly appear to know their stuff- and puritan got the nodd from Mark Coles so surely good enough for me!

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Grounding is something best left for last. Get your room right, do the things that Kenny suggested and then focus on the icing on the cake, like switches, grounding, etc.

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Roy Gregory gets credit for introducing me to his foundational approach. I spent many years not making consistently good progress prior to this. But once I got aligned to it, the more goodness I got out of every change I made.

Here he lays out a seminar he conducted:

http://www.theaudiobeat.com/blog/taves_seminar_results.htm

And here he reflects back on his learnings:

http://www.theaudiobeat.com/blog/system_optimization.htm

He does mention grounding but his focus is more on having a ground rod installed to give the system an isolated ground. He had been working for Nordost around this time and this was a big part of their strategy back then. This is not the same thing that we are considering with these grounding boxes presently.

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I just had to read through this again. I see now that I had closely followed this. I have a Quadraspire rack with bamboo shelves plus I also use Stillpoints throughout. I used to have the Nordost Quantum products but dumped them in favor of Shunyata.

Step 7 was a surprise and it’s something I highly recommend. Our power conditioners tend not to be devices that we think will benefit by being placed on proper vibration control feet. But this really does make an outsized improvement.

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I had a Isotek Vision 2 power conditioner along with a number of their high end cables which I thought sounded good. I was then urged to try a PSM136 & HiDiamond power cables . To say the PSM136 was a game changer along with the power cables is putting it lightly . It was equivalent to adding a much better amp or speakers it was that good. For the money the Puritan is a steal in my opinion as it cleaned up the sound and made it sound natural and organic. I’m also looking at network switches -heard the Synergistic Research UEF last year which was really impressive, I also spoke to Innuos who said the Phoenxnet is a huge seller

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