Could any electrical engineers comment on this story? How would you measure whether current is "dirty"? What quantifiable factors would you want to examine to figure out if this improvement is real or B/S?
Is a personal transformer and electrical utility pole is likely to perform better than whatever typical solution one might employ for power conditioning, like a power supply? How would a personal transformer help with "dirty" electricity? (Does it prevent noise somehow from other devices on the same transformer?)
It seems like there could be noise issues with currents that a transformer wouldn't help with though. For example, I had understood that some power plants vary their operating frequency slightly over the course of the day, perhaps dependent on the speed that flywheel or generator is turning. So the frequency of the AC current might very slightly change. A personal transformer wouldn't help with this, would it?
If something as precise as our TVs and computer processors can run connected to a power supply to regular AC power, then it seems like stereo equipment should be able to too. Why doesn't a regular power supply compensate for this?
You can graph the voltage. If it's close to sine wave, it's "clean". If it's a mess, it's "dirty". In more precise terms, you can check how much power is in frequencies further away from the main one (50 / 60 Hz depending where you live).
As for the difference in the audio output, it will be very different between different quality audio equipment. On the good side they may go as far as smoothing out the input power internally. On the opposite side, you've got cheap old vinyl players which output a constant 50Hz + harmonics buzz in the output, even with perfectly clean power supply.
If mains noise gets into an audio system, it's because of crappy (eg cheap) design. Any Audio designer should assume that the mains is very, very noisy.
And if it does happen, a simple noise filter should fix it. Which would mean that the amplifier lacks even basic filtering.
There are specs which the electrical supplier must comply with. If you complain of dirty power, the supplier will fit a pen recorder (or modern equivalent) for a week or so to check if it's true.
Is a personal transformer and electrical utility pole is likely to perform better than whatever typical solution one might employ for power conditioning, like a power supply? How would a personal transformer help with "dirty" electricity? (Does it prevent noise somehow from other devices on the same transformer?)
It seems like there could be noise issues with currents that a transformer wouldn't help with though. For example, I had understood that some power plants vary their operating frequency slightly over the course of the day, perhaps dependent on the speed that flywheel or generator is turning. So the frequency of the AC current might very slightly change. A personal transformer wouldn't help with this, would it?
If something as precise as our TVs and computer processors can run connected to a power supply to regular AC power, then it seems like stereo equipment should be able to too. Why doesn't a regular power supply compensate for this?