PLiXiR Elite BAC 150 Balanced Power Conditioner

PliXir Elite BAC 150 Balanced Power Conditioner mains conditioner is designed to help give your audio equipment the best possible sound. This is done by removing any noise in the mains supply. Noise can come from other appliances in the house as well as from the mains itself.

This unit is designed to clean up the incoming mains supply and improve current stability, which is then sent to your sensitive audio equipment. A custom designed transformer isolates the supply and provides a balanced output. This is particularly good for units that use high gain devices such as turntables.

The Elite BAC150 is also stackable so that more than one unit can be used in a smaller space.

Pure tone sound from a craftsman-built unit

The transformer is made by premier transformer maker Noratel. It uses cutting-edge XQ eXtra Quiet noise attenuation technology. This can reduce both mechanical and electrical noise. Electrical connections are made using point-to-point direct soldering. As a result, there are no degrading screw connections that can come loose. Notably, this is a labour-intensive construction method, once used for valve equipment. However, the result is worth the extra cost. PliXir heard greater purity of tone with better power delivery and finer detail from this design.

Thick aluminium casing

The case is made of 5mm thick aluminium for strength and durability. Extra thick top and bottom plates protect the transformer and stop any sound-degrading mechanical vibrations. These hand built units are made to last.

True balanced power needs every component in the chain to be specifically designed for this. As a result, PliXiR has produced a total system. This includes the mains conditioner described here along with custom DC PSU upgrade units, as well as the required interconnecting cables.

BAC power conditioning

The quality of the power supply and the system grounding can seriously degrade the sound of an audio system. Bad grounding can create ground loops that produce hum. Moreover, the mains supply itself is often noisy and full of spikes and pulses from other appliances.

The AC mains should be a smooth sinusoidal wave that is rectified and then smoothed, to provide DC power to the audio equipment. This clean power is then drawn upon to create the music signal. However, most PSU design is a compromise. Noise can leak into the output and often little consideration is taken for noise reduction.

PureTone

PureTone is a PliXiR concept that involves cleaning the mains with the intention of removing colouration from the sound. With the ethos of ‘rubbish in, rubbish out’ they argue that a clean power supply can help your equipment to deliver a more accurate and natural sound without any of the hash produced by power supply noise.

System grounding

There are two forms of grounding. The safety earth and the signal ground. The safety earth connects the casing of the unit to the earth. This is required by law in most countries and protects the user from electric shock. However, this ground is not the same as the audio ground. Ideally, they should be separated as the signal ground provides the zero volts reference for the audio signal. Any noise on this line can get into the audio path.

Unfortunately, due to cost constraints, the safety earth and audio ground are usually connected together. This means there is potential for earth noise to leak into the audio equipment. Audio equipment itself can also introduce high frequency noise, the other way, back into the ground system. Modern audio systems have a plethora of different units and earth connections that can introduce voltage differences, with zero volts reference. Hence a balanced system is preferred.

Balancing transformer

The PliXiR range of units uses a balancing transformer to make sure that the zero volts reference is locked. The transformer can also isolate the output from any noise in the system. It can also block high frequency noise from entering the connected equipment.