The D-linear 15 is the first power conditioning system made by Opera Audio from China under Consonance brand and probably the last – it has so many features built-in so unlikely there is need to make even higher end one. It is called a ‘power conditioning system’ because it does so much more beyond a typical ‘conditioner’ can do.
High quality power supply is the first and utmost important thing to build a high quality sound system – every piece of equipment in your audio system is driven by electrical power. This is easy to understand – you won’t put in low quality gas into a super high end vehicle but expect high performance. So, without high quality power, you will never get a true high quality sound system.
What are the top 3 bad things in power supply? – Power conditioning is all about reduce / eliminate these 3 factors one way or another.
1) AC power variation – a volatile power will lead to unstable operations of audio equipment.
2) High Frequency Noise – this type of noise is typically introduced into power supply by power switches, RF devices such as TV, mobile phone charger, WiFi router etc.. High frequency noise in power supply will typically affect source equipment and pre-amplifier the most – causing sound losses its lushness and become rough and dry.
3) Direct Current (DC) Offset – this is an unbalance of the two sides of alternative current (AC) power supply.
Below are two pictures showing – top: power supply without DC offset, and bottom: power supply with DC offset. When DC offset is present in power supply, it will cause the transformers in audio equipment with magnetic saturation, which result in hum or the amplifier operates in low efficiency and/or vibration. DC offset is typically introduced in power supply by household appliances, air conditioning, elevators, light dimmers etc..
The types of Power conditioning device on the market:
Below we have listed the 6 typical types of power conditioning devices available on the market and their design concept and weakness:
Type 1. Power Total Cleansing – example: Axxxxxxxx Brand – PS1220 – price benchmark $8,000
Design concept: Address 3 out of 3 harmful factors in power supply as mentioned above. Namely: 1) act as AC voltage stabilizer, 2) filter high frequency noise and 3) reduce DC offset
Weakness: it works in series with the power grid and due to high internal impedance, it cannot achieve 100% perfect performance. There is reduced but always present noise floor in the power supply.
Type 2. Power Regeneration – example: Px Axxxx Brand – P10 – price benchmark $5000
Design concept: Address 3 out of 3 harmful factors in the power supply. Plus regenerate power to achieve power cleansing
Weakness: besides the weakness of Type 1, typical power regeneration device also have limited output power. Otherwise the device will cost multitude more in materials hence reduce its affordability.
Type 3. Power Synthesizer – example: Bxxxxxxx 948 – price benchmark: $5000
Design concept: Address 2 out of 3 harmful factors filter high frequency noise and reduce DC offset
Weakness: there is no AC voltage stabilization in this type of device.
Type 4. Power Isolation and Regulation – example: Cxx Brand TX-4000 – price benchmark $4,000
Design Concept: Address 2 out of 3 harmful factors in power supply. Namely: filter high frequency noise and reduce DC offset
Weakness: there is no direct AC voltage stabilization feature in this type of product. It can effectively reduce DC offset though. Due to high internal impedance, this type of power conditioning device cannot achieve 100% perfect performance. Same as Type 1 product, there is reduced but always present noise floor in the power supply.
Type 5. AC Power direct filtration – example: Fxxxxxxx Brand e-TP80 – price benchmark – under $1000
Design concept: address 1 out of the 3 harmful factors. Namely: filter high frequency noise
Weakness: there is no AC voltage stabilization feature in this type of product. It acts in series with power. Internal impedance is higher than other types of power conditioning device so it cannot effectively eliminate DC offset. This type of filtering device is not the ideal choice for high end amplifiers.
Type 6: Modified Uninterrupted Power supply – example: Pxxxx Pxxxx Brand – APS 3000 – price benchmark $4000 but design has been mostly abandoned by manufacturers
Design concept: address 3 out of 3 harmful factors in power supply but are built from conventional UPS with switches
Weakness: due to circuit operates on switches, there is higher than desired high frequency noise. It’s not ideal for high performance audio. Overtime, many brands have stopped using this concept to improve audio power quality .
Where does Consonance D-Linear 15 stand among the 6 types of power conditioning device?
In short summary, D-Linear is close in design concept as a power synthesizer, but with built-in voltage stabilizing circuit for source equipment and pre-amplifier. So it has all the benefits of the high end synthesizer power conditioning devices, plus addressed the weakness of no AC stabilization through its unique circuit design. The D-Linear 15 also works in parallel with power grid so there is zero internal impedance. AC current goes through active DC offset suppression circuit – there is absolutely no compressed output to the amplifier so your sound won’t sound ‘choked’. The digital and pre-amp conditioning isolation / regulation circuit offers highly effective filtration of high frequency noise.
For price point – with Made-in-China backing up the production cost and low distribution margin offered by Grant Fidelity, this D-Linear 15 is an absolute bargain among high end power conditioning devices – it’s under $2,000 delivered to your door – which is less than 1/2 of the similar performance range of products on the market. The benefits of using D-Linear15 in your system:
1. IMPROVE SOUND: Designed to deal with power filtering demand from both source components and amplification equipment by matching each component with its own filtering circuit / sockets, without choking your amps.
The D-linear15 supplies 3 groups, total 10 sockets for 1) digital power supply, 2) analog power supply and 3) power output power supply:
- Digital Power Supply sockets: they are for digital audio source equipment (such as CD, DVD, DAC and digital streamers).
- Analog power supply sockets are for highly sensitive pre-amplifiers and phono stages.
- Power output power supply sockets are for integrated and power amplifiers.
Digital source and analog pre-amplifier need clean power. Pre-amplifiers and phono stages (with high level gain) are very sensitive to dirty power and therefore can increase the noise by 100 fold and introduce such noises to your playback system.
Digital and analog equipment should also be plugged into separate independent sockets from power amplification equipment to avoid crossover noise. In the D-Linear 15, digital and pre-amplifier outputs travel trough a high quality transformer with 3 levels of shielding (Type R Transformer) which is isolated with silicon-gel. The silicon-gel will lower the high frequency noise and supply suitable damping. Digital and analog power output will, in turn, be isolated.
Normally inside power and integrated amps (with the power supply coming from a high-output transformer), high-output transformers have very low internal impedance and they are very sensitive to DC offset. DC offset can cause transformers to hum, run hotter and have lower voltage output or even burn up the transformer. The D-linear15 power output works in parallel mode with the AC power supply and, as an active system, compensates any DC offset in the AC mains from the wall plug. D-Linear 15’s special circuit design has 25A maximum load – it does not limit the power to the audio system in any way and hence allows very powerful amps, including multiple high power amps to be plugged into the D-linear15 at the same time to form uber high end home theater system.
2. PROTECT EQUIPMENT: Quadruple protection to your equipment from over-current, over-voltage, surge and lightening by using multiple fuses throughout the circuit.
- Over-current Protection: D-linear15 will shut down the power supply to protect the equipment if the equipment receives too much current.
- Over-voltage Protection: D-linear15 will shut down the power supply to protect the equipment if there is a sudden dangerous level of voltage.
- Surge Protection: D-linear15 will protect the equipment if there is a surge in the power grid.
- Lightning protection: D-Linear15 will shut dwon power supply when there is lightening strike to the equipment. (note: All electronics could be subject to lightening damage including the D-Linear15. We strongly recommend to unplug everything from the wall when there is lightening weather condition.)
3. ENHANCE POWER QUALITY FROM THE WALL OUT: Correct and Upgrade your main power supply from the wall in 3 ways:
- Common-mode Interference Rejection: it will restrain the same phase high frequency interference from live, neutral and ground lines.
- Differential-mode Interference Rejection: it will restrain the high frequency interference from live to ground.
- Phase Correction: it will restrain the DC current between positive line and the negative line.
Specifications:
- AC power connection: Dependent on country
- Over current protection: 25A
- Over voltage protection: +20% p-p
- Surge Protection: 430V p-p
- DC suppression: 2400mV
- Source and pre-amplifier power output: 600W
- Power and integrated amplifier power output: 3400W
- Shipping weight: 26kg / 56 lbs
- CE certified for quality and safety
- Color: Silver or Black – please confirm availability at time of order
- net dimension: 450 height x424 width x380 depth in mm
You can leave the D-Linear 15 on while not using your system – a well burnt-in unit will sound better than at new. Be sure to allow 500 hours for the unit to be completely burnt-in to reach its full potential before critical listening / comparison.
