Vera-Fi Line Noise BlackHole Power Conditioner

Why the SET amp in the background?

Let’s cut to the chase – If you have an SET amplifier you need one of these. If you have a vintage amplifier, you need one. You need one anyway. Because in todays modern world, there’s noise on the power line everywhere and it affects your systems performance in a few ways – all negative. The more densely we are packed into our neighborhoods, the more devices there are on the transformer that feeds your house (and your neighbors) with all the junk that they have plugged in.

But seriously, Vera-Fi’s new Line Noise BlackHole is a single device power conditioner with a maximum current capacity of 10 amps. So you can’t plug it into a massive Class A power amplifier.

We’ve got a full review and a YouTube video in the works. For now, whether grabbing one (or three) at the sale price of $395 is a killer value. Even at the $595 retail price, this is a tool you should have.

It takes about 10 seconds to hear the effect. Being a big SET fan, and now having the awesome-O Songer Audio S1X speakers with a 95dB/1-watt sensitivity rating, you hear the smallest details, and the noise. While the LNBH didn’t make a huge difference reducing the noise floor with Songer’s $30k A3 300B amplifier, it makes enough of an improvement that I won’t go back to listening without it.

However, swapping the Finale F-300B EVO ($10k) in the Songer’s place, there was a bigger improvement, as the Finale is a bit noisier by comparison. What also proved incredibly interesting (because once you get these things in, you tend to plug em’ in to everything…) was the improvement in a pair of vintage receivers.

Two things to ponder here. Back when you could buy a Marantz 2270 all day long on Craigslist for $275, buying a $400 power conditioner was somewhat counterintuitive. However, now that those same components cost $1,500 and up – it’s worth reinvestigating said accessories. Power supply design was pretty primitive back then.

Sure enough, my Pioneer SX-838 was a different beast, plugged into the Vera-Fi box. Way less solid-state sounding, less grainy, and less foggy. You hear this immediately. Same for lower priced DACs and CD players. We’ll find out how the Nakamichi tape deck collection works too.

All in the upcoming review. For now – yeah go get one. I think you’ll be thrilled. And drop us a note here to tell us how you like it.

You can click here to visit the Vera-Fi site. Enjoy!