IsoTek

What IsoTek do about mains noise

Mains conditioning is the corner of hi-fi where claims are easiest to make and hardest to check. IsoTek's position is more specific than most, and it comes down to two ideas.

The first is that different types of noise need different treatment. Common mode and differential mode interference behave differently, and a single filter designed to catch both tends to do neither well. IsoTek use separate networks for each.

The second is independent filtering per socket. In an ordinary distribution block, every component shares one filter and one set of internal busbars, which means a switch-mode power supply in a streamer can push noise straight back out into the amplifier plugged in beside it. IsoTek give each outlet its own network and tailor it to the load: Direct-Coupled circuits on the high-current outlets an amplifier needs, Adaptive Gating on the source outlets, which senses what is connected and adjusts. KERP, their equal resistance path design, then matches the resistance of every path so no socket is electrically privileged over another.

There is also an argument the company makes that runs against their own commercial interest: for most systems, addressing the block comes before addressing the cable. A modest cable into a well-designed block usually beats an expensive cable into a wall socket.

IsoTek build power cables, blocks, conditioners and plugs in England, under founder Keith Martin, and have been at it long enough that earlier generations are still in service.