HiFi Power Conditioners. None I have tried compare to THIS.
By Steve Huff
Ahhhh, the good old power conditioner for your audio system! Snake Oil to some and a system savior to others, but which is it? Well, not all of use NEED a power conditioner but I will say many of us do. In fact, after testing quite a few of them I have become a huge believer in what they can do, especially if your power is not the greatest coming into your wall. I’ve been plagued for years with noise and grit on my lines and once I place in a good conditioner, this cleans up and this means the sound of my system is improved. Yea, these things can really work well or in some cases, not so much at all.
I have been testing as many power conditioners as I can lately to find one that really truly stands out without costing $10k or more. Why? Well, the reasons for me are easy to figure out. I am a HiFi reviewer, yes…but I am not a typical reviewer who gets gear in, reviews it and moves on to the next. Me, I am an audio nut and audio is one of my life passions. As a reviewer I get to try so many cool products and yes, even some that suck, but when something truly remarkable shows up and bests what my “best” was prior I always want to own it and get the “better”. It’s how I upgrade, and yes I admit I am lucky in this regard as I get to experience and listen before I spend a dime.
When it comes to power I am a huge believer in power conditioners and power distribution units as I have experienced first hand what they can do. To date I have tried about a dozen power conditioners and one of them even added noise to my system in the form of buzzing. I have tried passive and active conditioners and distributors and up until now, I found passive conditioners to excel for these ears. This has changed though after my evaluation of the Synergistic Research Powercell 12 SX. This one is active and uses ideas that were engineered to be high performance yet Synergistic Research are so different from the rest of the pack.
I was skeptical at first but after having this in my system now for a while I can say that that has left, the skepticism. In fact I have purchased the 12 SX to replace my beloved Puritan PSM 156 NFR and that is saying something. I will tell you why in this review but do know that good clean power will lay the foundation for superior sound as you build the system. In this case though, I found the PowerCell 12SX to do more than just provide clean power.
The PowerCell 12 SX is a looker but it’s much more than just looks.
Synergistic Research is a company that has been around for 34 years and they offer up some very unique tweaks and products for your audio system. When browsing their website some may feel that some products on offer sound like snake oil, but I never ever judge until I listen and test though I agree that some products do seem a bit out there. I have been blow away by some other companies products that are called “snake oil” by some who just see a price tag and description without testing.
Oh yes, some of this stuff is very pricey for the normal person, and for me as well. The Powercell SX12 I am writing about today comes in at $7999 USD, around the same cost as my Puritan 156 NFR with the new NFR power cable. Lucky me, I now had both on hand to compare and I did just that. I also compared them both to a 14 outlet power bar I paid $30 for a decade ago. I had to know what one would get for this kind of money vs a generic strip, so I spent 9 hours one day doing this comparison.
BTW, I was not paid a cent to write these words or do a video review, just so you know.
I have also listened every day to the SX12 as I feel it is important to live with a product for a while to truly get a grip on what it is doing and whether what that thing is… is beneficial. A power conditioner, IMO, should be installed and listened to for weeks, if not months to really appreciate what they do. Listen for three months….then take it out. If you notice your sound get worse, collapse, shrink or sound edgy or even bloated then you know that product was working for you. I find this is the best way but you can even do this after just a few days. Listen daily, then remove and see what changes.
The PowerCell 12SX comes with a power cord that will work perfect with it right out of the box.
The ones I enjoyed the most.
In the past I have found three or four power conditioners that I really thought did their job very well when it comes to doing what they claim to do for our audio systems. The first one that impressed me was the PS Audio PP 20. Coming in at $10k the PP20 is an active conditioner as it takes your power from the wall and literally reconstructs it to be perfect, so it “regenerates” clean power on its own. It also eliminates DC on the line to help tame buzzy transformers. This one is basically a large heavy amp being used for power conditioning and yes it is huge, heavy and blocky in size.
I found the PP20 to be fantastic but it also did color the sound though in a pleasing way. Smoother, deeper, more relaxed even. It was nice until I noticed the DC on my line making the huge transformer in the PP20 buzz. Yea, my PP20 started to buzz loudly from the big transformer inside, from my horrible power at that time. So while the amps connected no longer buzzed, the PP20 did, which for me didn’t work out.
When I moved on from that one I settled on what would become my long term favorite that I kept in service for three years, the Puritan Audio PSM 156. This one did what it said it would do and while I did and do think it’s sort of ugly in design I could not argue with what it did for my system. No more buzzing, more open soundstage, more hidden details dug out due to the all out noise reduction that was happening. The PSM 156 also helped to make my system always sound its best, no matter the time of day. One day I noticed, after a year or so, the PSM 156 was also buzzing inside! What?!? Yea, my power has been weird here.
I then moved on to a Vinshine Audio Tai Hang which is an affordable yet powerful conditioner with stunning looks. This one darkened the sound some, made it warmer somehow. It also kept the DC out and kept the system sounding the same 24/7. Nothing about this one made noise at all and it looked the nicest. The weakness here with the Vinshine Audio piece is that this one only has four outlets on the back and I needed more. I could have bought a 2nd Tai Hang, as they are the most affordable out there (under $1300) but I then heard that Puritan released the new PSM 156 NFR edition with better receptacles and a master power cable that used fururtech connectors just like the inside of the NFR. At $7500 I had high hopes and it did not disappoint when it came in. In fact I compared it to a similarly priced model from a large name well known brand and the NFR was easily the one for me. Still not the best looking, this one was doing its job a little better than the standard PSM 156. It made my system sound just like a well oiled refined machine with sparkly highs, dynamic bass and zero noise, buzzes or hums. It did seem to deliver more sparkle to the top end.
THEN months later….I get an email from Rodney over at Synergistic Research asking if I would like to check out their Powercell SX12 conditioner. After checking the 12SX out on their website I had to hear it and I will be honest. I didn’t think it could match the Puritan NFR as I had no idea what it could possibly do to be better, or to do the job better I should say. I was happy with the Puritan.
When the Powercell 12 SX showed up I unboxed it and realized it was lighter in weight than the Puritan but looked much nicer in fit and finish. I saw big tubes inside (not vacuum tubes but cylinders) as there is a window on the front to let you sneak a peek. There was a button on the front and one in the back. It ships with its own power cable, which uses a specialized Neutrik end that locks in to place so it never accidentally comes out, which it did one time with my old original Puritan PSM 156 while moving it to add another cable. I love that this one locks so it creates a superb secure connection.
There are also 12 outlets here and none will limit current at all, so yea, plug in those amps. I did and tested it with an integrated amp as well as two sets of 200 WPC Class A/B mono amps.
The way Synergistic Research does power is quite a bit different from any I have tried and I have tested them from Audioquest, Furman and Shunyata as well. Also, Synergistic Research makes a power conditioner that costs $70,000 and they say this one, the $7999 SX12 is more of an everyman scaled down version of their monster big money conditioner. I love when companies do this, give us a heaping portion of their flagship in a lower cost version. Also, this one looks awesome.
THE CLAIMS
“The PowerCell 12 SX isn’t a scaled-down SRX PowerCell. It’s the SRX PowerCell rebuilt for the real world—a concentrated embodiment of everything we learned designing the $70,000 SRX PowerCell, engineered into a unified-field platform that delivers full-scale SRX performance at one-eighth the cost. When compared using identical power cords, it performs remarkably close to the PowerCell 14, despite the PowerCell 14’s advantage in electromagnetic cell count and dedicated three-bank isolation architecture. This is the highest concentration of SRX-grade electromagnetic conditioning per dollar in our 34-year history.
The PowerCell 12 SX doesn’t make your system sound “better”. It reveals what your system truly is—freed from the invisible resistance buried in your walls. It’s not passive filtration. It’s active field conditioning—a live electromagnetic architecture that reshapes the environment your components operate in.
What you’ll hear is immediate: noise collapses, stage expands. Voices gain weight, texture, and air. Dynamics rise without strain; tone blooms without blur. The illusion of live performance locks in because phase integrity stays intact and every spatial cue is preserved.
This isn’t subtle. You don’t warm up to it. You hear it instantly.”
THE REALITY?
I cannot say I can understand what is happening here or how these things work as the descriptions here sound like a bunch of marketing mumbo jumbo to me. See the product page for the SX12 HERE to read all of the details and how they say this works if you like. I am not a big “tech” type so I rarely care how I piece is made, I care about the performance and to me this is really all that matters. As in, is it worth the cost for what it brings back in enjoyment?
I will say that after using the Powercell SX12 along with a couple of the brands foundation power cables on my gear…yes, this works and it works just as they claim it does. I will dig in deeper to what happened when I put it in but first, let me do this interesting comparison.
THE $30 POWER STRIP
Just five years ago THIS was my power source. A $30 power strip that is now 10 years old. It offers up ten outlets it’s just cheap and easy. I have had buzzes, hums and crackles when using it with some amps and sources. In any case, I took out the Puritan PSM 156 NFR and plugged everything into this cheap power strip.
Let me say that I have had problem power here for years. Sometimes voltage would fluctuate and DC was on the line causing issues with some amps and the noise. I had an electrician here three times last year and we redid a ton from the box to the room and I replaced all outlets in the room as well as adding a dedicated line to the room. We found a grounding issue at the main breaker so this was fixed as well. Since this fix I no longer really have the amp buzzing issues unless the amp is just made poorly, and yea, some still are.
So everything is now going into the $30 power strip and the system is making music. No hums, no buzzing. Just music. I did hear an immediate difference in the sound vs when I had my puritan in though. This was undeniable and so easy to hear as I was not as involved in the sound, not as immersed. The sound was much darker, bass was not tight and clean but now a little “mushy” and no, I am not exaggerating. The overall sound was way flatter without the big, open and holographic soundstage. I also heard a bit of hiss from the speakers when idle. After just a short time I was bored with the sound and was done listening as it just didn’t sound the same to me, what I was used to. This is shocking for me to say because the gear in use here is all top notch and brought tears to my eyes on some nights when the Puritan was in place. Wow. YES…power does matter!
So after my days with the crappy power strip I placed the Puritan back in and there it was. More life, more transparency, more chime…tighter more explosive dynamic bass. The sound I was used to. I listened again with the Puritan for a few days and then when the SX 12 arrived I placed it in immediately.
UH OH!
With the Powercell 12 SX I heard a difference again compared to the other two. Now the sound was a little warmer, more musical yet richly dynamic and fluid. ZERO noise and no hiss. This may be the quietest I have ever had the system as when the room is dead silent at 2am I heard nothing. A feather dropping onto my carpet would be louder, lol.
I also heard a teeny bit less chime, a teeny bit less sparkle in the treble as here the focus seemed to be on the midrange which brought more body than the Puritan, which was a touch leaner in the mids (The Puritan). The SX12 was bringing a musical flow yet still with a large holographic stage and depth. Detail was awesome, coming out as I expected it to do. No idea how a power conditioner can do such things to the sound but here we are, and they do.
At this time I wasn’t sure which I liked better. The Puritan or the SX12 as they brought different vibes. The SX12 has 12 outlets though, which is more useful for adding more gear vs the 6 on the Puritan.
I plugged in the 560 WPC Dazzle, the 200 WPC Burson Timekeeper Voyager mono amps and others. They sounded better plugged into the SX12 vs the wall, as they did with the Puritan as well. When going to the wall the sound flattened a little, and wasn’t as holographic. I called my wife in and asked her for 30 minutes of her time. She had no idea what I was doing or what I was comparing but I tried all three with her in the listening seat.
WHAT DID SHE HEAR?
Keep in mind my wife is not an audiophile, she just loves music as I do. She heard the sound “flatten” with the $30 strip. She heard the liveliness of the Puritan and she heard the enhanced body and groove of the SX12. She asked how much each piece costs and when I told her she nearly fainted, lol. She asked if I would be upgrading again to the SX12 from the Puritan and I told her I wasn’t sure yet. I had more listening to do.
As the next few nights rolled on I kept going back to the 12SX as my fave with the speakers I currently love and use. The T+A Talis R330 and the Fleetwood Helios are my two fave small speakers these days and they were sounding glorious with the 12SX. They sound magical with either power solution, just different. In the end I decided to change to the 12SX for the 12 outlets vs the SIX on the Puritan as well as the enhanced body and flow the Synergistic Research unit brought with it. The 12SX has double the outlets of the Puritan and while the two differ greatly in how they are designed with the Puritan being passive and the 12SX being active, the job they were doing was exceptional for both and neither was limiting current. The SX12 is also dead silent in itself without any noise coming from the unit.
As. the retail is about the same and knowing the $30 power strip was not going to work after my ears have been spoiled by pure clean power I decided to ask Synergistic Research about a possible purchase.
RED PILL OR BLUE?
The Powercell 12SX also has another trick up its sleeve with the button on the front that switches from blue to red when pressed. It’s all about the Bias.
The blue is meant to be used when listening to intimate, acoustic or small scale recordings for tonal purity. The Red is for large scale, orchestral and electronic music.
Synergistic Research PowerCell 12 SX features selectable ULF bias frequencies (Red or Blue) that tune the internal EM field to match musical preference without coloring the sound. It’s a bit out there, even for me but how did it do?
Here is one area where I could not hear much difference and what I did hear could have been placebo, not sure but I thought I heard some slight changes but not enough to get excited over it. I just keep it at blue as that is default and to me may sound a touch warmer and more fluid. There is also LED lighting inside and you can turn it on or off, or choose between red, blue or clear. In any case the bias selection is not something I would worry about as this thing does what it says it does in regards to delivering clean pure power to your gear, and yes, you can hear it instantly when it goes in. You do not have to struggle, well, I didn’t. Your mileage may vary.
So is the Synergistic Research PowerCell 12 SX worth it?
Yes and No.
If you have assembled a high end system that you spent good money on as well as setup time while taking into consideration cables and the small details then yes, this could be well worth it. A power conditioner may not be for all but I find them worth it for systems that were put together for ultimate immersion and enjoyment. I wouldn’t add this to a $3k system, that would be silly, but in a higher end system? HECK YES. Power lays the foundation for your system. It really does.
In my system I have a $22k DAC and my streaming setup is a $12k investment, so a $34k retail setup just for streaming digital tunes. I have amps from $1600 to $7000 and speakers that are priced anywhere from $5k to $25k. Without a conditioner here, even after my power was “fixed”, the sound is flatter, less involving and duller. It just is. I love the Puritan and feel it is one of the finest passive conditioners on the market, especially if you seek transparency and a wide open stage.
I feel for me that the Powercell is better due to having 12 outlets and a sound with more body, a little warmth and still brings an exceptional immersive stage. While I did not hear a big or noticeable change in sound between red and blue modes on the 12SX what it does on its own is remarkable. I have never heard a lower noise floor in any system I have owned, ever. As for the power cable they sent to test as well, a Foundation cable, it is well made, strong and again brought with it the same house sound…musical, fluid, warmth and superb detail retrieval that was just so musical and refined.
Because I get to hear so much gear I always will upgrade when I find something that works better for ME, if I can do it. Will I ever find “better” than this? No idea but it’s sure fun trying to find the really truly good stuff in this crazy hobby. It’s not snake oil but for those who want to deliver the purest cleanest power to their gear, which in turn, lets said gear operate as good as it possibly can.
This allows you gear to shine as it is not adding anything here, no colorations unlike many of the conditioners. Remarkable. Expensive, yes. But still remarkable and it can get way more pricey as this is the middle of the road model in the lineup over at SR.
