iFi AC iPurifier - Mini Review

That thing has more or less proven to be nonsense; it's just high pass filter with an LED in series, so it blinks every time some high frequencies are present, but it doesn't "harvest" or remove anything.

 

Aha; this is the way I see them to as they do nothing either audible or measureable here. I wish someone could've been honest like you rather than the reviews I read saying if they don't make a difference you need to buy more.
I have the same experience with the quietlines and I'm betting these "ac purifiers" are in the same category of uselessness. The money spent on this nonsense is money taken away from an honest upgrade that actually does make a difference.

 

Well, not all types of AC filters are useless; my rule of thumb is: if it’s a filter in series with the current flow, it’s probably doing something (still does not prove audible performance though).
If the filter is connected in parallel to the current flow, it’s probably nonsense and doing nothing at all.

 

Its all the same technology....so what Ifi audio is doing with their version(s) is nothing new. Its (technology) been around a long time and Ifi has their own twist on this technology.
And by the way...Wireworld also has a version with a twist...they have put some version of this technology in their power cords. I've found if you use to many of the Wireworld power cords in your system, it will suck the life out the sound. The audioquest version is built into a USB device and they do have a version to plug into an outlet. And lets not forget the Nordost version as well as the Shunyata verwsion, There are many versions out there at different price levels.

 

The iFi purifier works on the same principle as noise cancellation headphones. It measures the deviation from the ideal AC sinus shape and produces an inverse signal, which is then added to the power. Quite simple really with nowadays chip technology.

 

Life sucking sounds like a feature I could pass on

 

When why would they recommend using multiples in a system then?

 

No doubt it's for the same reason as the other 2 products I listed........it's to get a few more $$ out of your wallet and headed their way.

 

The iFi AC purifier gadget exemplifies such nonsense. It occupies a household AC outlet or an available outlet in a power strip. The iFi device does not pass electricity to another component. It is impossible for such a device to filter the AC power going to anything but itself.

The little LED in the Purifier glows brightly so some people think the device is doing something beneficial, but it isn’t. In the realm of physics and electricity in which we exist, the iFi AC Purifier cannot do what its marketing babble implies it is supposed to do.

The idea that some passive and component-dissociated device like the iFi Purifier can somehow reach out to other components’ connections and filter the bad juju out of the electricity flowing to them relies on one fact that most marketers are fully aware of, i.e., that most audiophiles willing to purchase such a gadget don’t the first thing about household electricity, how branch circuits work, the difference between AC and DC, the difference between series and parallel circuits, etc., etc., etc. Anybody who took electrical shop in high school (and passed the course) should look at an iFi AC Purifier and just laugh at the absurdity of it.

iFi makes a number of very good quality, fairly priced audio products. The AC Purifier isn’t one of them.

 

Don't whole-house surge protectors work on a similar basis? That is, they often connect via a single breaker in your panel, and are able to protect the other branches?

 

One thing it does do is test your receptacle's polarity and ground through the red and green light combinations. If you are skeptical about it's ability to improve sound at least it does one thing "scientifically" although at a very high price if it is bought strictly for that purpose.

 

I would rather use a DMM for that, since I already have a few of those.

 

Active noise suppression on the AC line isn't something new, it's used in many industrial applications, and used effectively in high speed digital power systems to suppress ground bounce too, but the iPurifier is still a neat little device, regardless of the skepticism. It combines both passive and active filtering since the active filtering relies on feedforward techniques and can't effectively suppress noise very high in frequency, but capacitive filtering is very effective at the high frequencies.

 

Whole house surge protectors are installed either in between your master shut-off and your panel, or between the meter and your master shut-off. If you just randomly install a surge protector at the head one branch or one circuit, the surge protector will only protect connections downstream on that one branch or single circuit.

Electricity can’t autonomously be attracted to a surge suppressor or a filter placed randomly on an outlet and then autonomously shunt itself back to some audio component plugged in somewhere else. That’s not how electricity works. However, the iFi AC Purifier is marketed and advertised to do exactly that. It’s impossible. In the time-space continuum in which we all exist, the iFi device cannot work as advertised. And it doesn’t work.

A statement that “I plugged it in and it works and it’s not subtle either and even my wife who is not an audiophile but she came into my music room and asked ‘What did you do different because that sounds good’” is exactly the same, tired, repetitive trope repeated over and over again by audio woo gadget promoters.

 

. . . but no component can be connected to an iFi AC Purifier. All the iFi does is filter electricity for itself. The expression “feedforward techniques” is marketing jargon because it’s meaningless in this context. Capacitive filtering is something, but since there are no components downstream of an iFi AC Purifier it doesn’t do anything for any AC being used by an audio component in the residence (or anywhere else).

 

With the utmost respect, because I agree with 99.99% of your posts, I think you might be incorrect here. Here are a couple of wiring diagrams for whole-house surge protectors (below).

I'm not defending the product being discussed here, but I do think it is possible for it to provide a benefit w/o receptacles built into it.

 

Respect right back at you.

That is precisely one of the possibilities I described. The surge protector in the diagram you posted protects only the circuit to which its hooked up - i.e., all of the outlets that branch from it. It is not protecting the whole house. It is the type of surge protector used to protect, for example, a circuit dedicated to all the outlets used in a living room or family room into which the TV, audio equipment, etc., are plugged in. The rest of the outlets in the house are unprotected.

Again, the iFi AC Purifier does not have anything plugged into it. It has no outlets. The iFi device is plugged into any available outlet and it just sits there, glowing, doing nothing. I mean does anybody think that the iFi device magically sucks bad AC noise (or whatever) to itself from electrical wiring all over the house or apartment? The concept is absurd - it’s purported magic. Which isn’t real. Which means the iFi AC Purifier is useless.

I have three of them! A dealer in Toronto challenged me. So I bought three (iFi actually bundles them in 3-packs at a discount). Plug in one, two, three or twenty of them - they’re useless. The product marketing is persuasive though, but relies on a lack of buyer knowledge about household electricity and electricity in general.

 

They do indeed protect the entire house, and you'll see they are connected to their own, dedicated breaker, and nothing branches from them.

 

If nothing branches (in other words, if no loads are connected downstream) from a breaker to which a surge protector is connected, what exactly is it you think is being protected and how?

 

I believe the devices employed (MOVs and higher tech substitutions thereof) are typically wired in a parallel fashion, so everything in that panel.

In the same way, I believe plugging a conventional surge protector into a receptacle protects not only the devices plugged into the surge protector, but everything else on that circuit, and on that side of the load center. There may be some filtering that is limited to receptacles built into the surge protector, but there should be some degree of "upstream" protection, as well.

 

The iFi comes in 2 parts, there is a power strip with capacitor filtering ( ca 500$) and the active purifier (100$), which goes into the inlet of the power strip. However, the active purifier can also be used stand alone as it is a simple plug in device.
The combo works best, but using the purifier stand alone also has usually a noticeable effect (just don’t use 2 in series).

 

I know for a fact that this does work with my Furman ref20i pc. Just plugging it into the outlet shows a substantial drop in emi from over 400 to less than 100 at that outlet. Testing the outlets on the back of the pc shows an even further reduction of emi.
As far as those plug in devices is concerned sometimes under some circumstances the best I'll get is a reduction of 20-25 points on my meter which is is inconsequential and is not an audible reduction.

 

Sure, I understand they have a power strip too, but the iPurifier itself has both active and passive filtering to cover the full frequency range. How effective it is in each situation, if at all, that's for the user to decide. The principle is sound, that was really my point.

 

Could be due to insufficient testing, you know the marketing department saying, he one works well so let’s say that two in row work even better....
They also had a problem with their DC power supply (hum) for the iFi Phono2, which they had to replace with an improved version.
They seem to make good, innovative products ( I love my Phono2) and it is a pity to make this kind of “faux-pas”.

 

You are right to clarify. The principle is sound indeed. The iFi ACpurifier works very well on its own. If you use the power strip in combination with the ACpurifier you get some additional filtering via a series of capacitors in the strip. This combo has been tested and proven to work well!