Quote:
...by fewer or smaller voltage fluctuations? |
It's not really about small power fluctuations. AC power, can, and sometimes does, carry higher freqency noise. In theory, if that noise goes unfiltered and gets through the power supply on a projector (or DVD player for that matter), it could cause noise in the picture. That noise would probably also cause blacks to be not as black.
The thing to remember is that this noise does not come from the power company, it's something that the power lines pick up on the way to your home, most likely real near, if not in your home, since it will attenuate rather quickly.
Some in-home offending equipment might be:
X-10 home control system.
Lamp dimmers.
Phones or intercoms which connect to each other using the AC power line.
Some motors and compressors.
Badly designed switch mode power supplies in computers and other equipment.
etc, etc.
If you have a near by noise source and it's causing issues a conditioner may resolve it.
Also, the filtering on the power supply of equipment is a point to remember. Like projectors, no two power supplies are created equal, and each will inherently have different degrees of AC noise immunity.
As a result you get people who swear by huge improvements, where others can see none. It would be invalid to assert that a conditioner is a must-have add-on for 100% of the people. Just as it would be invalid to assert that conditioners causing improvements are in someone's imagination.
Best way to find out; pick up one you can return and try it out.
-Ted-