Audiofiles and AV keeners - Power Conditioner?
 

Hi,

As I am treating myself to some new speakers for my home theater setup I was looking at power line conditioners and surge preventors. I wanted to find out here if anyone uses them, what kind and are all the articles hype about the differences?

I normally use surge surpressors, but I thought elimnating the noise/EMI/RFI as well would be good. I'm looking at Panamax and I know they are expensive, but considering the worth of the other gear it's not too bad.

As well what kind of a setup are you using?


Bob

For the live PA system I've put together I'm using a Monster Power Pro 2400 in the amp rack and a Furman something or other in an effects rack. They both have worked well but I do prefer the Monster conditioner with its' sequential turn on and off of outlets, real line voltage readout and superior filtering.

Furman. Or Shunyata if you are crazed.

Ian

Actually, the biggest sonic improvement will come with a better power cables on your electronics. I know, I know it shouldn't make a difference but it does. So, if you have plug in power cables - IEC to 3 prong - get some better ones. The $99 Shunyata were excellent but any 'good' option will improve things.

Ian

Ian,

Funny I was reading an article saying the same thing, I'm surprised that the high end gear wouldn't have good power cables. What do you do with the ones that are hardwired inside?

Bob

IMO power 'conditioners' are fluff, until you start getting into 'balanced' power stuff, but you could buy a furman as Ian has suggested. You could buy a Monster Cable power conditioner if you want to have the Furman quality at double the price.

little story-

I had a friend who was constantly chasing problems with his AV system. He built his own amps and used some really nice designs that were supposed to sound great. He brought this amp to my place and it sounded wonderful with my old CV towers. But back at his house they were just grainy sounding on the top end and inconsistent to all get out.

His powered subwoofer also kept blowing capacitors and he didn't know why. He was tracing every circuit to find where the problem was and ended up plugging a volt meter into the wall socket- now he lived in a pretty old house- the reading was 132 volts (!) and depending on the day an the time, this would vary anywheres from 122-132. So even if his meter was off, it still varied like hell. This is why he was blowing caps- once rectified, the voltage he had calculated out of the rectifier for was too low compared to what he was getting and the caps weren't rated high enough.

Definitely makes a difference if you are in a home with crap power. Modern, new houses with good grounding and panels with nice service line are much better in my experience.

Thanks guys, ended up going with a Panamax, they also own Furman.

Don't hear any sound difference (didn't think I would) but at least I know I'm better protected and have "clean" power.

Now as for bi-amping.... that's next. :D

I'm tempted to get a Variac to use with one of my tube amps. Apparently, limiting incoming AC voltage to about 105 can be helpful.

132 volts?! That's a transformer problem. I mean....his house should be getting 120 from the pole.

I have a Monster HTS 5000 that I've been using for 5+ years. If I listen really closely, I can pretend to hear the difference. Actually, the biggest difference I noticed was with the TV. Similar to Mike's comments above, I see the power fluxuate between 118 and 125. I think the fluxuation in voltage has a more noticable impact on video quality than sound. Small artifacts and "fuzz" seemed to go away when I started using the HTS 5000. I also no longer experience any fuzz when the wife uses her hair dryer, blender, etc... I'm sure there are better and cheaper protectors/conditioners out there, but at the time I couldn't pass this up for the price I got it for.

I also like the sequential turn on and delayed off options.

Supe
Be very careful with doing that with a variac. Dropping input voltage using variacs to cause a 'brown-out' for the tubes in guitar amps leading to the overdiven/distorted sound guitar players like. But for audio reproduction that is not a beneficial result.