Do I need a power conditioner?

Xcaliber

Xcaliber

New member
I don't have any unwanted noise other than amp noise (which I'm not sure a power conditioner would solve), but I'm wondering if I should get a power conditioner for my rack?

What are the other benefits? I have 3 power strips plugged into the same outlet right now and I guess it could aleviate some of that?
 
Probably not needed. But it never hurts. :)

While you are at it get a UPS as well. Never hurts to protect your gear.

Any more things I can add to your list of things to buy? lol


I have pretty much ran out of necessities to purchase. Now just need to buy the really expensive gear. It never ends... :drunk:
 
Unless there's something seriously wrong with the mains supply or the wiring in your home, you don't need a power conditioner.

If I had money burning a hole in my pocket, I might go with Jimmy's advice and put in a UPS though--not an essential but can protect both your gear and your work.

I don't have money burning a hole in my pocket though.
 
"But it never hurts." Bloody might Jim!

There is a school of thought that if the filter caps are wired as a "Y" with the tail connected to earth, that can feed mains noise into the earth line. Said line ALWAYS has some impedance back to true earth and so you are effectively sitting your kit on noise!

I dare say the expensive Furmans are ok here but your bog S B&Q twenty quider is best avoided.

A decent UPS IS a good idea since not only can it save your data but also has PROPER filtering in it.

NB. I did a lot of RF suppression work when transistors came into domestic gear (yes, I am THAT old!) and things like fridge stats needed the filters ON THEM not the audio gear!

Dave.
 
Xcaliber said:
Thanks for the replies. How do I know what "size" UPS to buy? There are so many options...
Click to expand...

It usually depends on how much backup power time you want/need when the power goes out. Most home studios need enough time to simply save work and shutdown all their gear. IOW....you're not going to keep on working for too long when the power goes out. Also...the more gear that is on the UPS, the faster it drains the battery...which will need to be replaced every couple of years, depending on how often it has to do backup duty.

The better surge/power conditioners protect your gear more than a basic UPS will, which is mainly for power backup (though there are some hefty UPS units that have good protection too).
One thing though, most UPS units don't put out the proper, pure AC sine wave (there's only a few top shelf models that do) ...which may not be a major concern, but it can have some effect on audio hardware....pres, comps, amps, etc....
...I mean, if you are really looking to improve things.
Here's some info: When do I need a pure sine wave UPS?

Deciding what's necessary is a personal choice. I would consider how much your power fluctuates or has brown/black-outs...also a power level/spike meter (you can get the power company to do a 24 hour meter) will tell you have steady your power is, and if there are any spikes. Not to mention that you get the benefit of cleaner power.
Personally, I would always run a decent power conditioner/surge/spike protector in front of the audio gear. Put a good UPS in front of the computer.

Furman makes some good power protection/conditioning, balanced power and voltage regulation gear.
I've got a fairly large amount of gear, so my concerns are a bit greater. I run one main 20A power surge/power conditioning box, and then that feeds a 20A voltage regulator box that also has another layer of surge/spike protection, and that feeds my entire studio, and then a UPS for the DAW & monitors.
I've thought about adding a balanced power unit after the voltage regulator....but they are pricey, and I always seem to have other studio toys on my priority list. :D

Generally speaking, I don't have a lot of power issues, though my power always runs on the high-side limit of 125V, but there was one time where we had a brown/black-out, with rapid on/off...and it fried my TV, my micro, and my phone answering machine (of course, none of that stuff is connected to my power protection gear).
So all it takes is one time, and you could kill a couple of pieces of gear.
 
Xcaliber said:
Thanks for the replies. How do I know what "size" UPS to buy? There are so many options...
Click to expand...
Enough to run your screen and DAW long enough to go shit the lights went out, stop, save, shut it down. Maybe double that (batteries always degrade'.
Of course that means all the other stuff doesn't need to be on the b/u feed.
 
I see some pretty inexpensive power conditioners on Sweetwater (around $100), I'm assuming those are not good enough for me?
 
Xcaliber said:
I see some pretty inexpensive power conditioners on Sweetwater (around $100), I'm assuming those are not good enough for me?
Click to expand...
Can't tell for sure but, as opposed to Miro's link, likely the M8x'and M8dx- with 'line to neutral spike protection' is basically a power strip with an MOV all be it in a nice rack mount config.

MOV's do self sacrifice as I understand it- other words they're 'clamp voltage goes up and up with each hit.
 
I'm in the UPS camp.

Screw the furman power conditioners. They're expensive and don't provide back up power. I have an APC-500 UPS, same price as the Furman. It provides back up power to my computer, one monitor and a network switch. Then I run the rest of my studio off the non-UPS buss which is a power conditioner. And it has great filtering, just like the furmans.

You needn't worry about whether it puts out a sine waver or a stepped sine wave. If you were to use a UPS, you would plug your studio gear into the non-UPS buss. It isn't sourced from the inverter and so it will be a sine wave. Your computer would be plugged into the UPS buss, but the power supply in your computer would have no problem with a stepped sine wave.

I have occasional power outages, but they seem to run for less than a minute, on average. I don't know how long the battery in the UPS will last powering my computer, but I'm guessing around 10 minutes. I've never seen the battery die.

BTW: I also have a 2nd UPS for my modem and router.
 
miroslav said:
Deciding what's necessary is a personal choice. I would consider how much your power fluctuates or has brown/black-outs
Click to expand...

Brown-outs are not rare where I am, and for that reason I have a UPS with voltage regulation.

I use external drives for storage, and they can be damaged (I believe) by brown-outs. That may or may not be true, but I feel comfortable knowing that they will all be spinnining just nicely, even during brown-outs.
 
Nothing in a studio should mind the "modified sine wave" put out by most UPS units. After all, rectifier circuits to not draw an even remotely sine current. I believe the only things that need a pure sine are motors?

As to how long your backup time is? Do a test! This has two benefits...
1) You then know how long you have to shut down and save.
2) The battery in the UPS will generally last longer if it gets a discharge cycle every few weeks but check this in the device documentation.

Do not forget to have a lamp powered from the UPS or a LED lamp always on hand. The light from a PC screen is not enough until eyes are dark adapted!

I had a 1 minute loss about a week ago but that was the first one for several years. Our mains is very reliable and clean and if we suffer brown out I never notice. Only thing wrong with our juice? Too bloody expensive and too many fat cats are getting very rich at my expense!

Dave.
 
We have a fair amount of brown-outs, but they seem to come in spurts in the summer. Really hot weather seems to cause them.
 
Nah. The really hot weather just makes you really hot. Lots of people cranking up their air conditioners to avoid being really how is what causes the brown outs! :)

As for specifying your UPS, read the little tags on the back of your gear to work out how many watts of power you need and decide in your own mind how long you need it for. If the tag on the back is in Amps, that number times your local voltage gives you watts. Just to confuse you more, some UPS units are specced in Va instead of watts. For the sake of this exercise, consider Va to be the same as watts. (They're not but it's close enough for this exercise.)

If you're going to do this, go for a decent unit--probably from an office or electrical supply company, not some cheapie from a department store. This will probably eliminate any concerns about the quality of the sine wave.

Next we can talk about auto start back up generators.... :D You don't want to stop mixing just because the power is off! :D
 
Bobbsy said:
Next we can talk about auto start back up generators.... :D You don't want to stop mixing just because the power is off! :D
Click to expand...

I have a 15,000W permanently installed generator w/auto transfer switch.
Runs on propane gas...and I have three 100 gallon tanks.

:)
 
Since retirement I just light a candle, but...

The last place I worked in TV had 2 x 500kW diesel generators with an auto start system (and obviously a UPS that could support us for more than the start up time). If both ran we kept the whole building going, if only one started we had auto load shedding so the available power went to technical areas and office areas were left dark. The gennies were both diesel...I can't recall the tank capacity but we could run for several days if we had to. Between the UPS, generators and fuel tanks the gear filled the equivalent to a small house...we had a large-ish satellite dish on the roof.

One of our contracts with a UK broadcaster called for us to test the back up power once a month. It was both intimidating and fun to pull the main switch to turn off all building power--we'd do it at a specific late night time when the risk was lowest in terms of lost work...but the system hadn't failed to start by the time I retired...dunno what the plan is now.
 
Yeah, we have one of those diesel monsters at my day gig...because the building houses a 4500 seat performance theater, it was needed in case of power outages during a show...but it provides power to the whole building, and all our offices.

The 15kW I have at home is mostly for the house living spaces and utilities. I didn't tie in the studio directly when I installed the generator (did it all myself), because there was more of concern about the living spaces at the time and keeping everyone comfortable...but it's easy to plug the studio into that grid, which I've done once when we had no commercial power for a week, following a hurricane.

The needs of the living spaces have shrunk...so I've thought about switching out a coupe of circuit breakers and adding my studio lines to the transfer switch....but we just don't get that many power outages here, and in most cases they last only 1-2 hours. During bad storms, especially winter storms...I've got other things to concern myself with than the studio. :D
 
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