Power Conditioners

[Jeroleen]

What do Power Conditioners do. How helpful are they. Are there different types and if so, what are they and when and why do you use the various types.

And...can you recommend a particulars model for a home studio.

[Simman]

Power conditioners, at a minimum, are supposed to suppress transients on your AC supply lines that could potentially damage your equipment. These would be similar to the rack mounted power strips (e.g., Furman PL-8). They mostly use a MOV (metal oxide varistor) placed across the circuit to clamp voltage transients. However, while these devices may (or may not) stop a transient, these conditioners due NOT provide voltage regulation. In addition, the more times the MOV gets hit, the less likely it will survive.


That being said, having some type of suppression is better than nothing.

There are various types of voltage protection/suppression/regulation available. You may want to check out some sites like http://www.furmansound.com/ for more info.

Hope this helped some.

[TexRoadkill]

A true powerconditioner will actually give you a better SNR on all your gear. If you want the real thing check out some Topaz stuff. They are available at different industrial power places online and you can find them at used electronics places and ebay. I got a pretty good deal on a used 1.5kva unit for $100.

http://search.ebay.com/search/search...az+conditioner

[Jeroleen]

Thanks Tex. I thought they might be available in industrial form for not too much money. Those Furman ones are a bit pricey. I would guess you pay for the packaging and name and what not.

[mixsit]

Tex, from what I've read about that type of unit, it needs to be sized so your load is up near the top range of it's capacity to be effective for spike reduction. I.e. if it's a ten amp (1kva), and your load is only two or three, it might not. You'd still get the transformer isolation (if that's needed?)
Check me out on this, I'm not 100% on this.
The one I came across was also physically noisy (hum), plus I wasn't keen on having a nice big transformer plugged in under my audio gear.
Wayne

[TexRoadkill]

Originally posted by mixsit
Tex, from what I've read about that type of unit, it needs to be sized so your load is up near the top range of it's capacity to be effective for spike reduction. I.e. if it's a ten amp (1kva), and your load is only two or three, it might not. You'd still get the transformer isolation (if that's needed?)
Check me out on this, I'm not 100% on this.
The one I came across was also physically noisy (hum), plus I wasn't keen on having a nice big transformer plugged in under my audio gear.
Wayne

I'm not sure about the need to max it out. I've never heard that before. I've never ever lost anything to a power surge so my main concern is just keeping the power clean and stable.

Usually you put them in another room for the other reasons you mentioned. I just run an extension cord from the conditioner to an outlet box in the studio room. Then everything plugs into that box.