Power Conditioner
- Thread starter tdukex
- Start date
skippy
New member
There are a couple of caveats there, though: not all UPSs are equal. Some of them do do a very good job of power conditioning, and filtering out RF and narrow transient spikes. Some of the cheaper ones, however, do not do this very well, if at all: so depending upon a UPS to handle all of your powerline noise issues may not always work.
It gets worse. Some of the _really_ cheap UPSs put out essentially 60Hz square waves at 120V out of their inverters- they don't lowpass filter after the the chopper at all. There is a lot of equipment out there that doesn't tolerate that very well: most power supplies really like to see a sinusoidal input, and the closer you are to that, the happier the gear will be. Some of the cheaper ones take a long time to pick up after a failure, too- 15 or 20 cycles. It's like anything else: the real bargain-basement UPS units are not likely to help as much as their marketing hype claims.
If you're going to spend the money for a UPS, spend a little more and get a really good unit. Here's a place where specs do matter. Good ones will do the following things for you: filter both normal and common-mode line noise from 100kHz up, put out a true sinusoidal waveform, buck overvoltage down to the spec, boost undervoltage up to the spec in case of a brownout, have a selftest that will exercise the battery periodically (it's not good to find out that the battery's gone only when the power fails, eh?), and pick up in the minimum possible time (2-4ms is good: 30-60ms will let some equipment such as PCs fail, if they have heavily loaded power supplies).
I personally use APC UPSs, and have for years- I have 9 of 'em supporting power to all my machines and my phone system, here in powerfailure country. They get used for real 2 or 3 times a month. There are other vendors of good ones as well. The good ones have a few things in common: they are large, heavy, noisy when operating, and worth every dime...
The cheap little desktop ones you can get at Comp USA that are about the size of a power strip don't even come close... If you can pick it up in one hand, it probably puts out square waves, doesn't do any input noise filtering, and won't work as well as you'd like. Caveat Emptor!
It gets worse. Some of the _really_ cheap UPSs put out essentially 60Hz square waves at 120V out of their inverters- they don't lowpass filter after the the chopper at all. There is a lot of equipment out there that doesn't tolerate that very well: most power supplies really like to see a sinusoidal input, and the closer you are to that, the happier the gear will be. Some of the cheaper ones take a long time to pick up after a failure, too- 15 or 20 cycles. It's like anything else: the real bargain-basement UPS units are not likely to help as much as their marketing hype claims.
If you're going to spend the money for a UPS, spend a little more and get a really good unit. Here's a place where specs do matter. Good ones will do the following things for you: filter both normal and common-mode line noise from 100kHz up, put out a true sinusoidal waveform, buck overvoltage down to the spec, boost undervoltage up to the spec in case of a brownout, have a selftest that will exercise the battery periodically (it's not good to find out that the battery's gone only when the power fails, eh?), and pick up in the minimum possible time (2-4ms is good: 30-60ms will let some equipment such as PCs fail, if they have heavily loaded power supplies).
I personally use APC UPSs, and have for years- I have 9 of 'em supporting power to all my machines and my phone system, here in powerfailure country. They get used for real 2 or 3 times a month. There are other vendors of good ones as well. The good ones have a few things in common: they are large, heavy, noisy when operating, and worth every dime...
The cheap little desktop ones you can get at Comp USA that are about the size of a power strip don't even come close... If you can pick it up in one hand, it probably puts out square waves, doesn't do any input noise filtering, and won't work as well as you'd like. Caveat Emptor!
The Green Hornet
New member
Yo Skipperoo:]
What is your take on the CARVIN AC120 power conditioner/distributor?
It is or appears bigger than a power strip in the Carvin catalog.
I've been thinking of getting one to see if it will lower or eliminate line noise in my recording studio.
Thanks for your input.
Green Hornet
What is your take on the CARVIN AC120 power conditioner/distributor?
It is or appears bigger than a power strip in the Carvin catalog.
I've been thinking of getting one to see if it will lower or eliminate line noise in my recording studio.
Thanks for your input.
Green Hornet
skippy
New member
Looks like a pretty reasonable piece, according to the Carvin website. It's a 1-slot rack mount conditioner/distribution deal, with a builtin AC voltmeter, 8 outlets on the back, and builtin pullout light heads for working in the dark. I could give the voltmeter a miss, but according to the specs it does have a real inline RFI/EMI filter. So it would give you some reduction of HF noise coming in, and it has MOVs for surge suppression (lightning transients). So it fills the bill as being a real power conditioner. It falls short of being a power *regulator *or UPS, but it will indeed give you cleaner power and some zap-prevention. If your problems are primarily with EMI hash riding in on the power, this'll work.
It looks almost identical to the Furman products that do the same thing, and looks like it's about the same price, or maybe a few bucks cheaper. The best thing of all about devices like this is that they give you a single master power switch for the whole rig. Always a plus...
It looks almost identical to the Furman products that do the same thing, and looks like it's about the same price, or maybe a few bucks cheaper. The best thing of all about devices like this is that they give you a single master power switch for the whole rig. Always a plus...
The Green Hornet
New member
Yo Skipper:
Thanks for your ratiocinative input. I think I might buy one of the Carwin plug-ins because it would help in my small studio.
Have a good Memorial Day holiday and smooth sounds ahead.
Green Hornet
PS Skipper: I used to really dig the old Stapleton Airport in Denver when I visited friends in Calif. The old S. port had the best pubs in the entire USA. Foot long martinis and great beer.
Cheers,
GH
Thanks for your ratiocinative input. I think I might buy one of the Carwin plug-ins because it would help in my small studio.
Have a good Memorial Day holiday and smooth sounds ahead.
Green Hornet
PS Skipper: I used to really dig the old Stapleton Airport in Denver when I visited friends in Calif. The old S. port had the best pubs in the entire USA. Foot long martinis and great beer.
Cheers,
GH
Well, maybe I got lucky. I just bought two APC 300va UPS Backups (the kind skippy uses), and yes, they are big and heavy. Staples was selling them for $49 each with $40 mail-in rebates, so I'm paying $10 apiece in the end. My computer guru friend who works on hardware and networks for a living also said the APCs were good. He showed me four stacked monsters in the company computer room we use to back up our networks.
My plan is to use one for the puter and one for the rack gear
My plan is to use one for the puter and one for the rack gear
I have a Furman PL-8 line conditioner and just yesterday it saved my Whole outboard rack. I had a power serge. It caused the resister inside to fry. I am lucky and live not to far away from furman and they were able to fix it right away. The tech told me that I had a serge come threw of at least 130volts. That is when the resister is set to pop. It did every thing that it was supposed to do. Without it the power serge wold have fried everything that was on in my rack.
Get one it’s worth it!
Andy
Get one it’s worth it!
Andy
VOXVENDOR
New member
Rolls is a decent, yet not best brand of line conditioner.. it's the same configuration as the furman, with 10-12 sockets in the rear.. (glorified power bar), and retracting racklights, and it's half the price as the furman.....with the same protection... (from what Im told)
Joe
Joe
Wallycleaver
New member
Skippy What's up! Good to see a fellow home wrecker from colorado!!! What parts may I ask? I'm from the Boulder/Schlongmont area
skippy
New member
Most use one or more MOVs: Metal Oxide Varistor. These have a very high resistance at normal line voltage, but the resistance abruptly drops when the voltage goes over some level (usually 130-140 volts). This causes the device to essentially short out, and the resulting current suge through the MOV pops the circuit breaker, disconnecting power from the loads. Unfortunately, the MOV itself is usually destroyed: it gives its life to save the rest of your gear.
Wally- I'm from the Castle Rock/Monument area: the area that experiences the second highest rate of lightning strikes in the continental US (second only to the Tampa Bay area). Thin air rawks, dude...
Wally- I'm from the Castle Rock/Monument area: the area that experiences the second highest rate of lightning strikes in the continental US (second only to the Tampa Bay area). Thin air rawks, dude...
Jason Hancock
New member
thanks to everyone!
All you guys are the coolest! You've answered several questions that I had about these very topics. So, I'm out now to purchase either the Furman PL Plus or an APC unit....
Thanks!
All you guys are the coolest! You've answered several questions that I had about these very topics. So, I'm out now to purchase either the Furman PL Plus or an APC unit....
Thanks!