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Power conditioner?


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We at Blackpig Laboratories have decided to invest some of the housekeeping money in a power conditioner for the home studio. The question is which model. We are seeking advice from the erudite and urbane fellow members of this hallowed forum in the hope that there might be someone out there who has experience of such machines. The budget is about

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Frankly, all the stuff in this price range is about the same - - they use 165V Metal Oxide Varistor surge suppressors. Some have a bit of additional filtering. But most are about the same as a surge suppressor power strip from your local Walmart or whatever.

 

As you mentioned, though, they look a lot cooler than the power strips because they are rack mounted, and some have winky lights (like digital readout of the power line voltage at the moment).

 

Proper AC power conditioning isn't something you can buy for a couple hundred bucks, it requires (at a minimum) large & heavy filter components, which are expensive.

 

However, surge suppressors do have their purpose, and I'd urge everyone to use them to protect their gear.

 

But it won't (for a few examples) keep out dimmer noise, allow you to reliably keep working when the line voltage sags, or allow your equipment to operate flawlessly through momentary power dropouts. These are the features that run into some money...

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The ones Philbo and I are referring to are transformers that totally isolate you from the incoming power and will, as philbo suggested, maintain a constant voltage no matter what fluctuations occur externally. It will eliminate glitches and spikes from lightning strikes etc. and will service all power outlets, not just the puters.

 

cheers

john

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It sounds like what you're talking about are power conditioners, with voltage regulators for the line voltage, not just noise filters on the power line.

 

You should be able to find that for less than $10,000. ;)

 

Someone with more professional studio expertise than I have should jump in to talk about the difference between slew rates on the voltage regulation units used for computers vs. what's really needed for a clean audio signal, but again, stay out of the audiophile stratosphere and you should still be able to afford good results.

 

Some of Monster's stuff is a rip-off, but they may have something along these lines, if not, also investigate APC and Tripp-Lite.

 

:)

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Yes the APC stuff is great. We have a 1500w version, and all our gear is dead silent. It really makes a massive difference in the quality of your audio with regulated power, and yields superior protection against outside power fluxuations.

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Yup, APC stuff is very good. So is Tripplite.

 

I haven't recently looked into UPS units lately. But I recall it being very important you get one with sine outputs if you are running any sort of analog gear from it.

 

The switching supplies used in PCs are OK with the square wave UPS's, since they use feedback to control how much power to draw based on measuring the output voltage.

 

But the normal analog power supply is not anywhere close to being that smart, and the square wave inputs are very unfriendly to some of the components they use.

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Originally posted by philbo

Yup, APC stuff is very good. So is Tripplite.


I haven't recently looked into UPS units lately. But I recall it being very important you get one with sine outputs if you are running any sort of analog gear from it.


The switching supplies used in PCs are OK with the square wave UPS's, since they use feedback to control how much power to draw based on measuring the output voltage.


But the normal analog power supply is not anywhere close to being that smart, and the square wave inputs are very unfriendly to some of the components they use.

 

 

To me, the reason to use a supply with a sine wave output is because of the reduction in noise in your system. Many UPS units have outputs that are nearly square waves, and that means lots of high frequency content on the power supplies. Ideally, all our music gear should have appropriate filtering on the power supply so that square waves would be OK. Unfortunately, that is not the case, even for a lot of high end audio gear.

Anyways, the sine wave output UPS units aren't prohibitively expensive. I'll never be without one again.

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I basically run on a UPS 24/7.

 

I have an 24 volt DC- 240 volt AC inverter that handles peaks of 1500watts and continuous 750 watts. It produces a sine wave output and all my gear runs on it.

 

It's probably the most reliable piece of electronic gear I've ever experienced. It's mounted under the house, exposed to temps from 10F - 110F and humidity up in the 90%+. It's been operating non stop for the past 15 years with absolutely no servicing or maintenance.

 

Beat that :D

 

cheers

john

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No - I run on solar power so it takes the DC charge in my batteries and inverts it up to Australian standard power - 240 volts, 50hz.

 

Basically you could build your own Super UPS by purchasing 12 volt deep cycle batteries of about 1000 amp hrs and instead of charging them from solar panels charge them via a mains powered battery charger with a regulator to prevent over charging.

 

Then attach a 12 volt - 110 volt, 60hz pure sine wave inverter and you are in business.

 

You will always have 110 volts, i.e. not 90 or 130 and lightning and power blackouts will no longer be a problem as you are in fact running on batteries. You can also create you own independent GROUND!!

 

1000 amp hours means you can run at 1000 amps for 1 hour or 100 amps for 10 hours.

100 amps @12 volts means 1200 watts for 10 hours or 2400 watts for 5 hours.

 

That would get you through most power outs.

 

If you want to run over 2400watts you are better to go to a 24 volt system or even a 48 volt.

 

When you switch off/standby at night the batteries will recharge.

 

for prices for these components check out this site

 

http://www.absak.com/

 

here's quick calc I did:

 

1275AH/12V Deep Cycle Battery Set $2,275.00

300/200/60/30 Heavy Duty charger $249.00

Xantrex PS 2500W/12V Pure Sign Wave Inverter $2,165.00

 

TOTAL $4689.00

 

On the other hand you can purchase a Chinese pure sine wave inverter @ 600watts for $150 from walmart or your autoshop. A 100AH 12V car battery for $100 and a charger for $60. That will run a 350watt puter/LCD screen and a couple of backup fluro lights for around 4 - 5 hours, a laptop for a lot longer.

 

cheers

john

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