Power Conditioning

[livstone]

Hi all-

I have been searching for the best reasonably priced solution for upgrading my power conditioning system in my studio and for that matter for my A/V system also. I have been looking at the APC J & H systems and a few systems from Monster but I wnted to see what others were using and why.

The advantage of the some of the APC systems is that they have the battery backup so that is a plus but I would definetely like to hear from you guys to see what your experiences and recommendations are before I purchase.

Thanks



Livstone

[Dopamine]

It depends what your budget is. An APC voltage regulator and battery BU is a no-brainer (a bare minimum IMO) since they are inexpensive. I'm thinking of moving up to Balanced Power. Equitech has an entry-level system for under $2k.

[dubaifox]

What would the benefits be? How might you know if you need it? (other than the obvious benefit of not losing computer data during a power failure and surge protection)

[Frank Kruse]

See this thread for more info about power-conditioning myths and reality:

here


and

article



frank.

[livstone]

I am leaning with you Dopamine-

I think the benefits definetely are in the APC's corner with tthe battery back up which I do not see the other having.

Thanks for the input.

[minister]

get balanced power if you have lot of noise. if not, you are fine with 'IN-LINE" UPS units.

as to 'Balanced Power'...it really is a 1:1 transformer that makes 60V-0-60V instead of 120V-0

imo the Equtech is not as well implemented as the Furman gear.

the biggest help in balanced is for devices with chassis leakage problems, which actually means having one big unit at the entrance is not a good as using several smaller devices at the end of the line.

the Furman also makes you plug everything in at one place which automatically reduces loop-area issues. all sorts of gear "leaks" some energy into the chassis. whether from a guitar amps ground switch and associated "leaky" capacitor, or from an AC line filter caps. Balanced power attempts to make these currents anti-phase and cancel. the Furman is nice in that they use a good toroid transformer and it has under/over voltage protection..and a bunch of outlets on the back.

the noise reduction comes from the equal 60 cycle legs canceling out any noise introduced due to the wave cycles with opposite polarity, much like a transformer - balanced mic input. the introduction of noise is due to the improper / or maybe inherent leakage of power through the equipment chasis (which carries the ground) because they're are no balanced legs, the noise is introduced into only the one existing leg and can't be cancelled out with any opposing phase relationship.

the furman makes sense to be better because your creating a balanced power condition up front on the power rather than attempting to drain any noise introduced into the audio signal afterwards with a ground drain, taking some of the good signal with it.

if you don't have any major problems with just regulation, you may not need the balanced, though. monitor buzz? do you need to perform Iyengar Yoga to use a single-coil pickups?

[Lee Blaske]

Balanced power might take care of some ground loop problems, but in almost all cases, you won't have those problems if your studio interfacing is done correctly. There are some exceptions (e.g. large facilities where some of the audio gear is on a completely different power circuit).

I'm using APC 1400 units with a well interfaced system, and my my noise floor is extremely low. There are a lot of people out there who have spent a lot of money needlessly on esoteric power conditioning.

Once you've spent the money, though, defending your rationale for purchasing the system becomes a matter of pride.

Lee Blaske

[Lee Blaske]

if you don't have any major problems with just regulation, you may not need the balanced, though. monitor buzz? do you need to perform Iyengar Yoga to use a single-coil pickups

Most guitar pickup noise comes from things that balanced power will not improve (noisy, low quality light dimmers, CRT monitors, etc.).

Lee Blaske

[livstone]

I actually don't have any strange hums at all. The main purpose of me upgrading is more for protection as opposed to cleaning up the noise floor. That's why APC seemed to be a good choice due to the cost factor, the equipment guarantee and the battery backup.

I had what I beleive to be a lightning strike at some point during the summer which damaged a modem, a ethernet hub and my computer ethernet system. Luckily it happened about two weeks before Apple Care was due to expire so I got a brand new motherboard out of it. The other items are negligable so I really got lucky on this one. This is the first time something like this happened and I want it to be the last. A neighbor lost an A/C from lightning also.

So I'd rather be safe than sorry so I decided to get some thing for the studio gear and the A/V stuff.


Any one know of any problems with the APC guarrantee? Does it really cover your gear or are there a bunch of loopholes?

Thanks

[Richard Barrie]

It is possible to protect you installation from voltage surges caused by nearby lighning strikes by installing a readily available Transient Voltage Protectors on your incoming power. These cost a few hundred dollars.

In a large facility it is worth considering putting Transient Voltage Protection on all signal lines that connect widely separated areas of the building. We once lost some balanced line receivers after a near lightening strike and after thinking about the mechanism we believe that momentarily there was a voltage difference in our technical ground at widely separated points and this was higher than the common mode voltage maximum of the line receivers.