Power Conditioner

Post by **TapeOpLarry** » Sat Dec 10, 2005 8:08 pm

I installed a couple of Furman IT1220 power conditioners at my studio yesterday. Fuck yeah, I no longer hear all that hash coming down the line from the G4!!! the console seems quieter as well. Anyone else ventured into this world of REAL power conditioners and been this happy?

chillhouse · Post by **chillhouse** » Sat Dec 10, 2005 9:12 pm

yeah, i put in a furman ar-pro and a 30 amp line a little while back. it really cleaned up and stabilized a bad power situation in an old neighborhood in boston. no more sweating as the power goes lower and lower during a session. or higher and higher for that matter. it didn't make anything sound that different in the studio though...

comfortstarr · Post by **comfortstarr** » Mon Dec 12, 2005 12:44 pm

I've got a frightening power situation in my attic here, but I don't have $1300 big ones. "Power conditioners" come in a range, a huge range.

Any tips for figuring out what will help and what's just a glorified power strip?

Thanks.

supafuzz · Post by **supafuzz** » Mon Dec 12, 2005 8:21 pm

anyone check out the $299 monster pro 3500
power conditioner box?

http://www.zzounds.com/item--MONPRO3500

it's affordable..wonder if it works to clean up sonics?

space_ryerson · Post by **space_ryerson** » Mon Dec 12, 2005 11:06 pm

How good of a job do those UPS's with the 40+ lb battery do of filtering/keeping the power consistent? They have some nice big caps in them. There may be some extra's at my job to take home, but I'd rather hear what you guys think before I lug one of those suckers home.

Post by **TapeOpLarry** » Tue Dec 13, 2005 11:06 am

You're looking for a box that will isolate the power with a transformer (means it should be heavy) and also will line back up the sine wave of the 60 Hz. Isolation and conditioning. Most of the Rack Rider type stuff is really just a power strip with a cheap surge protection and maybe some emi/rfi filtering via ferrrite beads or such. Nothing like the IT1220 or 1230 or other devices that do all this stuff. I got them (1220) for $800 each on eBay, one would easily power a home studio.

space_ryerson · Post by **space_ryerson** » Tue Dec 13, 2005 11:19 pm

Thanks for the tips Larry.

lifeintime · Post by **lifeintime** » Wed Dec 14, 2005 2:37 am

I have these in my racks
http://www.wiremold.com/shared_content/pdf/ed638.pdf

radiationroom · Post by **radiationroom** » Thu Dec 15, 2005 1:33 pm

I'm using New Frontier Electronics's "SurgeX" 20A in a NEMA enclosure and find that it keeps lots of garbage out. http://www.surgex.com

Just mount the SurgeX box to a piece of 6U sheet metal and bolt it in the rack. Mount a QO box on the same piece of metal that the SurgeX is on and grounding problems are gone as well - one less ground loop in the system.

@?,*???&? · Post by **@?,*???&?** » Fri Dec 16, 2005 8:11 pm

The Furman units can be good, but you should look into running balanced power in your place Larry. Balanced power can stop jitter cold- and with those of us using digital at least some of the time, that's critical. Equitech baby, Equitech. Look them up online.

radiationroom · Post by **radiationroom** » Sat Dec 17, 2005 12:07 pm

Jeff Robinson wrote:The Furman units can be good, but you should look into running balanced power in your place Larry. Balanced power can stop jitter cold- and with those of us using digital at least some of the time, that's critical. Equitech baby, Equitech. Look them up online.

Also worth noting is that Furman was sued by New Frontier Electronics for false advertising. New Frontier dba SurgeX claims that Furman's MOV based surge supression is not series mode and therefore should not be allowed to advertise it as such. From what I've been able to find, it looks like SurgeX and Furman settled out of court with an NDA between the two parties.

New Frontier holds the patent on series mode surge supression and apparently did not license it to Furman. Knowing this raises a burning red flag: If Furman's power conditioners are not using series mode technologies in the same veign as SurgeX, Adcom, Brickwall, etc, but customers purchased those products under the assumption that they did, not only does it leave customer's equipment at risk, it opens up Furman Sound to some serious litigation should someone's equipment blow-up while connected to Furman power conditioners.

73's - Carli

Online references:

http://www.surgex.ca/press/pr_furman2_050312.pdf
http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/archive/ ... 91545.html

radiationroom · Post by **radiationroom** » Sat Dec 17, 2005 12:24 pm

supafuzz wrote:anyone check out the $299 monster pro 3500
power conditioner box?

http://www.zzounds.com/item--MONPRO3500

it's affordable..wonder if it works to clean up sonics?

From what I understand is that the Monster power conditioners use MOV based surge protection, which is unreliable because the performance of MOV's degrade over extended peroids of time. The Monster might be the winner of a beauty pagent, but at it's price point, get yourself one of those extra-ugly 20A SurgeX units in a NEMA box and get real surge protection with excellent noise filtering as an added bonus.

ctmsound · Post by **ctmsound** » Sun Dec 18, 2005 12:31 am

Carli's right, the monster stuff craps out after a while. I should know, I sell it pro audio gear and I see it come back to the shop.

That's interesting about Furman, I'll have to ask them the next time they are in the store.

Russian Recording · Post by **Russian Recording** » Thu Dec 22, 2005 8:57 am

Jeff Robinson wrote:The Furman units can be good, but you should look into running balanced power in your place Larry. Balanced power can stop jitter cold- and with those of us using digital at least some of the time, that's critical. Equitech baby, Equitech. Look them up online.

the furman IT1220 is furman's balanced power unit. the ar1220 is their surge protection, line conditioner and voltage regulator. I bought the ar1220 and it has solved many problems for me. Ive been thinking of getting the IT1220 in addition to it, but have some other priorities first. Electrical Audio has their own balanced power system than powers both control rooms and all tracking rooms. It's nice.

mike

Post by **TapeOpLarry** » Thu Dec 22, 2005 11:04 am

I thought I was balanced...

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