power conditioner/power bars

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joninc
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power conditioner/power bars

Post by joninc » Mon Feb 11, 2019 12:57 pm

I was fighting some high end freq last week when I was printing some mixes through outboard gear - it' was a constant high freq tone (2k ish) that was being emitted - not super audible except on quiet parts and intros/outros but annoying enough that I went and bought a $100 ART power bar that claims to have EMI and RF elimination - i'll plug it in this week and see if it makes a difference.

I do have a lot of gear plugged in on generic power bars so it may be that this helps... but I can't help but wonder how much better this will be than the $25 mastercraft one I bought at Canadian Tire.

Do you guys use fancy power bars or rack mounted power conditioners on your gear?

Recommends on decent quality but non insanely expensive pieces?
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Re: power conditioner/power bars

Post by kslight » Mon Feb 11, 2019 1:22 pm

I’m not aware of any consumer level “power conditioner” that actually does anything about EMI or RF. Most are a glorified power strip in a convenient rack chassis.


I have no doubt that bad power can cause some audible issues, I’ve just never been lucky enough to have these be the solution. Usually it’s a bad cable or patch bay funk or a power supply going bad (especially if it’s a wall wart or something)...sometimes been able to move wall warts to different power strips and improve things.

In my studio I don’t use any fancy power conditioners, I have a couple of the cheap Furman rack units, which came with the rack cases I bought. They work okay for a convenient power strip but they don’t do any conditioning that I’ve noticed.

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Re: power conditioner/power bars

Post by vvv » Mon Feb 11, 2019 1:58 pm

The secret cheapo DIY solution is ...


... UPS's.
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Re: power conditioner/power bars

Post by joninc » Mon Feb 11, 2019 3:15 pm

Not sure how a ups addresses this issue ? The ones I looked at don’t have RF. filtering... Please elaborate.
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Re: power conditioner/power bars

Post by vvv » Mon Feb 11, 2019 5:32 pm

Because you are taking your power from the battery, any dirt in the lines (RF?*) appears to be filtered, IME.

If you are referring, BTW, to RFI, that's something different than RF and is similar to EMI; I noted an improvement (near total elimination) with that, also.

The only downside is the batteries need to be replaced every couple of years, at a cost of US$25 or less, and if yer power goes out they sound an alarm (by default) which sucks in the middle of the night when the UPS is in yer bedio.

*my definitions might, in fact, be daffynitions, but that's how I understand 'em.
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losthighway
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Re: power conditioner/power bars

Post by losthighway » Mon Feb 11, 2019 6:10 pm

UPS?

Universal power supply?

Unilateral pacifist secret?

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Re: power conditioner/power bars

Post by Magnetic Services » Mon Feb 11, 2019 6:51 pm

Have you tried a Faraday Cage?

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Re: power conditioner/power bars

Post by vvv » Mon Feb 11, 2019 7:36 pm

losthighway wrote:
Mon Feb 11, 2019 6:10 pm
UPS?

Universal power supply?

Unilateral pacifist secret?
Uninterruptible power supply.

My APC's look like this:

Image

This Amazon one is US$47.
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Re: power conditioner/power bars

Post by I'm Painting Again » Mon Feb 11, 2019 7:57 pm

do UPS's provide the same functionality as Isolation transformers ? Don't they just use a battery when the power gets cut abruptly?

I'm using a big ol 30lb isolation transformer and called an electrician to make sure the power is run properly from the mains

On location RF and light dimmers are sources of weird noise in the critical bands that I've noticed

make sure to check what else is on your studio power as that could be the problem

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Re: power conditioner/power bars

Post by joninc » Mon Feb 11, 2019 8:38 pm

I'm Painting Again wrote:
Mon Feb 11, 2019 7:57 pm
Don't they just use a battery when the power gets cut abruptly?
That was my assumption as well. The battery is the backup source no?
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Re: power conditioner/power bars

Post by joninc » Mon Feb 11, 2019 8:39 pm

I'm using a big ol 30lb isolation transformer and called an electrician to make sure the power is run properly from the mains
Could you send a link to something like what you are describing? Also where does the transformer get installed?
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Re: power conditioner/power bars

Post by I'm Painting Again » Mon Feb 11, 2019 9:10 pm

go used - much less $ and not a lot can go wrong with em

search "tripp lite hospital grade isolation transformer"

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Re: power conditioner/power bars

Post by vvv » Mon Feb 11, 2019 9:38 pm

joninc wrote:
Mon Feb 11, 2019 8:38 pm
I'm Painting Again wrote:
Mon Feb 11, 2019 7:57 pm
Don't they just use a battery when the power gets cut abruptly?
That was my assumption as well. The battery is the backup source no?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uninterru ... wer_supply

Look there at:
Common power problems
Technologies

The best type may be:
Line-interactive or Online/double-conversion
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Re: power conditioner/power bars

Post by joninc » Mon Feb 11, 2019 10:56 pm

Very interesting - i had no idea they could work this way.

Is that amazon one the one you use?
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Re: power conditioner/power bars

Post by vvv » Tue Feb 12, 2019 4:20 am

No, mine are a few years old, by APC I think, but they look similar; I've replace the batteries, and even one of the units, a cuppla times.

I've no idear what the specifics are (mebbe one is 500VA, the other 600VA?) but they work ...

I initially bought 'em just for the computer for when power goes out in storms, but then realized that they worked to quiet, also.

I have the two, into what I plug 2 rack-mount 8-switched socket power distributors, a 5-switch, and a cuppla power strips.

Alla that is for distribution, only mebbe 5 things is ever on at a time. Pro audio stuff really doesn't draw all that much power ...

I've had this set-up mebbe 10 years with no issues and I ...


... well, I ...


... record once in a while. :twisted:
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