Power Conditioners - Do they make a Difference (poll)

[Bill Ferris]

Got no skin in the game but as my electronics are on a 20 amp dedicated line & the power around here is pretty clean, not certain benefits of PC would be as considerable as some have experienced. Just thinking out loud; I could be completely incorrect -

You could look into purchasing a 20 amp rated quality (Panamax, Furman, Tripp-Lite, or Nice brand) surge/spike/conditioner through Amazon, and if you have a Prime account with Amazon, free shipping and 30 days to try anyone of them out, and determine if the use of one in your particular situation will be beneficial or not ! Free returns, if not.

My latest (several month back) surge/spike/conditioner replacement purchases due to several + decades of continuous use Panamax brand, both 15 & 20 amp versions used in 2 separate rooms separates based (preamp/power amp) stereos systems, that finally just starting to act up and were flat worn out.

So I did a Panamax brand only search on Amazon for what was currently offered by them equivalent to the previous in use models.

What I received was a very well built "Nice" brand that I never heard of so at first I was pissed off until I found out that this Nice brand Co. bought out Panamax, and so I carefully opened up both conditioners to look at the construction, and both models were all around way more heavy duty built than the 2 Panamax models then being replaced, so I`m very impressed with the internal components quality of the 2 new Nice brand surge/spike/conditioner/powerup/down sequencers replacements, and would recommend them to anyone looking for a quality power protection/conditioner, and they both have been subjected to multiple grid surge/spike power events since installation, both manmade (pwr. Co. load switching over adjustment) and lightning type, one spike/rich double dropout and return during a strong local lightning storm before staying down and my auto whole house genset kicked in for over an hr.

FWIW, Your house`s electrical system is much spike prone & dirtier than you think, even if the incoming voltage appears stable, with all the very prevalent SMPS (computers, wall warts, LED lights, etc. back feeding their noise, plus your close by neighbors dirty electrical/electronics that share the up to 4 house shared drop transformer dirty power contributions.

Try a quality brand, & reasonable priced, power protection/conditioner powering your system for several weeks to determine that you could benefit from its use, if not send it back.

Just a real world experienced suggestive thought, Bob in WI.

 

[tubelectron]

FWIW, Your house`s electrical system is much spike prone & dirtier than you think, even if the incoming voltage appears stable, with all the very prevalent SMPS (computers, wall warts, LED lights, etc. back feeding their noise, plus your close by neighbors dirty electrical/electronics that share the up to 4 house shared drop transformer dirty power contributions.

Yes, true. This was the reason why I went for a (DIY) Power Conditioner, and it proved beneficial, I mean : cleaning without changing the sound !

T

 

[grey]

I've had some thoughts of adding a higher end APC brand battery backup to only the upstream gear. This unit will produce a nice looking sine wave that is re-generated from DC power. This is power conditioning. Not sure what the ground potential would be between the upstream gear and downstream.

 

[Bob in WI]

You could look into purchasing a 20 amp rated quality (Panamax, Furman, Tripp-Lite, or Nice brand) surge/spike/conditioner through Amazon, and if you have a Prime account with Amazon, free shipping and 30 days to try anyone of them out, and determine if the use of one in your particular situation will be beneficial or not ! Free returns, if not.

My latest (several month back) surge/spike/conditioner replacement purchases due to several + decades of continuous use Panamax brand, both 15 & 20 amp versions used in 2 separate rooms separates based (preamp/power amp) stereos systems, that finally just starting to act up and were flat worn out.

So I did a Panamax brand only search on Amazon for what was currently offered by them equivalent to the previous in use models.

What I received was a very well built "Nice" brand that I never heard of so at first I was pissed off until I found out that this Nice brand Co. bought out Panamax, and so I carefully opened up both conditioners to look at the construction, and both models were all around way more heavy duty built than the 2 Panamax models then being replaced, so I`m very impressed with the internal components quality of the 2 new Nice brand surge/spike/conditioner/powerup/down sequencers replacements, and would recommend them to anyone looking for a quality power protection/conditioner, and they both have been subjected to multiple grid surge/spike power events since installation, both manmade (pwr. Co. load switching over adjustment) and lightning type, one spike/rich double dropout and return during a strong local lightning storm before staying down and my auto whole house genset kicked in for over an hr.

FWIW, Your house`s electrical system is much spike prone & dirtier than you think, even if the incoming voltage appears stable, with all the very prevalent SMPS (computers, wall warts, LED lights, etc. back feeding their noise, plus your close by neighbors dirty electrical/electronics that share the up to 4 house shared drop transformer dirty power contributions.

Try a quality brand, & reasonable priced, power protection/conditioner powering your system for several weeks to determine that you could benefit from its use, if not send it back.

Just a real world experienced suggestive thought, Bob in WI

Could be. I'll have to look at $$.

 

[Bill Ferris]

Could be. I'll have to look at $$.

Understandably.
FWIW, originally, except for my first Panamax 15 amp Max 1000 that was made in the" USA", that I purchased in the very early nineties, that had a lifetime replacement offer for the protector, all later Panamax models until currently, had like a 1 yr. replacement warranty.

Whereas the current Nice brand, at least, offers a 5 yr. one on the 2 models that I`ve purchased.

And the 2 models that I purchased provide important TV coax, telephone, and ethernet jack in/out surge/spike protected jacks for small signal wiring protection, as even just a nearby lightning strike`s destructive EMP`s energy, will look for ground through those cables trashing any electronics that are connected to them that are not protected .
Be cautious about considering the purchasing of no-name brand Chinese inexpensive models that are offered on the web.

And SurgeX brand protector is the only protector with a 10 yr. warranty that I`ve noticed more recently, but while that brand offers very excellent surge/spike/conditioner protectors, they are very, very pricy !

Good luck.

 

[MuseChaser]

I have two Panamax conditioner/line protectors; one on each of our two main audio systems. When the power company decided it was time to replace our electricity meter with a new "smart meter" that allowed them to spy on our minute-by-minute energy usage constantly against my wishes (I'll save that rant for another time.. might not be allowed here anyway), the bent one of the tabs on the meter box, causing one of the two lines to arc and sag. The Panamax meters showed voltages fluctuating from lows of 79V to highs of over 140V, and that took out a fridge and a cheaper surge protector. Thankfully, nothing else of value was damaged (that I've found yet, anyway). The $500 worth of Panamax gear saved close to $20K worth of gear. For that reason ONLY, yes, use them. If it sounds better to some ears (I haven't noticed that), that's just icing on the necessary cake.

 

[Bill Ferris]

I've had some thoughts of adding a higher end APC brand battery backup to only the upstream gear. This unit will produce a nice looking sine wave that is re-generated from DC power. This is power conditioning. Not sure what the ground potential would be between the upstream gear and downstream.

FWIW, I think that`s a great idea, especially the APC brand. BTW, The UPS` electrical ground connectivity remains connected to the outlet that the UPS is plugged into during it`s batter powered operation.

When I bought my $$,$$$. $$ true 4K theater grade Sony digital projector in ~ 2011, with its very pricy high powered fan cooled lamp, I knew I needed to purchase a pure sinewave UPS to keep the lamp`s cooling fan running if the power quit while operating, or it would damage or kill the lamp !
Even though I have a 1999 purchased whole house capacity automatic startup & transfer LP fueled standby generator, it takes around a minute to activate, self test, & switch over to power the house, and may not possibly function for whatever reason, though it hasn`t yet.
And the last time I purchased & replaced the becoming worn out original lamp it was over $ 500.00 USD ~ 15 yrs. ago, and I`m certain its priced much higher now, and I only trust genuine Sony lamps, so that replacement will always be very pricy, even discounted through Amazon !

That was the primary reason of my initial selection of the rack mount APC brand 1500 VA pure sinewave UPS for its backup protection.
It was my first pure sinewave UPS purchase and use, as I use 2 other non-sinewave APC UPS`, that still work flawlessly, one 550 VA that`s well over 15 yrs. old, used for my internet signal electronics & another 12 yr. old 1500 VA for my security camera closet equipment, and with only the battery replacement every 5 or so yrs. they all have given me stellar performance and the only UPS brand I`ve learned to trust, whether non sinewave or sinewave models.

A few yrs. after I bought the 80 lb. rack mount installed APC pure sinewave UPS for the living room`s projector, I decided to hook up various analog & digital signal level and very low power draw A/V devices mounted in the A/V rack to it as to prevent me from having to manually reset some of the 24/7/365 operating electronics after a momentary power grid blip drop out, or a out right failure of the grid for whatever reason.

 

[grey]

rack mount APC brand 1500 VA pure sinewave UPS

That's what I have. Dumpster picked it from a decom'd broadcast studio with fresh batteries. I would like to convert it to newer battery tech. and still working through those details. Wouldn't mind having two more of them

 

[jmac95]

As a small apartment dweller I would occasionally run a vacuum in the same room as my home theater system (Samsung AV receiver and Bose 301s, upgraded since then) and would always notice a thump or pop in the speakers when turning on/off the vacuum. I made sure to get one of those cheap Furman power conditioners (the 6 outlet power strip one, I was a bit too cheap to get a nice rack unit yet), and it's cleaned up the voltage fluctuations from large appliances. I can still see the lights flicker when I turn on my secondary system which isn't protected yet. Gotta pick up another Furman or power conditioner/surge protector.
Do I notice a difference? Running my Yamaha AVR with JBL studio 530s and/or Advent Heritage, I can't say I do, besides the cleaned up voltage from large appliances