Power Conditioners for Beginners...

No problem. I've been championing power conditioners ever since the install we did in Tokyo in 2005 (http://www.proaudioasia.com/paa/article.asp?cid=693)... so I'll be happy to take a swing at this.

Power conditioning basically does just that, it takes the noisy, dirty and somewhat unreliable AC power and conditions it into clean power for your system to run on. The old saying "Garbage in, garbage out" applies.

There are several brands with different proprietary features. My personal favorite, and what we spec for jobs ranging from a few thousand dollars to jobs that are several hundreds of thousands of dollars is Furman.

Furman offers a few different series. The Merit series is a " budget minded" series that uses MOVs to provide basic levels of conditioning and protection. However, I strongly recommend spending just a little more and getting something from their Series II line. These offer the following features:

LiFt = Linear Filtering

SMP = Series Mode Protection

EVS = Extreme Voltage Shutdown - protects your system from extreme voltages.

Many power conditioners offer displays that show you the available supply voltage, and some offer an ammeter too which shows you how much of the available current you are drawing. For some this can be useful.

Set-up is very easy. They are typically one rack space, with several outlets (typically 8) on the rear. This allows you turn on one switch on the front, which activates all the conditioned outlets on the rear. Some (like the PS-8R) offer sequencing to turn your equipment on and off in a desired order. Useful for eliminating "pops" as equipment powers up or down.

Conditioners are usually 15 amp or 20 amp rated. There's quite a thread on amperage on this site as well which explains some of that. Long and short... you'll probably want a 15 amp model because it has a 15 amp plug, which will fit both 15 amp and 20 amp receptacles... however, you should calculate your systems power requiremetn to determine which is appropriate for you.

Ben

ballphotodj said:

Ok, I've seen several posts here and there referring to power conditioners and since I'm still fairly green on equipment...I'd like to have some information, please.

Power Conditioners...what are they? What do they do? How do you set them up in your rack? How do you determine what size of conditioner you need for your system? Etc., Etc.

In other words can anyone give a good "overview" of power conditioners"?

Any feedback and information will be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,

Kirby "Got To Ask The Questions, To Get The Answers" Ball

Click to expand...

I got lazy...

More detail on the Series II features as plagerized from the Furman website.

SMP+ (Series Multi-Stage Protection Plus)
Furman’s SMP+ surge suppression virtually eliminates service calls. Traditional surge suppression circuits sacrifice themselves when exposed to multiple transient voltage spikes, requiring the dismantling of your system, and repair of your surge suppressor. Not so with SMP+. With Furman’s SMP+, damaging transient voltages are safely absorbed, clamped and dissipated - no sacrificed parts, no service calls, no down time.

Unique to Furman’s SMP+ is its unparalleled clamping voltage, even when tested beyond the grueling specifications of - USA/CIDA’s A-1-1 test. While other designs offer clamping voltages that are well above 300VAC peak (far beyond long accepted professional standards), Furman’s SMP+ clamps at 188VAC peak, 133 VAC RMS even when tested with multiple 6000VAC - 3000 Amp surges! This unprecedented level of protection is only available with Furman’s SMP+ technology.

LiFT (Linear Filtering Technology)
Unfortunately, traditional AC filter/conditioners have been designed for unrealistic laboratory conditions. Prior technologies could actually harm audio and video performance more than they help, due to the resonant peaking of their antiquated, non-linear designs. Under certain conditions, these designs can actually add more than 10 dB of noise to the incoming AC line! Worse still, lost digital data, the need to reboot digital presets, or destroyed digital converters are frequently caused by excessive voltage spikes and AC noise contaminating the equipment ground. Furman’s SMP+ with LiFT takes another approach, ensuring optimal performance through linear filtering and no leakage to ground.

E.V.S. (Extreme Voltage Shutdown)
Furman’s trusted overvoltage circuitry protects against all too frequent accidental connections to 208 or 240VAC by shutting off the incoming power until the overvoltage condition is corrected.

Kirby - are you going to Mobile Beat? We will be featuring Furman Power Conditioning there and we can talk until the wee hours of the morning about it if you'd like. I want to help you make the right choice.

Ben

If you have more questions as you go along, just shoot me an e-mail. We have guys here that are even more helpful than me. Wait until you talk to our Technical Services manager, Jim. LOL

Ben

I would strongly recommend putting your amps on a conditioner. Even high quality amps that have built in filters and protections will benefit from this. There is less wear on these components when they have to work less. I can't think of an amp mfg that will tell you not to use one if you have the option. A power regulator (whole new thread) would be really ideal since it would prevent dropouts in the supply voltage thus allowing the amp to recharge it's power rails much more reliably.

Ben

Wait [weight?] a minute...

Ben, I think you’re getting a bit close to the knuckle on this. While nearly any component can benefit, engineering is a decision tree of tradeoffs. A power regulator that provides better protection (from sags) than the energy stored in the filter caps of a conventional AB class power amp will have to be substantial. “Digital” amps are another story and are more sensitive to soft power lines. The guys that were so happy to save weight by buying that modern lightweight amplifier technology will be disappointed to hear you want them to hook it up to a (heavy) conditioner to stiffen the AC supply.

I have to side with Fred on this one. Well designed power amps have much less need than most other components for external protection. Mobil DJs too have other considerations. Money is one and weight the other. Units providing significant protection from sags can be darn heavy. They’re just fine for stationary racks (if you have the budget) but it is asking a lot of mobile DJs that have to transport them.

In summary, a well designed power supply in an amplifier is a kind of power conditioner.

I apologize, I wasn't trying to turn this into chat-board tennis. I guess I was simply saying that since you are going to have a power conditioner anyway, why NOT plug your amp(s) into it if the draw is less than the rating of the power conditioner. Since most power conditioners handle 15 or 20 amps, which an excess would not be handled by the wall outlet, I figured this might be the case.

I know personally of two DJs that have SWORN by theirs, both having been saved by the EVS. One was using a generator and could not figure out why his system would not start up... he noticed the EVS light on the Furman was on. Checked the supply voltage... a whopping 152 Volts!! It likely saved everything in that rack.

Please understand, I'm not trying to start an argument, nor am I advocating buying more stuff for the sake of buying it and carrying it.

Ben

That is a reasonable position Ben.

As you're aware there is always more to subjects like this and little that is cut and dry. Sure, absolutely, plug it in if the capacity exists. What if the second power amp takes you over the current rating? Do you add a second conditioner? A second issue might be protection from sags. Will the additional load mean less protection from a momentary (~.5 sec) power drop? Nothing carved in steel here but worth some consideration. This is one of those topics heavily dependent upon the specific situation and equipment in use. But certainly if it is just over voltage / surge protection, plug it in. There might be more to consider.

I apologize if this felt like forum tennis. It was an honest attempt to ventilate the issue, just the other side of the same coin. Hey Ben, if you didn't bring up the ideas you have, Kirby wouldn't have gotten nearly as much information. There are so many trade-offs. Good information helps our readers make informed decisions to as to which one are best for them.

Once again Ben, we thank you for your posts.

See the above 2 posts? That is what is VERY COOL here.