Power

[The Computer Audiophile]

What are you guys using for power products? A power conditioner, parallel or series? power strip? surge suppressor? power cables?

 

As usual, inquiring minds want to know.

 

 

Me - Richard Gray's Power Company RGPC 400, two High Tension Wire power cables. I've used the Substation before but it was only the 120 model. I would like to get the 240 model.

 

[Innertuber]

Monster HTS 3600, more of a fancy protector than conditioner, I think. Good company with good warranty. Nice quality. 10 outputs, trigger and a few more things I don't really use. 300 bucks, not really cheap.

 

[The Computer Audiophile]

Without more answers I will assume everyone is not using any power products and plugging their equipment straight into the wall. :-o

 

[Spudco]

Over the years, I have tried several flavors of power conditioning (Brick Wall, Goldmund, MIT, Exact Power, Monster, Equi Tech, Chang) on my systems. I now use a simple Monster unit for my Plasma and Sat receiver and plug all my other stuff into dedicated lines from a dedicated box. For most of our stuff, I have a balanced power dedicated box and surge protection at the box. I have 6 dedicated lines for my main system and 4 for the system in my wife's yoga studio. We are lucky to have fairly good power at our home - we are the only house on a spur with our own transformer.

 

In general, almost every conditioner I tried caused some compression of the dymamics of the music. Moreover, I believe that the power supplies on lots of high end gear are more than adequate and handle small line noise fine.

 

If you own your home, I think you should consider upgrading to dedicated lines from a seperate service box with upgraded recepticals. Also, make sure you have a really good ground on your electrical service. If you wish, you can install balanced power at the service box.

 

As far as surge protection goes, contact your insurance agent with replacement costs for your gear. Adjust your coverage to handle the special value of your gear. Nothing will stop lightning!

 

For my computer based hardware, I use a UPS for my wireless/router/external drives. My Mac Mini and Squeeze boxes are plugged into the dedicated lines.

 

Most importantly, stop worring and enjoy the music.

 

Edward

 

[The Computer Audiophile]

"Stop worrying and enjoy the music." Exactly!

 

Thanks for the post.

 

I agree with much of what you said. It sounds like you have a really good power setup to get the most from your system, which can make the music more enjoyable.

 

The only power products in my experience that do not limit anything are the Richard Gray's Power Company products. That's why I've stuck with them over the years. If you look at their technology versus the other guys it is a no-brainer. At least for me.

 

I'm working towards the dedicated circuit business that you have. However, I doubt I'll ever be so lucky to have my own transformer!

 

[sgbaird]

Wow! Glad to see you're using Richard's Power Company thingie. I've known Richard Gray personally for about 34 years, and he has come to my rescue several times. Only guy I know who can diagnose an equipment problem over the phone and fix it without consulting a schematic. Richard has been keeping my Quicksilver MS-190 running for almost 25 years now.

 

I do not use power conditioners or surge protectors on my audio equipment, but I have an APC UPS on my computer.

 

[markr]

... I would have to recommend Furman rack mount units for the more spartan among us. I currently have both a PL-8 series II and PL-8 Plus. The plus unit (with digital voltmeter) helped me call the local power company 'on the carpet':

I was seeing volt peaks that were going way into the red on the meter at various times of the day. So I called them and told them that I had a lot of digital equipment that I didn't want them to blow up. They quickly came out and installed monitoring equipment on my line in. After a couple of weeks of monitoring, they told me that there was ' no problem ' - even though I know that while I was being monitored, the peaks continued to happen during the first week. I didn't argue, and I've never experienced the issue since...... Do you hink they were telling the truth?

 

markr

 

 

 

[The Computer Audiophile]

Not a bad friend to have SGB!

 

I love the RGPC stuff.

 

[Lord Chaos]

I'm one of those who "just plugs stuff into the wall" and listens to the music. The power distribution box is a $35 Home Depot job with ten outlets. Most of the outlets in this old apartment are just two-prong, and I have no idea if the three-wire receptacles in the kitchen, from which I run an extension to power the hardware, are truly grounded.

 

[rom661]

For the record we have tried a variety of things from $300.00 to 3000.00. In fairness I haven't tried the Richard Gray pieces. Our experience has always been that they help some things and hurt others. Keep in mind I am talking about power conditioning, not simple surge protection. In either case the old "first do no harm" is foremost. When we are asked about it in the store our answer is that we honestly don't know what to suggest. Some of the units seem to have what I would describe as a lower noise floor but in most cases the music seems to become slightly dry and sterile. Just my two cents worth but we have tried about ten products and anytime I can't whole heartedly recommend something to someone, I suggest they find something they don't have to question themselves about. For what it's worth, my system plugs directly into a high quality ($69) commercial power strip and then into the wall outlet. I did wire around the suppression part of it because I think I hear a very slight degradation but more importantly one let go once on my system and let go with a high frequency transient that fried a couple of really good tweeters.

 

I did see an interesting demo by PS Audio a few years ago at CES where they were showing the noise components of Las Vegas power directly out of the wall outlet. They were showing four or five devices. The one we were selling at the time really didn't reduce anomalies but moved the frequencies where they occurred around, a highly questionable benefit. The one I remember the most was Monster. There was actually more noise coming out of it than going in. This was some time ago and I have no idea what their present products are like, not wanting to get my ass sued and all.

 

[The Computer Audiophile]

Rick - I highly suggest Richard Gray products. As I'm sure you know they are not power conditioning devices and certainly don't limit current. My local dealer who carries Wilson, ARC, Sonus Faber, Magnapan, dcs etc ... got me hooked on RGPC products and I glad they did.

 

[rom661]

Yeah, I need to. I've heard mixed reports, I just got tired of chasing the dragon.

 

[Wavelength]

Gang,

 

Here's the deal... unless you are a significant distance from the transformer, live on the same grid as Microsoft, Hospital or a Radio Station. Then using these will just change the sound, not make it better.

 

The only time I ever use a power conditioner is at an Audio Show. One year CES was 105Vac on setup day the next day it was 137vac and every European product was blowing up left and right. Glad to have my PS Audio at a constant 120vac.

 

That being said everything else is worthless. Maybe in NYC or downtown anywhere it's good but for the rest of use the line is much better than most of these conditioners are and you can spend you money elsewhere which will make a much better choice.

 

Thanks

Gordon

 

[markr]

...on my Furman rack mount units and not use them at home, just when taking them out to "unknown voltage land" - on the road... I would probably never have known that I had the home voltage spikes (except for damaged devices) if I hadn't bought the Furmans though.

 

markr

 

[elarson]

I also use Furman units. I have a PS-8R Power Sequencer plugged into an AR-1215 Voltage Regulator, which is plugged into a dedicated twenty amp circuit. I have a rack full of amps, and the sequencer softens the impact on the line as everything powers up in three stages. Until two years ago, when the transformer for our neighborhood was replaced, I could watch the display of the AR-1215 show the incomiing voltage fluctuating all over the place. Now, with the new transformer, the voltage is pretty constant. My original purpose in getting the Furman's was not audio related, but strictly to protect my equipment.

 

Eric

 

[markr]

Welcome to Computer Audiophile! Loving this stuff requires some vigilance if we want to keep what we have. Before I started conditioning my power, I lost a really good tool to voltage spikes. It was a JL Cooper SMPTE timecode striper/reader that I used to sync my old Atari MIDI music equipment to tape machines. It was a heartbreaking loss. One that I did not recover from gracefully. I would recommend at LEAST some minimal 'professional level' power conditioning in everyone's home power supply for critical electronic equipment. A dedicated circuit doesn't hurt either!

 

markr