Axe-Fx III power conditioner or voltage regulator?

∞Fractals said:
Not all folks buy the cheap Furmans however.

I live in "brown-out" city, where during storm season power goes out frequently and right before we usually get lasting severe low-voltage situations. All my gear in the house is on a good (meaning more than a sacrificial diode-type) protection from that nonsense.

The AxeFx 3 and Matrix sits with a Furman PL+ DLC. I can see voltage, current draw and no diodes. Superfast shutdown. It's not a "power conditioner", but that's not it's intent.
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Exactly. That is what I am getting at. To just tell someone that all they need is a cheap Furman could set someone living in Florida or some other place with power challenges up for problems.

These rack power products are terribly marketed (some might even say deceptively). After my amps got hit twice while connected to a Furman I educated myself on the topic. The difference between marketing and reality is appalling.
 
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I would say it depends - if you play at bars - many bars tend to be on the "older" side - and may have pretty jacked up electricity.
I have been in some places where I'm seeing 90 volts come in to the house - not great for your equipment. A voltage regulator will keep you at 120 regardless of the incoming voltage. But they are pretty spendy.
If all you do is play at home or arenas - I would say save your money.
 
As Cooper stated, this has been asked and answered many times over the years. And some say it's wasted money while others say the opposite.
For Power Conditioners, only buy a pro quality unit and not the cheapest $99 unit you can find. Because all you purchased was an over priced power strip.
For UPS units, you can get a decent rack unit that will handle and fully protect the AXE. The APC SC450RM1U is is nice 1U unit that is actually better than a power conditioner, because power conditioners don't stop brownouts and blackouts, where the power flickers and the processor based unit re-boots. The UPS is going to switch to battery power in milliseconds and your unit won't reboot or get damaged. We do a lot of high end installs, and every computer, Video wall, digital mixing board, processor rack, etc., we install has at least one of these or larger units protecting the processor based gear. There are other UPS models available for stationary applications.
Some say UPS and Power Conditioners are a total waste of money. They Absolutely are, until you wish you had one, when you experience that infamous power fluctuation or lightning strike occurs and fries or corrupts your expensive gear.
 
Jimmytwotimes said:
I would say it depends - if you play at bars - many bars tend to be on the "older" side - and may have pretty jacked up electricity.
I have been in some places where I'm seeing 90 volts come in to the house - not great for your equipment. A voltage regulator will keep you at 120 regardless of the incoming voltage. But they are pretty spendy.
If all you do is play at home or arenas - I would say save your money.
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I incurred a $800 and $625 repair bill for my amps while they were sitting at home and powered down. It is not just how you use the equipment, where you live plays a role in what you need.
 
What’s not being discussed is how these devices work. The infamous “Glorified power strips” will work once. They are sacrificial diode’s. That’s generally fine for a one time strike. But they are useless after that as the diode is now toast. They won’t necessarily manage a large over or under voltage; rather a quick voltage spike/transient. Useful for plug/outlet expansion. $15-$120.

However more useful products have replaced diode‘s with better technology that will survive multiple strikes and are wicked fast in their response times. You will pay for that but you will not necessarily get “power conditioning“. These start around $300

If you actually need line/power conditioning you’ll have to up your budget and look at solutions which may include large transformers and/or batteries. UPS for those who need no interruptions, (but if the rest of the house is down, not sure what you’re going to do. Jam with the drummer?) $1000+

Many of these will switch power on in programmable sequences. This can be useful. Ymmv.
 
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I have a 4U SKB case, so I filled it in with a Furman M-8X2. I prefer using the power switch on the Furman, and having the extra switched outlets. Mine doesn't have fancy lights and all that.
 
To put this in perspective...

Furman PL-8C - Joules not explicitly stated but appears to be around 1,200 Joules
Furman PL-PLUS-DMC - Joules not explicitly stated but appears to be around 1,200 Joules
Furman M-8X2 - 150 joules
Astron RS-4 - provides no information for determining surge protection
Furman Prestige series units which some of you said you have does not give enough info to determine how much surge protection is provided.
Furman AC215-A - provides insufficient information for calculating surge protection

The bottom line, if your surge protector can only handle 150 Joules, you better hope a gnat does not fart on your power line...

The units at 1,200 Joules have decent protection, but probably cannot provide adequate protection for even moderate surges from lightning...

Those unit that do not publish the info to calculate Surge protection makes me wonder why they don’t disclose that info...

The TrippLite I use can handle 6,500 Joules. This will not handle a direct lightning strike, say to my home electrical panel but it can handle a strike to a power transformer down the street.
 
I had a Furman for a long time, we play over 100 shows a year in all sorts of Venues...
2 Years ago we played on a Band Shell Truck with a crappy Generator.
There was a Surge and the Furman took the Hit and protected my Old Axe FX II Rig, Shure UR4 Wireless System, 2 CLR Neo II's and my RJMGT22....
I purchased a New Furman the next day... well worth the money...
 
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Capt Nasty said:
The TrippLite I use can handle 6,500 Joules. This will not handle a direct lightning strike, say to my home electrical panel but it can handle a strike to a power transformer down the street.
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Yep. I use a few APC AV 1.5kVA H Type units at home (specs just a bit lower than your TrippLite). A couple of years ago I lost the office PC's hard drive, a new printer, one subwoofer amp & a couple of digital clocks all plugged directly into wall sockets when lightning hit a utility pole about 100 yards from the house. One of the APCs also failed with a relay weld fault but the $15k or so worth of gear behind it was all fine. I've occasionally lost gear plugged directly into wall sockets but, knock on wood, I've yet to lose gear plugged into any reasonably spec'd power conditioner. Whether or not they're worth it is a function of how expensive and hard to replace the stuff behind them is.
 
No way I take my rack out anywhere without power protection. Trust me, they work. I know from an experience in a crappy venue....many years ago.
 
I use the Furman PLC's, but in retrospect, should have just installed an APC UPS, which has surge protection and power conditioning built in, but is also a UPS...
 
SteveW said:
I use the Furman PLC's, but in retrospect, should have just installed an APC UPS, which has surge protection and power conditioning built in, but is also a UPS...
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We use tons of these. They offer great protection at around $160.00 US. Totally protects against spikes and dips and brownouts.
No need to get one with more VA, since a power outage would kill the amps and PA.
APC Smart-UPS SC 450VA 120V - 1U Rackmount/Tower
1A977D60-5056-9170-D3FC40CF8900EF73_pr.jpg
 
DLC86 said:
Maybe not in the US, but here in Europe, where the nominal mains voltage is 230V, I've seen spikes exceeding 240V quite often.
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The manual says
90–264 VAC, 47 – 63 Hz (universal input)

Even the cheapest switch mode power supplies have surge protection, overload protection and heat protection.
And I assume that Cliff has designed a "state of the art" power supply for the AXE FX3.

So no need for a conditioner or regulator. I have played 100 + gigs with the AXE FX 3 so far. It is still alive ;-)

Or do you use a Furman PL-8 when you are traveling with your MAC BOOK Pro ? ;-)
 
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