Is a power conditioner really necessary with axfx?

Andrew Male said:
I will say never, I've lived 41 years without any electrical equipment being damaged, you do you. I live in the UK, maybe we just have better protection around lightning strikes, because I've never heard, even anecdotally, a lightning strike or a brownout busting equipment. 240/50 maybe just hits diff.
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No lightning problems for me either, and also in the UK. But gigs using generators have killed the power supply in a couple of my favourite pieces of gear (EH Deluxe Electric Mistress was the one that made me cry, even though a replacement power transformer was not expensive. It was an all original 1978 NY-made one before that happened to it! I bought 2 spare transformers just in case...)

Since I've been able to afford to, I've used a Furman or 2 to prevent future occurrences. Cannot believe I found a PL-8 for less than most M-10 sell for nowadays. The more expensive range are better built, nicer to use, and a lot quieter both electronically and audibly.

Liam
 
Yeah in the US we have some pretty long line runs from power stations to substations, of various ages and stages of "temporarily permanent" repairs... along with plenty of natural events and mishaps that warrant having some level of surge protection as a standard.

I'm not sure I have encountered someone with expensive AV gear that doesn't have something for mains protection.
 
Years ago, I was out of town, and lighting hit the wires coming into the house. Blew out two surge protectors, all the phones (land line days), a bunch of Ethernet adapters, and some other stuff. I might still have the fused remnants of an adaptor of some sort from one of the lines outside.

Nobody died, house didn't burn down, cats eventually came out from under the bed, and insurance covered everything, so we came out ok. But don't imagine it can't happen to you, because it can.
 
Dave Merrill said:
Years ago, I was out of town, and lighting hit the wires coming into the house. Blew out two surge protectors, all the phones (land line days), a bunch of Ethernet adapters, and some other stuff. I might still have the fused remnants of an adaptor of some sort from one of the lines outside.

Nobody died, house didn't burn down, cats eventually came out from under the bed, and insurance covered everything, so we came out ok. But don't imagine it can't happen to you, because it can.
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Good to hear it all went well. 👍🏻

I always have the habit to unplug any electrical equipment I’m especially careful about when I’m away from my house for more than 6-10 hours. Especially in the summer during the thunderstorm period here in Sweden. Winter is totally non-dangerous though. All that can happen is you get snowed in…and that’s play time 😉
 
Here in the Netherlands I don’t see the need for any protection other than plugging into a power strip that is switchable.
All the powerlines are underground, except for the ones going into the city. Power is extremely stable, in all my life only once I experienced a power outage and that was like 40 years ago.
Our home is only 12 years old so the electrical system is up to modern standards.

If lightning would strike directly on home I probably would be in trouble but then I’ll just rely on my insurance coverage and I would have a good excuse for buying all sorts of new stuff 😉
 
Steven Persson said:
Good to hear it all went well. 👍🏻

I always have the habit to unplug any electrical equipment I’m especially careful about when I’m away from my house for more than 6-10 hours. Especially in the summer during the thunderstorm period here in Sweden. Winter is totally non-dangerous though. All that can happen is you get snowed in…and that’s play time 😉
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My wife was home, it was just me and my daughter who were out of town. No unplugging going on!
 
fractalz said:
Famous last words....
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Maybe, but so far I ran equipment since 1985 and did not encounter such problems, that's the way it is where I live.
A power supply of any equipment can break down at any moment due to overheating, life's-cycle and on/off impacts and no Furman or whatever equipment will prevent this. If you live in a place with bad power grid or frequent lightning strikes you should install a surge protection on the main distribution board of your house and that's it.
Maybe for touring guys it can be useful otherwise it's just useless weight you run around.
 
This is what I use:

Tripp Lite ISOBAR8ULTRA

It's a really good surge protector for its size, with some EMI/RFI filtering and outlet isolation. The specs on surge suppression and response time were better than anything I saw in the same size and price range. Obviously, not a bullet proof vest, but really good for the money.

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Whether it's "necessary" is a judgment call. I like having a reasonable amount of protection. Most surge suppressors though won't do voltage regulation, and digital gear tends to need voltages above a certain minimum in order to operate correctly. Most of the time you're not going to have an issue, but I did play in a place where my bandmate's Helix would reboot whenever the kitchen started their commercial dishwasher. Wide voltage variations can cause numerous problems but have been pretty rare in the places I've been.
 
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Hofi said:
My Furman kills the noises
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Which models solve the "noises" issue?

Today I played at the venue where there was NO noise/hum/buzzing/whateverhaveyou kind of sounds. First time in my life I was able to use the strat neck without ANY noise with amps like FAS Lead 1 and 2 on a very high volume. It was an unbelievable experience for me, I'm not a pro and never had proper power conditioners, but now I gotta have one!
Just today I realized how actually quite/low noise Fractal is! I had my guitar volume on 10 all the time and even turned off the gate - absolutely zero noise issues. I was so pumped about this like I'm 7 again and it's Christmas.

It will solve the noise issue at home and live, right?... Because I have Gate block set quite aggressive to tame even the low-gain amps when playing at home.
I have FM3, so the smaller device the better, I don't have a rack. I would like to take it with me on gigs because I almost never can use single coils due to the terrible electricity in all other venues I ever played in.
 
Do these rack mount Furman units protect when turned off, or are they only protecting when powered on? I'm assuming they protect at all times, but assumption probably doesn't have a place in a thread about extra protection.

Also curious if these units need replaced every few years like surge protectors do?

I feel like both of these points could really alter the relative value calculations.
 
yeky83 said:
<snip> You don't really need a "power conditioner" that costs hundreds of dollars for devices like the Axe-Fx if you live in a developed country. </snip>
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Wait so, unless Im living in Tanzania, the Furmans are just marketing hype??
 
I’m all for surge protection in gear. I have a Furman PL + in my rack at home and I never gig without it.I know it’s not the ‘best’, but it does the job. A good practice is, if you go away or bad weather is coming… unplug it from the outlet. Then nothing can happen to your gear.
 
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