Power Conditioner yes or no?

The company I work for did a power study last year in the US and we discovered that the power in the locations tested was so bad that it could cause catostrophic computer hardware failures, most locations had more than 10 volts on ground and one was taking periodic surges of 1000 volts. Since we have more than 20k computer terminals in the US, we istalled ups units from Oneac in all locations. We decided on this particular ups because of it's ability to condition and filter incoming ac power as well as providing consistant voltage. These sell for about the same price as a good rackmount power strip (furman, monster power etc). Since AfxII costs 2k+ spending a couple hundred dollars to protect your investment seems reasonable. If you have room in your rack I would recommend something like a good ups.
 
I'm happy with the Furman AR-1215 and have one in each of my Axe racks. Would I rather not have to spend $550 each. Of course.
 
I use a Furman conditioner for the outlet convenience and extreme over/under voltage shutdown.

The AR 1215 to regulate the voltage would be ideal!
 
Here in the Netherlands indoor electricity has never been a problem for me at gigs, no brown outs. Even pro bands just plug amps straight into power sockets. I only used a power conditioner for convenience (outlets) in my rack in those days.

Outdoor electricity (generator) is something else. After having issues two times with my rack equipment (before Axe-Fx), caused by voltage irregularities, I bought a Furman 19" voltage regulator (not conditioner). Worked well but extremely expensive, and the heaviest thing ever in my rack. Sold it later.

Have been gigging the Axe-Fx without a conditioner/regulator since 2009 and not a problem yet. If it ever breaks down at a gig due to electricity problems, I'll just use my Tech 21 Character pedal and continue the gig, don't have a problem with that. And I'll call insurance later.
 
Never used a "conditioner" in 30 years. Never a problem (Norway). I do use pads with surge protection though, especially at home where everything is constantly connected (I believe they cost some €30 and insures connected equipment for €2M....).
 
ianx said:
... we discovered that the power in the locations tested was so bad that it could cause catostrophic computer hardware failures, most locations had more than 10 volts on ground ...
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Ten volts on ground causes no damage. In countries that only have two wire circuits, computer grounds can be at 60 volts or higher. Are computer is those countries failing daily or weekly? Even 60 volts is not harmful to electronics.

No line conditioner will solve that ground voltage. Not one. Voltage must be solved by fixing the defective safety ground.

Most all anomalies found on AC power is best solved by each appliance's power supply. Often, that supply is superior to what is inside line conditioners. Sometimes protection inside a supply can be compromised by adjacent power board protectors.
 
In western Europe we don't get too many problems regarding voltage, and it varies from place to place. However if you are out playing in different venues, then you may find they have anomolies such as dimming circuits on their lighting, induction loops, radio signals etc, which may cause interference. This is the primary reason I have always used a power conditioner.
 
Ehm, I just bought a PL-8 C E.

FurmanSound.com - 220-240V International Pro A/V Product - PL-8 C E

I'm planning on gigin' more and I like the "insurance" of it. I've got around "100000" amps in my axe-fx II and in Oslo there can be a lot of lightning.

I guess I will buy the Furman P-1400 AR E, sometime in the future when I have the money.

FurmanSound.com - 220-240V International Pro A/V Product - P-1400 AR E

I like the thought of my equipment being connected to a device, making sure
the electrical traffic is ok you know? The P-1400 AR E would be the ultimate thing, because of the voltage regulation but to know that there is something in my rig going
"one-hundred-and-what-now-thousand-volts-you-say? Ahh heeeell no you ain't doing nothing inside this rig moth****" when there is a electrical situation happening.

There are many reasons, I guess those mentioned are the most important ones. Then we have stuff like yeah well uhm I've got a 4U... And I've only got my axe-fx II in there.
It's lonely man, lonely! That being the most superficial reason. There's lights! With christmas coming up, those lights would look pretty good with my little santas and.. ok I'm done.
 
Wait, I'm not! I just did some research.. now this is interesting!

In this podcast some tonepassionists (is that even a word? well I just made it if not) compare the audible (if some? duh duh duh duuuuuh *beethovenstyle) differences between some powercables and powerconditioners.

Podcast - 009 : Power Cables and Conditioners | Guitar Tone Network

Now after I've listened trough this podcast, people can say what they want about them cables and them power conditioners, but to me there is definatley.... Oh it's definatley.

I'll post my opinions on the sound differences if this thread starts rolling but for now I'm very interested in hearing some opinions.

I'm still waiting for my furman and when I get the money, I will buy the Essential sound: musiccord <-- now if that ain't the most cheesy name ever.
"oh he's buying the musiccord!" Gots to be the great musician then for sure! hah. I'm still buying it though.

Music Cord Quality Affordable Shielded Audio Power Cord | Essential Sound Products

I guess the bottom line comes down to whatever makes you happy. This make me happy. It's like a tonesyndrom I guess but it makes me happy.

If anyone from team fractal audio finds this a tad interesting, I would be so eager to hear your thoughts on the clips from the podcast.

Thanks in advance guys! I love this forum <3

(ps. when I read these two posts of mine I realize that I really miss hearing stuff from nikki-k, I feel she is as on if not more, as I am. And I don't get that feeling very often. people say I talk to much so there you go.)
 
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Trazan I was waiting for that one :p Did you guys not hear any difference? maybe the question if it's just a "eq" thing.
Chris Poland likes it, so does Victor Wooten and John Stowell. Does namedropping change anything? no. Just sayin' haha.

Either people don't take me seriously, or they can't hear the difference, or they don't think it's worth paying lots of money for minor details.
I like minor details, I hear the difference and I take myself seriously :roll

yek, did you get rid of it? why? Iznogoud? Now heavy is not an issue. I'm lifting them weights :ugeek pff, yeah I know. Weight is important.
When my back says goodbye I'll be a nogooder. Heavy lifting is bad for you. I once had to use 2 minutes to get out of the couch after lifting a briefcase up my stairs in the building.
It was way too heavy and I used the other arm for the guitar. Won't do that again, that's for sure. Next time I'll use the other arm.. :roll
 
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Cobrango said:
yek, did you get rid of it? why? Iznogoud? Now heavy is not an issue. I'm lifting them weights :ugeek pff, yeah I know. Weight is important.
When my back says goodbye I'll be a nogooder. Heavy lifting is bad for you. I once had to use 2 minutes to get out of the couch after lifting a briefcase up my stairs in the building.
It was way too heavy and I used the other arm for the guitar. Won't do that again, that's for sure. Next time I'll use the other arm.. :roll
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:)

Seriously, I'd never put such a thing in a rack again. My Atomic 50/50 is heavy but the P1400 ....man ... Better to just throw it in the car and just take it out for a gig.

And that powercord audiophile stuf .... don't believe it. In the end all those powercords connect to the same 2 or 3 thin wires inside/behind the wall.
 
yek said:
:)

Better to just throw it in the car and just take it out for a gig.
And that powercord audiophile stuf .... don't believe it. In the end all those powercords connect to the same 2 or 3 thin wires inside/behind the wall.
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Hehe! I thought you wrote that the car would have been lighter to throw in the rig, lol. You know I kind of agree with you on the powercord.
I look at it this way: if the wall gives you 100% power as in being the source, let's say your standard powercable gives you 80-85% of it and this
other powercord 90-95%? That's kind of how I see it. I know it's the same amount of voltage and watts and stuff but it could still do in other qualities...right?

Well you guys know me, so take what I say for who I am (science fiction, skynet etc :shock) but if it sounds different and I like it, it could be that it's more of
a filter thing though. It can only be a passive thing, whatever that thing is, so if it boosts the highs it could really only be sucking the lows... am I right?

for what ever of this is true or not, I still enjoy this video and I find the difference in sound taking place:

Listen with a headset and focus on the mids/ low mids as I find the bass to still be thumpy, focused and not just "high passed":




Final question would be, "yeah I hear it in the mids, there is less muffled mids." --> *drumroll --> grand finale --> Is it just less mids making it a scooped fenomenon/more hi-fi?
 
From this video I get that what this cable does, is to correct the phase-issue between the low and high frequenzies. The exact same thing that the bbe sonic maximizer does.

Now that is interesting. I'm getting this cable.



Now, the irony is that I can only use this cord for my vox amp or the axe-fx going direct. I mean, it would be no point in powering my furman with this thing if what is powering the others from the furman is those standard cables going out from the furman, lol.

Maybe I'll just buy one of them for the furman and try to see if there is a difference.
 
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westom said:
Ten volts on ground causes no damage. In countries that only have two wire circuits, computer grounds can be at 60 volts or higher. Are computer is those countries failing daily or weekly? Even 60 volts is not harmful to electronics.

No line conditioner will solve that ground voltage. Not one. Voltage must be solved by fixing the defective safety ground.

Most all anomalies found on AC power is best solved by each appliance's power supply. Often, that supply is superior to what is inside line conditioners. Sometimes protection inside a supply can be compromised by adjacent power board protectors.
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We repeated the testing after UPS installation and in our case the UPS did resolve the issue of voltage being present on the ground.
 
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Ironically I'm actually thinking of getting rid of my rack mount power conditioner (Samson PB10 Power Brite Pro) and installing a rack drawer in it's place :D

I've been told by a designer of switched mode power supplies that it's unnecessary
 
rtcook said:
When the electricity surges and takes out your amp and you wish you had used one to make the cheaper sacrifice. I always use one. Been down that road before. Especially important for gigging guys. You never know the condition of the wiring, breakers and polarity of the places you play at. A bad breaker took my tubes out. Lucky it didn't take out the trannies. Vintage tubes, too. Cost more to replace the tubes then buy a power conditioner. The tubes were much harder to find as well.

Roger
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I've used my Axe-FX w/o a power conditioner for quite a while and I have never had to replace the tubes. ;)
 
Most modern equipment uses switching power supplies that give you far more filtration and isolation from line anomalies than most surge suppressors/line conditioners could ever provide. Unless you spend several hundred dollars to get something with a constant voltage transformer and a pile of filters, you're not gaining anything from those rack mount strips such as Furman, Monster, Carvin, et al sell. At least, not as far as power quality is concerned. They do offer other conveniences, such as multiple outlets for multiple pieces of gear, a handy "master" on off which may or may not sequence the outputs, usually a circuit breaker and sometimes a voltmeter. So, they're not useless, they're just not doing what you may think they're doing. That is, protecting anything. If a spike comes along that would be severe enough to take out the power supply or anything following it in a piece of gear, chances are quite good it will have taken the conditioner out along the way. We're talking lightning hits, not your typical sags/surges/spikes.

I use them for the convenience, but I've grown accustomed to a small rack now, so if I want to add something, something else is going to have to go. For instance, I want to put in one of those Line 6 Relay G90 wireless units. I have a 4 space rack with a 1U amp (Carvin DC200L), a 2U preamp/effects unit (AxeFx II) and a 1U Furman line conditioner. Guess which one is gonna go bye-bye? I'll just bolt in a small 4 outlet strip in the inside back of the rack and call it a love story.
 
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