Furman Power Conditioner - Which one?

[john12ax7]

I'm in a rental,  so local power conditioner is my only option.  Which of the Furmans do you guys like,  both for protecting gear and also lab equipment?

Was considering the DMC unit,  as having a mains current meter seems handy,  and the SMP protection circuit seems solid. Unnecessary,  too little,  or just right?

 

[john12ax7]

The other option  is get a regulated one like the p-1800 ar. But I wonder how clean they are?

 

[PRR]

I think you have to define your problem.

Like filtering water. Is the problem gravel clogging your taps? Brown stain makes bath-water look bad? Germs making the baby sick?

Do you have spikes? Brown-outs? Dimmer buzz? Elevator motor thunks?

FWIW, I have never used a power conditioner for audio or test gear. Maybe I have been lucky to have clean power? OTOH there was the time a district voltage regulator was cycling 116V-118V every few seconds day and night. You could just see it in lamps. Didn't bother audio or test gear.

 

[gyraf]

For protection against larger incidents, the computer business is far ahead of us both regarding stability and low prices. Look there first.

Mains supply filtering is in audiophoolery direction - making many snakeoilers appear in that area...

Jakob E.

 

[Khron]

Finally, someone qualified and arguably "famous" coming out and saying it.

It always made me wonder how all that Furman stuff got so ubiquitous, not to mention why...

I bet 90% of home-studio people who get one just do it ("no power noise issues? that's because i got one, to begin with"), as opposed to the cause-and-effect thing ("hey, i'm having power noise issues, maybe i should look into it").

For protection against larger incidents, the computer business is far ahead of us both regarding stability and low prices. Look there first.

Mains supply filtering is in audiophoolery direction - making many snakeoilers appear in that area...

Jakob E.

 

[bruno2000]

The only reason I have "power conditioners" in my racks is for the lights, and the master on/off switch!  Get a cheap one.
YMMV
Best,
Bruno2000

 

[Andy Peters]

Finally, someone qualified and arguably "famous" coming out and saying it.

It always made me wonder how all that Furman stuff got so ubiquitous, not to mention why...

It's ubiquitous in live sound because dodgy power is unfortunately all too common. I've seen several Furmans and the like sacrificed to the gods of bad power.

I bet 90% of home-studio people who get one just do it ("no power noise issues? that's because i got one, to begin with"), as opposed to the cause-and-effect thing ("hey, i'm having power noise issues, maybe i should look into it").

Probably. I have a UPS on the computer but the rest of the stuff plugs into the wall.

 

[john12ax7]

I'm looking at it more as protection from damage. Zero surge has a patent on series mode protection which they claim superior to a simple parallel MOV. However Furman is also claiming series protection so am a bit curious about what they do without infringing.

 

[pucho812]

The only reason I have "power conditioners" in my racks is for the lights, and the master on/off switch!  Get a cheap one.
YMMV
Best,
Bruno2000

I have yet to not have that be the case. 

 

[PRR]

> Zero surge has a patent on series mode protection ....what they do without infringing.

"Series mode" is a general concept.

A patent has to be a specific invention. The introduction may talk about many things, but the We Claim at the end is what is protected.(*)

Any inventor worth his/her salt should be able to work-around almost any patent and get similar practical results.

(*) A.C. Sampietro's patent US 3173407 seems to show a whole engine with unique valve-works. And talks about many details. However the "what is claimed" all refers to a novel way to CAST an alloy engine block sideways. He did get his valve-works put into production, at Kaiser, just before Kaiser went out of the car business. And the novel head was mounted on an old-school up-cast iron block by Continental.  (The engine did linger at Willys/Jeep and for decades in Argentina.) Before and after, many alloy blocks have been cast, up and sideways, without infringing Sampietro's patent.

 

[outoftune]

i feel like these cause more problems than they solve, i just straight up plug into the wall.

 

[Whoops]

Most of the people I see buying Furman's for home studios, don't understand the reasons of the problems they have  and buy a Furman because they think it will solve the "noise".

But whats the Noise? Whats causing it?

Sometimes it's ground loops, other times bad cabling or wrongly connected equipment.
None of those issues is solved by a power conditioner, but people with less knowledge will resort to buying one thinking the source of "Noise" or "Interference" is the power lines.

Like Jakob said for surge protection UPS are quite good, cheap and available everywhere.

I'm not saying a Furman unit is not useful, to be honest I never needed one and I'm not familiar with all their products,
what I can say is that the most "Clean" studios where I worked didn't use Furman units, they just had very well done power connections and grouding.

The only time I used Furman units was in a improvised wharehouse studio belonging to an independent label where I normally do 1 or 2 records a year.
This studio is full of noise issues, it's actually the worst place in terms of noise where I recorded.
The owners got Furman units after the first records where made there in an attempt to remove the noise issues,
it didn't work, the Furmans didnt solve anything and everything is the same.

Theres low end hum in amplifiers, there's 10Khz tone everywhere, there's crackling noises that come and goe.
It's strange, also some days are better than others, pluging to the wall socket or from the Furman it's exactly the same.
There was one time with Keyboards that pluging to the wall was less noisy than from the Furman.

What I want to say with this is that it's not the power conditioners fault,  probably the problem comes from EMI from the Railroad high tension lines on the other side of the wharehouse walls,  so the Furman can't do anything about it.

With Railroad the Furman can't help
Without Railroad the sound would be clean and the Furman would not be considered
In the End I would get an UPS

If someone has a different experience please share, I would like to know in what situations the Furman power conditioners could be useful, so I can advise studio owners when they should buy one of those units or when not to buy

thanks