line conditioner

[SterlingY]

Can someone tell me what is a very good line conditioner, or what features or technical issues I should be looking for?

Cheers,

Sterling

 

[avaserfi]

I personally have a line conditioner but I only got it because I needed a good surge protector and there was a sale. If you are expecting actual gains in audio/video quality I wouldn't get my hopes up unless you have amazingly bad energy provider. If you are dead set on one check out APC.

edit: I am officially a Samurai all fear my blade!

 

[davidtwotrees]

I bought a Monster Power Center used on Ebay. It looks nice in my rack, and has ten outlets. The front was black to match my other gear. Belkin is nice, too. But I think they are all silver.
My monster does what is supposed to do. Still, I could hear no difference over the wall outlet, or the cheapo surge protector I had before......

 

[mazersteven]

http://www.tripplite.com/products/conditioners/index.cfm

http://www.tripplite.com/products/suppressors/isobar.cfm

 

[SterlingY]

In my old house (New York City), I seemed to have had really crappy power. NY is notorious for it. I had three beautiful Nakamichi PA-5 Stasis AMPs, and now two of them have had their power supply transformers ruined. I was told by a shop that fixes high end gear that they may have been ruined by the crappy power. These amps are about 20 years old, so I guess I got my money out of them, but I wish I didn't need to replace them.

I don't want this to happen again. My new house, in Los Angeles seems to have constant brownouts, so I can only imagine horrible things happening to my gear.

I'm not looking for better sound. I'm looking to protect it.

Cheers,

Sterling

 

[Mudcat]

Furman or Tripplite

I live in Northern VA where the power is clean but there are often a lot of thunder storms during the summer months (probably nothing like the plains though). Anywho, I bought the Furman AR1215 first. This unit kept the voltage at a steady 120 even as the incoming voltage dip into the high 80's during a thunder storm. I eventually replaced it with the Tripplite LCR2400 only because I needed more outlets. I've had ocasion to observe the same thing with the LCR2400 (maintain a steady 120 even as the incoming voltage dip into the high 80's during a thunder storm).

Between the two, I liked the Furman better, but only because of the noise issue. Not any electronic noise where you may hear static or see a lot in scatter on the screen, but real noise like clicking. The Tripplite LCR2400 clicks alot as it switches circuits keeping up with the variable incoming voltage. The Furman AR1215 was very quiet.

The Furman was only 1 RU high (1.75 inches) and about 6 lbs.
The LCR1400 is 3 RU high (5.25 inches) and about 20 lbs.

The Furman also cost three times the LCR or more.

 

[Davemcc]

I went way over budget on my Panamax for a number of reasons. I wanted to plug all my components in within the rack. It has a 12v trigger and a delay on circuit. It's black with blue lights and matches most of my other components. I don't really expect it to do anything more than a regular power bar. I just like the looks, the function and the chance to clean up the rat's nest. It may sound retarded, but here we are.

 

[Hi Ho]

I am a fan of Panamax and APC. Panamax makes excellent surge suppressors and line conditioners. APC makes some very nice battery backup units. I would steer clear of APC surge suppressors. They are not up to the standards of their UPS units. I have literally had more than one go up in smoke (spark) when flipping the power switch for the first time. The company I work for switched back to Panamax for surge suppression.

 

[John S]

I bought the Tripp-Lite 1000UPS because it was on sale. It was more than I needed UPS-wise for my RP, but I got Voltage regulation, surge 'sppression', and line noise filtering thrown in the bargain. Did it make any difference in audio/video performance? Not that I can tell.

http://www.tripplite.com/products/product.cfm?productID=3071

 

[zumbo]

I use Adcom.

http://www.adcom.com/prod/shopdisplayproducts.asp?hid=4&cid=27&sid=3&prodid=1271

 

[jcPanny]

Apc H10

I am impressed with the build quality of my APC H10. In addition to power filtering and surge protection, it also does voltage regulation to maintain 120V output during power dips or surges.

The APC A/V line is seperate from the battery backup products typically used for PCs and Audioholics uses the higher end APC S-type products to protect their gear. I would avoid some of the units like Monster that warn the user to disconnect the surge protector in case of lightening. It kind of defeats the purpose.

 

[AcuDefTechGuy]

I vote for Panamax. In my previous house, I was getting a lot of radio interference and buzz coming out of my speakers. I mean I was hearing sound from a radio station when the receiver source was set to CD or Video. The buzzing from the speakers happened when no source was playing at all. So I bought a Panamax line conditioner and the radio signal and buzzing were gone instantly.
So like the others have said, unless you are having some sort of interference (electrostatic, RF, etc.), a regular surge protector will do.

 

[Nick250]

Yesterday the electrician was trying to figure out why the outlet connected to the AC mini sump pump was not working. After checking all the GFIs, he was turning on and off the switches in the main circuit breaker box in the basement to see if there was a problem with one of them. In the process the Belkin Pure AV 15 amp internal circuit breaker turned off two of the eight plugs. "the high current" plugs. They were the only ones protected by the Belkin's internal circuit breakers. Why not shut down all the plugs instead of just the two "high current" ones?

Nick

[Turned out there was a fourth GFI in the garage that was almost not visible and behind some junk. That was the problem.]