Power conditioner suggestions..

[highfigh]

The 99% number is extremely conservative. Even wall wart power supplies operate as posted. It would be difficult if not impossible to find any electronics doing what High Figh has posted. 20 years ago - maybe. Today. Almost impossible.

Want to see why? Go into any Radio Shack. View the size and weight of transformers. An entire power supply must be smaller and lighter than that one transformer. And must do other things that no big iron transformer can do. Show me. Show me these power supplies in stores or web sites that do what he has posted.

An electronic power supply with layers of conversions and filtering do not just cost less. It already does better than what a line conditioner might accomplish.

Why would a manufacturer spend more money to use an inferior supply that could not even meet current international standards? Why do all portable appliances work on any voltage from 85 to 265 volts? Because they do not (and cannot) use power supplies that he has described. Just another reason why the 99% number is too conservative (small).

Why are you using Radio Scrap as an example? A 3A-5A transformer is for generic replacement or a kit, not a high powered amplifier. I have one of their transformers, to be used as a bucking transformer for an old guitar amp that was designed for 117VAC and sounds better at lower voltages.

Portable appliances? I thought this forum was about high quality audio and video equipment?

Amplifiers and receivers often a traditional transformer and some use a toroidal transformer- still substantial. Sony started using PWM supplies in the mid-'70s but they still had a substantial transformer and I still have an integrated amp with this. It's pretty hefty. They went to what they called Pulse Power Supply in the early '80s and they were nice, but fairly gutless sounding.

Anything else can be run on other kinds of supply designs.

FYI- most portable APPLIANCES don't need much of a power supply. What kind are you referring to- toasters and curling irons?

 

[westom]

With all of the AC-DC-RF-DC conversions, how would a device with this kind of power supply drive low-impedance loads, ...

IIRC, Furman conditioners will provide stable AC voltage from 90VAC-140VAC and then "crowbar" at 180VAC. Munster Power- I haven't seen what they state but I have heard of many instances where the <$100 power strips actually burn up when stressed.

Stop with the silliness. Either a power supply provides necessary voltage and current. Or it is undersized. The load has no idea how a supply does that. Only knows a supply is providing sufficient voltages and current. Low impedance means the supply provides higher current for that voltage. Any supply does that as you well know. That larger current demand is another reason why AC-DC-RF-DC power supplies - also called a switching power supply - are used almost everywhere. Big pig-iron supply is virtually extinct.

What your Furman is doing is already done inside every appliance. Why? Because the AC-DC-RF-DC supply is ubiquitous. All electronics work pefectly happy even when incandescent bulbs dim to less than 50% intensity. How often are you replacing the refirgerator, furnamce, dimmer switches, clock radios, etc because voltage rises to 180 volts? Virtually never. More expensive protection - $hundreds - for something that is not harmful.

Some Furman's are nothing more than power strip protectors in a fancy box. They know the same 'most naive among us' can be manipulated to spend $hundreds for what also sells for $7 in the grocery store. If it does something useful, then post the manufacturer spec numbers that defines it. Most everything a Furman might do is already accomplished inside electronics. Some Furman products are nothing more than power strip protectors in a more expensive box - because that is the customer they are marketing to. People, for example, who never demand manufacturer spec numbers. People who automatically believed what they are ordered to believe. People who did not ask damning questions.

That Furman is only doing what is not necessary; or already done better inside the appliance.