UPS versus Power Conditioner

[gvthisbookahome]

I'm replacing my home theater with the following setup: An Oppo BD-83SE source, Beyerdynamic A1 headphone amplifier, and Sennheiser HD 800 headphones. Nothing else.

What are your thoughts about using a UPS as a power source instead of a power conditioner? Would you encourage or discourage this approach? I'm considering this one:

http://www.apcc.com/products/family/index.cfm?id=165

Model #: SMT2200. The runtime will be about 9 hours when consuming less than 50 watts.

 

[highfigh]

I'm replacing my home theater with the following setup: An Oppo BD-83SE source, Beyerdynamic A1 headphone amplifier, and Sennheiser HD 800 headphones. Nothing else.

What are your thoughts about using a UPS as a power source instead of a power conditioner? Would you encourage or discourage this approach? I'm considering this one:

http://www.apcc.com/products/family/index.cfm?id=165

Model #: SMT2200. The runtime will be about 9 hours when consuming less than 50 watts.

Find out how good or bad your power is before choosing one of these. If the voltage is clean over a long time period (very unlikely), not much more than a whole-house surge protector is needed. Look at the UPS to find out how many of the receptacles have battery backup AND surge suppression. Many have some with both and the rest only have surge suppression.

I wouldn't plan on running your system for long after the power goes out. A UPS isn't designed for that as much as allowing a bit of time to shut the system down safely and according to the way the manufacturer wants it shut down.

If you want to run the system for long periods after the power goes out, get a bank of sealed-cell batteries and a pure sine wave inverter that can handle the demands of the equipment.

 

[gvthisbookahome]

Highfigh, I thank you for your reply. I'll be looking into a whole house surge protector for my next home. I plan to move - hopefully - sometime this year. I've done enough upgrades with my current home (and won't be getting much return on the enhancements to date).

The headphone amp consumes 15 watts. The Oppo BD-83se consumes 35 watts. Nothing else will need power. Is this considered demanding?

The SMT2200 by APC is aimed at servers, routers, hubs, point-of-sale, and other network devices. It's supposed to provide "clean," network grade power and be highly efficient even at low load levels. It goes for $649. I cannot find any mention of pure sine-wave. Under the runtime grid, there is a list of the different wattages and the respective runtimes. It even supposedly provides 50 watts at 8 hours 51 minutes. So, I'm not sure if this model is just geared towards shutting down equipment in the appropriate manner after power loss. It seems to be aimed at powering equipment during extended outages. I could be wrong.

I thank you for the advice about the pure sine wave inverter. I'm reading am looking into it now.

BTW: What power conditioner would you recommend for my simple, two-component set-up? I also found PR1500LCDRT2U by Cyberpower. It provides pure sine-wave and automatic voltage regulation. Any thoughts on this?

 

[highfigh]

Highfigh, I thank you for your reply. I'll be looking into a whole house surge protector for my next home. I plan to move - hopefully - sometime this year. I've done enough upgrades with my current home (and won't be getting much return on the enhancements to date).

The headphone amp consumes 15 watts. The Oppo BD-83se consumes 35 watts. Nothing else will need power. Is this considered demanding?

The SMT2200 by APC is aimed at servers, routers, hubs, point-of-sale, and other network devices. It's supposed to provide "clean," network grade power and be highly efficient even at low load levels. It goes for $649. I cannot find any mention of pure sine-wave. Under the runtime grid, there is a list of the different wattages and the respective runtimes. It even supposedly provides 50 watts at 8 hours 51 minutes. So, I'm not sure if this model is just geared towards shutting down equipment in the appropriate manner after power loss. It seems to be aimed at powering equipment during extended outages. I could be wrong.

I thank you for the advice about the pure sine wave inverter. I'm reading am looking into it now.

BTW: What power conditioner would you recommend for my simple, two-component set-up? I also found PR1500LCDRT2U by Cyberpower. It provides pure sine-wave and automatic voltage regulation. Any thoughts on this?

$649 is way overkill- you can replace both pieces for less than that. A whole house protector can be had for less than $100 (part only) and a little help from an electrician or knowledgeable friend. It only has three wires- two go to the hot and one goes to the ground after mounting it to the breaker panel.

 

[m_vanmeter]

The APC "Smart" series units all produce a pure sine wave AV output when on batteries, not the square wave typical of low cost backup units. (in your link, look about 2/3rds of the way down in the "over 20 million units sold" paragraph).

Surge surpression and power conditioning are two different animals. Surge surpression only controls "over voltage" events by directing the excess voltage (spike) to ground.

Power conditioning handles both overvoltage and undervoltage (brown-out) conditions, along with line induced radio frequency interference (RFI) and electro-mechanical interference (EMI).

The APC Smart series bundles a very capable power conditioner with battery backup and produces pure AC sine wave power for electronics like motors and transformers that can overheat on square wave AC power.

I use a Smart1500 unit for my a/v equipment because I live in a semi-rural area where power distrubances and low voltage conditions exist quite often. I don't expect the 1500 volt-amp (about 900 AC watts) to hold the equipment up very long, just to allow me to shut everything down in an orderly manner.

 

[majorloser]

Good advice

I'm using three APC SmartUPS for everything. I even have a 1K unit for my projector. It's amazing how often they will come on for drops in line voltage.

I picked mine up from the APC Factory Outlet. You have to check their site often as stock changes regularly

http://buy.apc.com/commerce/storefronts/etail/folanding.aspx?storefrontcode=apcfs&countrycode=us

 

[gvthisbookahome]

Thanks m_vanmeter.

If I pick the APC SMT2200, would it be a reliable source for long listening sessions, 4-5 hours at 50 watts? Or will I notice a change in sound when the battery reaches 3/4 empty. (I had a battery powered headphone amplifier in the past, and it'd begin to sound grainy/gritty when the battery was about 1/2 to 3/4 empty).

What are your thoughts on this voltage regulator?

http://www.furmansound.com/product.php?div=01&id=P-1800AR

 

[highfigh]

Thanks m_vanmeter.

If I pick the APC SMT2200, would it be a reliable source for long listening sessions, 4-5 hours at 50 watts? Or will I notice a change in sound when the battery reaches 3/4 empty. (I had a battery powered headphone amplifier in the past, and it'd begin to sound grainy/gritty when the battery was about 1/2 to 3/4 empty).

What are your thoughts on this voltage regulator?

http://www.furmansound.com/product.php?div=01&id=P-1800AR

The battery is completely out of the circuit unless the line voltage drops and it's needed to bring it up to 120VAC. It's a backup battery,, not the voltage source for an inverter so the system can be used when the power is out. Battery backup is designed so the system can be safely turned off when the AC voltage goes out and so the conditioner can provide stable voltage for sensitive electronics. Some equipment will turn off when the line voltage drops too far. The equipment that doesn't do this may even be damaged if the voltage drops too far.

 

[lsiberian]

Unless you are using a projector I don't think a UPS is really a necessity. I have both a UPS and a Power Conditioner from APC. I put my PJ on the UPS and my system on the Power Conditioner. I think something with both would be a nice investment long term though. I've had my first APC unit for over a decade and it still works like a charm.