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Post by Boomzilla on Nov 11, 2019 2:23:08 GMT -5
A power conditioner can serve several purposes. The power lines that bring power to your home are generally not even insulated, they normally have corrosion protection at best but not insulation or shielding, this is one reason why you should never touch or come in contact with downed power lines, the lack of proper insulation. The power lines coming to your home are like antennas attracting noise and interference and other problems. The power lines as well as other electrical equipment in your home can create noise which may be constant or just momentary and poorly affect the audio and video of your system. A good power conditioner can help clean this noise up and shielded power cables in your system help to keep things clean further protecting your system. True - but step-down-voltage transformer inductance from the power line filters almost all RF from the power line. The AC coming into your home has little RF. The equipment in your home (primarily motors) can generate brief noise at start up and shut down, but any audio electronic device has both transformer and capacitance filtering more than sufficient to cope. How many outlets does your system need? My system uses 14 outlets at just one location where the wall provides only 2 outlets, with 4 of them being amps (an XPA-2, XPA-5 and 2 subwoofers). So I use all 12 of the rear outlets my Belkin PF-60 provides at one wall outlet and I also use an Emotiva CMX-2 at the 2nd wall outlet... I also need a bunch, but one need not buy a power conditioner to get extra outlets. There are a lot of very inexpensive power strips with the amperage capacity to daisy chain. ...Other power conditioner benefits can be monitoring & knowing your systems power usage, equipment isolation, surge protection, trigger and system start up control... Although true, none of these monitoring "benefits" really changes the power. Even cheap power strips have surge protection. The devices being powered mostly all have their own isolation systems and trigger jacks. But since not all have trigger jacks, I guess that could be a unique benefit of a power conditioner. ...One more thing even the Belkin PF-60 changed over the years with the earlier versions being much better, there were several versions and changes, the quality and features went down over time and the last versions were really downgraded significantly and nothing like the original ones. And this brings up yet another argument against power conditioners in general. The customer knows not what they're buying. Even the same brand and model, as you point out, change over time without information about what has changed ever being available to the consumer. To buy a power conditioner is to buy "a pig in a poke." Now all of that said, I have nothing against power conditioners - I just say caveat emptor (buyer beware). I have two Monster Power units in my system that I bought at significant discounts, and although I can't tell any difference by listening, it's fun to view the voltage and the current draw. And even with all the outlets on the two units combined, I still have to use "splitter-jacks" to get all my gear plugged in. Off the top of my head, I've got: Cox cable box Ethernet switch TV set Oppo disc player Preamp Electronic crossover 2 mono power amps 2 to 4 subwoofers Wireless router DAC Whatever device I'm reviewing at the time for a grand total of 16 plugs to be serviced. I use one of the Monsters to handle all TV-related plugs, and the other for all audio ones. Cheers! Boom |
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Post by chrisluckey on Jan 15, 2020 10:02:30 GMT -5
New to the lounge. Just purchased a 5000. Having intermediate pulsating (every +/- 60 sec.) coming from amp when on and in standby. Tech support said more than likely DC offset problem from refrigerator motor, etc.. This would make sense as the amp is on the same circuit as my refrigerator. Can’t relocate either one. Looking for a CMX-2. Do we know when they will be back in stock? I have looked for alternatives without much luck. Thanks
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cawgijoe
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"When you come to a fork in the road, take it." - Yogi Berra
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Post by cawgijoe on Jan 15, 2020 10:15:55 GMT -5
New to the lounge. Just purchased a 5000. Having intermediate pulsating (every +/- 60 sec.) coming from amp when on and in standby. Tech support said more than likely DC offset problem from refrigerator motor, etc.. This would make sense as the amp is on the same circuit as my refrigerator. Can’t relocate either one. Looking for a CMX-2. Do we know when they will be back in stock? I have looked for alternatives without much luck. Thanks I suggest you call Emotiva. Employees do monitor the Lounge, but they don't keep up with every post. |
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Post by Boomzilla on Jan 15, 2020 11:27:16 GMT -5
OK - Having actually listened to Monster-Power, Emotiva, and Furman power products, my call (controversial though it may be) is: No difference. Does this mean that my local power company is doing a good job of delivery? Does it mean that I'm just fortunate having a drop from the public utility without big motors or lights on it? Does it mean that I'm deaf as a post and wouldn't know a difference if it jumped out and bit me? Does it mean all of the above? I don't really know. I've had audio amigos who swore that they could easily hear differences in power conditioners, but they (and I) never took the time for them to demo those differences to me. So the bottom line is that I'm divesting of all my power conditioners. A simple 15-amp power strip with a sacrificial surge suppressor diode will suffice, thank you kindly. If a surge DOES get by and fry anything, it'll be an excuse to upgrade!  Want to try some different surge suppressors? Watch for my upcoming housecleaning on the Lounge's Emporium. Boom |
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cawgijoe
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"When you come to a fork in the road, take it." - Yogi Berra
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Post by cawgijoe on Jan 15, 2020 11:46:01 GMT -5
OK - Having actually listened to Monster-Power, Emotiva, and Furman power products, my call (controversial though it may be) is: No difference. Does this mean that my local power company is doing a good job of delivery? Does it mean that I'm just fortunate having a drop from the public utility without big motors or lights on it? Does it mean that I'm deaf as a post and wouldn't know a difference if it jumped out and bit me? Does it mean all of the above? I don't really know. I've had audio amigos who swore that they could easily hear differences in power conditioners, but they (and I) never took the time for them to demo those differences to me. So the bottom line is that I'm divesting of all my power conditioners. A simple 15-amp power strip with a sacrificial surge suppressor diode will suffice, thank you kindly. If a surge DOES get by and fry anything, it'll be an excuse to upgrade! Want to try some different surge suppressors? Watch for my upcoming housecleaning on the Lounge's Emporium. Boom I agree with Boom on this one, but maybe I just am hard of hearing in my old age. For protection purposes I like Tripplite Isobar products. Well built. Metal cases. Been around for a very long time. Good prices. |
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Post by Deleted on Feb 2, 2020 22:57:56 GMT -5
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Post by leonski on Feb 5, 2020 2:20:08 GMT -5
Audiophiles who worry about power might test a conditioner using an Old-School CRT display. Thses are fairly sensitive to hash on the line. The addition of a power conditioner to my system when I still had such a set made the most
remarkable difference possible. ALL the white hash was GONE. AS a result, the blacks were better as was color saturation. The picture was drastically improved with No Further Adjustment.
Sound also improved and I had to readjust the speakers for the new conditions. The space between the notes was now much more definite, is the only way I can say it.
But one thing I haven't seen in this thread is that we live in a virtual SEA OF INTERFERENCE. And I mean a LOT. Humans are totally deaf to such interference but any decent AM radio is NOT. You can hear lightning many iles away as
as slight 'wash' over the sound. Close lightning can overload your RF input. But th other stuff? Just comes from normal living.
Back in '96 we had a Major blackout effecting many western states with a total of about 5 million customers. WE here in SD County were without juice for maybe 12 hours. I was woken up about 0400 when the lights came back on!
But in the meantime? NO electric anything for miles in any direction. Radio listening was perfect and I could get station almost every 10khz across the entire broadcast band. Even KOA Denver came in. I got WGN, chicago, too.
Intrnational SW was clear as it could possibly be.
In other testing? My Plasma TV would wipe out AM radio for 25'.
My point? Your stereo when improperly wired may be susceptible to such RF interference. My stereo right NEXT to my Plasma didn't seem effected and I tried TV-ON and TV-OFF many times and at different times of the day.
And Chuckie? Let us know what you find with your Belkin. How much can really go wrong?
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