To get a power conditioner or not??

I play metal said:

Never really got the hole hype and purpose of them really.

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They are mostly hype, and the purpose of them is to separate you from more of your money than a simple rack mount power strip will.

I think they can make your rack look tidy, but spending $200 for one is ridiculous. If you get one, get a cheap one. I bought a Furman for like $50 years ago. Always works, has a little noise rejection, that's all you need.

Right on. I don't recommend buying an expensive one,but I do recommend buying one. Nady Audio makes some cheaper ones. -Luke

Slightly off topic, but the basic difference between a power conditioner and a surge protector is that they do the opposite thing, correct? As in a power conditioner keeps your gear from problems caused by under powering, and the surge protector keeps your gear safe from over powering?

The only reason I got was was for the extra outlets you get. I like to have the power for my amp, tuner, pedals and whatever else I can think of, come from one source.
I got the Furman Mx8 w/o lights. I saw the Mx8L ere kind of cheesy. I didn't think they were worth the extra $20. The Mx8 Cost me $40

the only ones i would consider, are the models that correct low & high voltage
conditions, but they are expensive. some of bars in the bay area have power
issues. too pricey for my budget though...

otherwise why bother. use a power strip

I use a Carvin power conditioner. I don't know if it's ever saved my amp, but it may of. And just for that, I'll say it's worth it.

Power strip for all the bells and whistles, but the power amp itself should be plugged directly into the wall outlet. PM Bob Lee . He's a QSC tech guy and will give you the straight dope on power conditioners.

Ive been in the A/V industry for quite awhile so Ill try to shed some light on this. A Power Conditioner or Line Conditioner is a wonderful thing that will clean up a signal from all of that nasy a/c line noise. Heres the issue.... they are known for choking the power to a high current amp.
I own a PS Audio line conditioner for my stereo system and it really cleaned up the sound, added definition to the bass, cleared up imaging etc etc etc... I run my NAD power amp straight to the wall though. I tried the amp with the conditioner and it seemed to sloppy up the bass, especially during faster sections of music. My preamp, cd player and turntable are all run through the conditioner..... I noticed immediate results with this.

So...... if you have a seperate preamp and would like to run it through a conditioner you should be fine and will probably enjoy a better sound. However Id stay clear of monster cable since they are generally a garbage company that unfortunately ruins how people look at quality cables/accessories.

blendermassacre said:

Slightly off topic, but the basic difference between a power conditioner and a surge protector is that they do the opposite thing, correct? As in a power conditioner keeps your gear from problems caused by under powering, and the surge protector keeps your gear safe from over powering?

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Actually, power conditioners at the musician level are really only glorified surge protectors. They can't do anything to boost the level of the voltage.

As for the power amp argument as discussed by Bob Lee and others, I don't use a high power amp so I've never experienced any problems. But if Bob says not to do it with high power amps, I'm sure there's a reason.

What wattage would you guys consider high powered? If my 450 watt SVT 3 is high powered I'll take it out of the power conditioner.

I used to use a 3 Pro with my Furman and it was fine.

Cool. I've been using my SVT 3 plugged into a Furman for over ten years and have had no issues. But I really only use it as a power strip for the entire rack, I never knew it "conditioned" my equipment. The lights on front also come in handy for dark stages.

JimmyM said:

But if Bob says not to do it with high power amps, I'm sure there's a reason.

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The main reason is that they aren't necessary and don't offer any improvement over the 'conditioning' already built into all well made gear. The so-called 'dirty power' issues they supposedly address are highly over-hyped and are filtered out by the power supplies in your gear anyway. And they can restrict the current supply to your amp, resulting in degraded performance.

One thing you should know about power conditioners. There great for plugging your rack mount equipment but contrary to opinions, You shouldn't plug an amplifier into them. You can e mail or call Bob at QSC audio tech support for more technical detail on this. Bob is on this forum also.

The main reason why you shouldn't run amplifiers into power conditioners is simply because your amp will starve for operating power when running hard because the power conditioners job is to maintain steady clean voltage, but when your amp demands more amperage, the power conditioner prevents it.

If you check with Furmans website, you'll see they have a product called "Power Factor". This is a type of power conditioner just for amplifiers for this exact reason. This products store up to 45 amps of power which is far greater than a regular power conditioner, so amplifiers will have the extra juice they need to run on when driving hard. This could be the difference between your amp sounding good or great when driving it hard.

I contacted Bob at QSC's tech support on this product, but just like regular power conditioners, he doesn't recommend this product for amplifier use either. He claims the best thing for an amplifier drawing up to 20 amps is to plug it straight to the power source and anything in between acts as a buffer, I agree!

So I myself run an high powered bass rig and my amplifier is plugged in straight to the source, but my preamps and other rack gear ( compressor, tuner,) are plugged in to a Furman PL-plus series 2 power conditioner. I highly recommend power conditioners for your other rackmount gear. The rack lights come in handy and it keeps your rack looking neat with one power cord coming from your rack.

My idea of a power conditioner is an outlet strip plugged into an outlet. Sorry. I'd skip this stuff, if I were you.

I have never had an issue in decades of good/bad bar power, even in San Francisco or Boston, or Providence, or Newport, or Eugene, that one of those silly wea$el wand$ would have fixed. Am I misinformed again?

No. Skip the power conditioner. Buy a good long heavy-duty extension chord and some gaffer tape.

Jim Carr said:

My idea of a power conditioner is an outlet strip plugged into an outlet. Sorry. I'd skip this stuff, if I were you.

I have never had an issue in decades of good/bad bar power, even in San Francisco or Boston, or Providence, or Newport, or Eugene, that one of those silly wea$el wand$ would have fixed. Am I misinformed again?

No. Skip the power conditioner. Buy a good long heavy-duty extension chord and some gaffer tape.

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Come to the desert in the summer Monsoon. You can borrow my amp after yours takes a spike from lightning. No not BS. The #2 band in town scrambled with the rest of the bands in town to borrow equipment so they could finish their contract. We played the same night, lost two cheap power strips, plugged the overage into a couple of existing Furmans.