Thoughts on Necessity/Value of Power Conditioners

It is supposed to go under misc I think.

Anyways, most common conditions are just fancy power bars, that includes Furman units in the PL, ML and RR series, ART 4x4's and others, these are generally in the $100-500 range.

Then there are units like the Furman AR series, which do everything the lesser units do as well as regulate the line voltage, these units fall in the $500-1000 range IIRC.

There are also more fancy units which are most rare and cost alot more, these are generally only used by larger sound and lighting companies.

 

It all depends on what your willing to spend, regardless of whether they do what they claim or not, even a cheap condition like a Furman Rackrider is a nice thing to have in a rack. It gives you a place to plug all your equipment into, and gives you one power switch on the front of your rack to power everything up.

But no, unless your going to spend a heap of money to move up to say the Furman AR series, your just spending money on an expensive power bar.

I personally think that unless you are going to pay for a good unit, your best bet is to try to get a Furman RR15NL for about $30 of the bay, it doesn't cost too much more than a power bar, and has all the advantages I mentioned above. You could also pick one up with rack lights for only $20 more I would imagine.

 

+1 to the above. I have a Furman PL-Plus, the benefits to me are:

1. Tidier cabling with a what is basically a power stip rackmounted as opposed to not having it, and one switch to turn it all on.
2. Voltage meter is very useful to me, not a necessity but nice to have.
3. Rack lights are pretty cool.

That's it. The "power conditioning" aspects of it are really not on the radar as far as the value to me. That being said the lower priced units like the PL-Plus that I have and the cheaper units give you some of all of the above benefits for not a ton of cash. But if your main reason for wanting one is the "power condtioning" and any audible benefits you're looking for, you're probably not going to find it's worth it. If I had some money and was in a serious touring band I would probably invest in one of the PL-Pro units that does some voltage regulation.

John

 

They need to book you on pint night.

 

For me, a basic Furman is worth it for the EMI/RF filtering. I used one for years, never gave it a thought. First gig without it, and I picked up a CB radio through my rig, as well as noise everytime they fired up a blender at the bar. It was a crap bar filling in with a crap band, but I re-added the Furman and never experienced that again, even at the same bar a few days later.

 

I use a Furman PS-Pro. Here's why:
-protection of my rack gear and speakers from lightning, brownouts, etc.
-onboard power diagnostic meters
-sequenced power-up so everything goes on in the correct order (no huge jolt/fart through the cabs when I switch on).
-isolated outlets reduce the likelihood of ground loops
-less interference from blenders and CB as Eric mentioned

Note that I don't mention "conditioning" of the power for better tone quality. If you are in the recording studio, YES you will hear bad power in the recorded results. But it's the studio's job to have decent wiring in there. At a club or any stage gig, the audience will not hear any improvement in your sound from conditioned power. However they will hear ground loop hum, and they'll hear if you blow a cone due to a bad electrical connection.

 

No matter what level of power conditioning you use the main source of noise is your instrument's pickups, so don't obsess and be glad you're not a guitar player with a Strat.