Power Conditioners

[Kamanda~SD]

Hello there all! I'm looking to get a power conditioner for obvious reasons (keep clean power, have pedals on same ground as amp etc.). This also marks the beginning of my rack setup!

So what do you guys use/reccomend?? I'm looking for something simple but good, and preferably around the $100 range. Thanks for the input!

p.s. For the record, I want my rack to consist of a power conditioner, tuner, and a BBE sonic maximizer...so feel free to discuss/ recommend those as well.

p.s.s. (I should really think of everything before I post) any special reccomendations on rack cases? Pretty sure a 4 spacer will do just fine for a long time.

 

[Kamanda~SD]

Re: Power Conditioners

bump

 

[Kamanda~SD]

Re: Power Conditioners

bump...again

 

[aleclee]

Re: Power Conditioners

In the price range you're looking at, what you're likely to end up with is a surge suppressing power strip in a rack.

Instead of asking what to buy, it might be more productive to ask what makes one "power conditioner" (quoted because the term covers a lot of territory) different from another. They range from the aforementioned surge suppressors to more sophisticated devices that increase power "headroom" or maintain constant voltage. Though I'm a big fan of voltage regulation, I'm dubious about the value of power conditioning as a means of lowering the noise floor for non-studio gear.

 

[idsnowdog]

Re: Power Conditioners

Look at the Rack Rider series of power conditioners. They are made by Furman but they don't have as many pretty twinkling lights!

 

[J Moose]

Re: Power Conditioners

I'm with Alec 100%.

Regardless of what the marketing mooks say, any kind of "real" power conditioning is going to have a whoppingly huge (HEAVY!!!) transformer & other bits in there that totally isolate incoming voltage (from wall) to outgoing voltage.

They usually cost several hundred at a minimum for a small unit & go well up into the thousands. Plus any real conditoner is going to weigh a whole hell of a lot more then a Furman or some other rackmount strip. 40 or 50 pounds would be a starting point...

Good reading & references here ~ http://equitech.com/

Not to say that things like the $100 Furman strips are useless... the EMI/RFI filtering is of some (minimal) value & the overall protection is quite good on the PL series... If you have a direct lightning strike it should blow up & leave the rest of the gear unscathed... never seen that happen EVER & I've been in some absolutely frighting situations at outdoor festivals...

 

[Kamanda~SD]

Re: Power Conditioners

Thanks! I guess I'll focus on the other sections of my rack first.