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[Othmane Alaoui]

I think there is a lot of mis-information that circulate about power, power quality issues and solutions. I read things that suprises me each time.
There is many issues related to power
- Voltage sags
- Overvotlage and overcurrent
- Harmonics
- Neutral current on 4 way systems
-Flickering
-Power factor
-Ferro-resonnace
-etc ...

The main topic here is over-voltage -- so over-voltage situation occurs when you have a massive load that is being de-energized somewhere in the network, it could be close or far from you. Over-voltage could happen if you have a large amount of vars or capacitors that kick's in.
         Solution : -Use over TVSS for voltage spikes, its fast and reliable.[/li][/list]
                        -MOV's are an other type of component that offers a protection against high currents.
Harmonics are an other power quality issue that we see more and more, it is manly caused by non-linear loads such variable speed drives, PSU's, electronic ballast, computers ...
The solution to this issue could be either a special made distribution transformer, a passive filter or best of all, an active filter.

Third harmonics or neutral currents. Issues with ground are common because we still do not master this field. Grounding is complex. You can have neutral issues when you have unbalanced single phase laods. This can also be fixed by a filter or by re-injection power where its needed.

Power conditioners are voltage regulators, some can correct the power factor and some do have MOV's. Are they going to give you a better sound ? No.

MOV's get burned after each couple of sags unless you get really expansive ones from TPS.
Each peace of equipment sold in the US/CAN have to respect very strict specs. Each Utility in the US have also to supply a CLEAN power with acceptable voltage limits. usually 10%-15% within nominal voltage. So my amplifiers can support it, same with moving heads and other loads.

[Jeff Hague]

Maybe the PL-C unit shutting down due to a generator's high-voltage situation was a good thing... 
Mike M

I don't think it was a high voltage issue on the generator itself. I am pretty savvy with a meter and had used the same model many many times.

I am curious if it had something to do with lights. I was running lights and sound on the same 50amp 240volt output of the generator and the cans were incandescent, not LED. This was during setup and I wonder if the light guy shut off a bunch of fixtures at once if it didn't cause the generator to "burst" for lack of a better way to put it.

I disconnected all of the Furman units and ran the show with no issues.

[Rob Spence]

One thing I see here all the time is referring to a "Furman" or a "power conditioner" but not being specific about the actual unit.

Furman is a maker of gear, not a device.

A PL-8 is a specific device. The characteristics of one device may be different from a different model device even from the same maker.

Get in the habit of referring the the specific device in your rack. That way, any conversation will have real value.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk HD

[Mike Monte]

One thing I see here all the time is referring to a "Furman" or a "power conditioner" but not being specific about the actual unit.

Furman is a maker of gear, not a device.

A PL-8 is a specific device. The characteristics of one device may be different from a different model device even from the same maker.

Get in the habit of referring the the specific device in your rack. That way, any conversation will have real value.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk HD

Without driving over to my storage unit, the one rack that I have on-hand in my truck at this time has a: Furman PL-PRO 20 amp power conditioner.
My other racks have similar units, just the 15 amp version.

Mike M

[Jamin Lynch]

Back when I used to have an outboard rack.....thanks to digital consoles I no longer have one. I had a Furman "power conditioner." It was great just for the pull out lights and a handy place to plug in all my gear. Kept things neat. Also liked the voltage meter.

It may have saved me at least  on one occasion. We were getting our power from a supplied generator. I metered and tested the power first. All was fine. When I went to switch on the outboard rack the Furman would not power on. Found out the lighting guy cranked up the voltage on the generator to 139volts. I quickly ramped it back down and we were good to go. 

[John Rutirasiri]

Does anybody here use a Power Conditioner?
Do they work as stated as "protecting your important gear from problems caused by AC line voltage irregularities".
Or is this all a gimmick?
I spoke with a local guy that use's a very high end Furman, and he claims his sound system is much cleaner, as in no noise when there is nothing going through it.it, and the system sounds "better".

Over the past 4 years I've gone through four Furman AR-30 Pro's and three AR-15's.  They all just died and won't go into regulation.  Units were pricey to begin with and repairs are expensive.  However, I did not lose any of my gear.  I've stopped using them.

A better "power conditioner" for your rack gears and non-power amp equipment is an online UPS.  It generates an almost clean AC (some harmonics from the not so true sine wave.)

John R.

[Geoff Doane]

It may have saved me at least  on one occasion. We were getting our power from a supplied generator. I metered and tested the power first. All was fine. When I went to switch on the outboard rack the Furman would not power on. Found out the lighting guy cranked up the voltage on the generator to 139volts. I quickly ramped it back down and we were good to go.

I had a similar experience a number of years ago.  FOH rack had a Furman PL-Plus (15A with lights and LED voltmeter).  All the rack gear was plugged into it, but there were no outlets left for the console, so it was plugged into the quad that was run along the snake from the distro.

This was a setup that I had used many times in the past with no problems, but this time the neutral on the distro had not been tightened down properly (tied in by the building electrician, but it had been cross threaded), and came undone when several KW of PAR64s were switched on.  The Furman clamped the voltage at ~130V until its circuit breaker blew, but nothing clamped the voltage to the GL2000, and it popped its fuse, but not before it took out the bridge rectifier in the PSU.  Luckily, nothing else on stage took a hit.  Maybe it was all on the same phase as the PARs.  I think I was using Carver PM1.5s at the time, which would shut themselves off if the line voltage went above 140V.  The Carver PM2.0t was not nearly as forgiving. 

Fortunately, this happened during soundcheck, and there was time to replace the console, and the repair wasn't all that difficult.  But I wouldn't have enjoyed repairing all the gear in the rack too.

So although I'm not sold on the "magic" qualities of so-called power conditioners, I can't deny that one has saved me a considerable amount of grief at least once.

GTD

[Jerome Malsack]

One of the items in the Power and Grounding was from Surgex. 

http://forums.prosoundweb.com/index.php/topic,150786.0.html

[g'bye, Dick Rees]

Over the past 4 years I've gone through four Furman AR-30 Pro's and three AR-15's.  They all just died and won't go into regulation.  Units were pricey to begin with and repairs are expensive.  However, I did not lose any of my gear.  I've stopped using them.

A better "power conditioner" for your rack gears and non-power amp equipment is an online UPS.  It generates an almost clean AC (some harmonics from the not so true sine wave.)

John R.

John...

I have had AR-1215's fail, but every single failure has been traceable to "taking one for the team" and the money and grief they've saved me has been well worth the price of repair/replacement.

Furman has been nothing short of helpful and congenial in sending detailed schematics for current (sic) and discontinued models.

It would be interesting and helpful to know what the failed units had gone through prior to giving it up.  Having learned the hard way, I now always meter everything prior to hooking in and I suspect you do as well.

[Brian Charbobs]

John...

I have had AR-1215's fail, but every single failure has been traceable to "taking one for the team" and the money and grief they've saved me has been well worth the price of repair/replacement.

Furman has been nothing short of helpful and congenial in sending detailed schematics for current (sic) and discontinued models.

It would be interesting and helpful to know what the failed units had gone through prior to giving it up.  Having learned the hard way, I now always meter everything prior to hooking in and I suspect you do as well.

I just bought a SURGEX. It suppose to be top of the line power protection. I hope so, I have Brand new Speakers, and board. Can not afford to take a chance.

[ProSoundWeb Community]