Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion Advice from Axiom Owners Power Conditioner

What utility do you work for?

Hydro One, Ontario, Canada

Mr.B, you're absolutely right. As some of us have repeatedly pointed out, all competently designed components that input power from the wall outlet have power supply sections that supply clean DC to the amplifying section. The actions of the transformer, rectifier and capacitors supply all the "conditioning" necessary.

Actually, if Mr. B. is a substation engineer or technician, he's probably familiar with H1's home-grown A-28M oscillatory transient standard.

It goes through the parasitic winding capacitance of power supply transformers rather nicely and if it doesn't blow up down-stream electronics, it makes them lose their mind. The only way around it is for manufacturers to install ferrite chokes, transorbs and capacitors at the front end of their equipment and be very cognizant of how the circuit board is laid out in order to stop it or at least limit it to harmless levels. You guys have caused me great pain Mr. B .

Hopefully, we won't get any of those nasties in our homes .

The high voltage power system is constantly exposed to these transients which are created by high voltage switching and lightning strikes.

However, if you purchase a high quality power supply which most high end audio equipment incorporate in their system they have been engineered to accomodate this as you have said. If we had cheap power supplies all of our PCs, TVs and other electronics would cease to function everyday.

You engineers sure talk funny sometimes

I bought a Belkin PF60 about a year ago from eCost.com. They had them on their 'clearance countdown' for about $130. I was looking for a new surge protector at the time, which was going to be $50 or $60 anyway. So I went ahead and bought the PF60. Would I spend $600 on this thing (MSRP, think), uh, no. But for $130, I think it's worth it.

I really like it. I'm not going to claim that it brought anything to the table visually or sonically with my system. But it has done several important things for my system overall.

1) Cable organization. Makes it simple to plug everything in to one place. Greatly decreased 'rats-nest' effect behind the AV rack now.

2) Power monitoring. I'm not an electical engineer, so I really can't say what over or undervoltage does for equipment. But I can say that the PF60 is reporting the power in my home varies from 121 to 131 volts, and usually is around 125v. An electrician friend says it's normal for our power company. Does an extra 1-11 volts matter to the equipment? I don't know, but modulating that down to 120v seems beneficial. YPMV (your power may vary). It's also interesting to monitor how many amps my system is pulling.

3) Power 'cleanup'. I'm not going to say that my speakers sound better or the TV is clearer. But I can definitely say that on my prior 'normal' surge protector, I would hear a click or snap from the speakers when my wife fired up the clothes dryer or a microwave, or even if our neighbor's A/C kicked in (we share a transformer connection at the utility pole). I don't get any of that anymore. Dead silence.

4) Switched outlets. I don't need them now, but should I ever get a projector and need a motoroized screen, or some other amplifier that doesn't have a remote turn on, the PF60 has switched & delayed power outlet settings that could be very handy.

5) Asthetics. I think it just looks cool. Totally my opinion, but I like the way it compliments my system.

If I bought one, it would be for #5. For $130 I'd consider it too, MSRPs are for chumps.

I did buy mine for reason #5.

If you think about it, we usually do tons of research on items we want to buy, and after all is said and done #5 is still one of the top reasons for the purchase.