Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion Advice from Axiom Owners Panamax Power Conditoner or UPS?

I am in the process of purchasing the M60’s with a VP100. I have a question on power for my receiver and electronics. I purchased a Panamax power conditioner, model MX5400-EX. I was wondering if this is a good choice, or should I just get a basic UPS and put it in the back? I am a bit confused as I have been reading mixed solutions on the forums on which way to go. Any help is much appreciated!!

Panamax makes a good product, just curious as to why you purchased it, any problems with power surges, brown outs etc? The electronics in the components all have built in regulators and such anyway, power conditioners really are not needed. The UPS might better serve your needs.

The reason why I puchases, I was under the impression that it will supply better power to the sub and amp when they need it most, making them sound better and to protect the equipment. But I dont really suffer from bad power at all. However, my brother had an HK receiver blow on him at the same appartment, so maybe there could be some issues that I just cant see.

Many sub manufactures recommend not using any type of surge supressor/conditioners with the sub and H/K has had some issues with their receivers in the last few years or so it seems from reading various posts on the web.

You may well have been under that impression because that's the impression the marketing garbage on such manufacturers' websites gives you.

Eh, that was unnecessarily harsh. Sorry about that, tired today...

In any case, most likely, no you're not going to get better sound from a power conditioner. They really would only come into play if you have bad power. And a conditioner isn't going to make up current or voltage that's not there to start with. For that, you'd need a UPS.

Great, thanks for the advice. You guys are great. Going to return it today.

Ditto the earlier recommendations. I considered dropping a couple hundred bucks on a conditioner as well and most feedback here suggested that unless you have abnormally bad power conditions to begin with, the only benefit you'll see from the conditioners is getting to enjoy how it looks in your rack.

I actually really _do_ like how they look in a rack so I almost got one anyway, but at this point I'm running everything from a decent surge protector and can't imagine the quality being any better with "cleaner" power.

I got the $100 Tripplite UPS at Costco to protect the bulb in my TV and the hard drives in the PC and DVR. Makes me feel better, but I don't think it has any impact on performance.

If you are going to plug the AVR and or subs into a UPS, just make sure the UPS is big enough to handle the wattage of the devices. Subs and amps have the potential to draw lots of power when they are up loud.

Yes, I would avoid plugging a sub or a large amp into a UPS. I've been lucky with my receiver in the UPS, but I don't really crank it much.