Axiom Home Page Forums Thread Like Summary - Power Line Conditioner?

Hi: Is it worth adding a power line conditioner to a stereo system?What are the benefits if any? I am looking at a Furman Elite PFI 15 as need 10 outlets for my system.Reading conflicting reviews saying they do nothing or make a huge difference in both sound & Picture quality?Thanks for any comments!!

If you have lots of power line noise in you area, brown outs etc … then there maybe benefit …
IMO the biggest benefit is to the power line conditioner company

Bruce, I looked at the specs of the Furman product. The only worthwhile protection specs are UL1449 and under-voltage and over-voltage shut-off.

The UL1449 is an industry-recognized surge (lightning) protection spec. The Furman is specified to be able to clamp up to a 6000 V stroke and by-pass up to 3,000 amps of current. As far as I am aware, A/V equipment is not mandated to protect against these kinds of levels. If this kind of voltage and current finds its way into the equipment, it will melt the entire power supply and flash over into the electronics.

The million dollar question is whether or not your equipment will ever see such a surge. If you lived in a high keraunic area like Florida, I'd say so particularly if it was rural.

As for under and over-voltage protection, some equipment, like the ADA amps, are protected.

You may be able to find other, less expensive products that meet the worthwhile specs I described. Note too that just because a product protects against these threats, it doesn't mean it protects against all threats. For example, I know I can make a UL1449-conformant product fail with a far lower voltage and current magnitude but much faster, oscillatory waveform.

Audiophile line conditioners are placebos to a problem that doesn't exist. Hopefully hanging around the Axiom forum can help you inoculate yourself against this form of marketing.

That doesn't mean line conditioners are useless. I once had a customer who was burning through PC power supplies and UPS's (uninterruptible power supplies) because a computer was located in the wing of a fabrication plant next to a giant metal lathe. It had to be there because the PC was running the beast. I convinced him to get an APC Line-R power conditioner to solve his brownout and over voltage issues, and voila, the issue was resolved.

I checked the APC site to see if it was still being manufactured, and not only did they change the design, but they dropped the price to a quarter of what it sold for a couple decades ago.

You don't have an industrial machine the size of a bus spooling up and down several times a day, so I don't think a line conditioner will do you any good.

Most Conditioners are line noise filters. There are also sine-wave UPSs which will handle brown outs (which can also be called conditioners)
Personally, I run neither on my audio gear. No need to fix a non-problem. Easy to fix later if I determine there is one

I missed your post about brown-outs. You need under-voltage protection if your equipment doesn't have it. The Panamax AV-Pro has that and over-voltage protection too.

What is the voltage protection rating (VPR) of the whole house surge protector? The VPR is the voltage downstream equipment will be subjected to when the protector operates. Note the Panamax starts clamping at 200V peak but can let through as much as 500V in the 6kV/3kA combination wave test of UL1449. TVs and AVRs will snap, crackle, pop unless they have their own surge protection - and I expect they do for 500V peaks.

As for limiting current, some, like the Furman, limit the available steady-state current. The Panamax doesn't. As for transient current, I wouldn't expect a device like the Panamax to limit it at audio frequencies. The protection works at much higher frequencies.

Here are the installation instructions and specs for your house surge protector.

https://download.schneider-electric...2551_warranty.pdf&p_Doc_Ref=NVE82551

That's a heck of a unit and you can definitely trust Schneider Electric products. Unfortunately, the VPR is still very high.

The Panamax will protect from high and low voltages and lower the VPR by 100V as a bonus. But the house surge protector will take the majority of the hit.

And yes, the Panamax makes far more sense than the Furman.