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  1. #1
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    Question Power conditioner question,Help..

    I purchased a new ART Power conditioner that has 8 outlets on the back,my question is what are the most important item's in a HT setup that should be plugged into it?I have alot more than 8 components.My HT component's consist's of> Reciever,Power Amp,TV,DVD,2 Tape decks,MD Deck,2 VCR's,Digital DVR Cable Box,and CD Player.Which out of these unit's should be connected?Thanks for any help..Keith.

  2. #2
    Forum Regular hermanv's Avatar
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    Noise contributed by sources can not be removed later. The first priority is a clean source, so; DVD players, tuners, cable box, VCR etc. should probably have first claim on any filtered outlet.

    Many power conditioners include surge protection, this does not help sound quality but does protect expensive electronic devices. If you have a surge protection circuit maybe the most expensive devices should have first claim. Or perhaps purchase a seperate protection outlet strip.

  3. #3
    Silence of the spam Site Moderator Geoffcin's Avatar
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    I would also read the manual....

    Plugging 8 components into a unit that has only one power cord might cause problems. You may overload the unit if you plug the receiver and power amps into it. Even if that doesn't happen you could get a voltage sag during high usage. Sticking with only source components makes good sense from this angle.
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  4. #4
    Forum Regular filecat13's Avatar
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    A power hungry amp or receiver can be starved by a conditioner that's also feeding many other components. The advice to put your sources on the condtioner is good.

  5. #5
    Rep points are my LIFE!! Groundbeef's Avatar
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    conditioner

    Just a question, because I am unsure. Even if he has all 8 componets plugged in, he is surely not drawing power to all 8 when system is in use. Although he may be drawing a miniscule amount to keep the clock on his VCR current, what else is he using at any one time. If he is watching a movie that is about the most draw he will have. (TV, AMP, Reciever, and DVD player). Everything else is off.

    Now I would suspect if he were trying to run all 8 pieces at once there my be an issue.

    Thoughts?

    2nd, depending upon what he is doing with the VCRs, he could get a 2nd simple surge protection for them without needing a conditioner. They would seem to be less in need of power conditioning?





    Quote Originally Posted by filecat13
    A power hungry amp or receiver can be starved by a conditioner that's also feeding many other components. The advice to put your sources on the condtioner is good.

  6. #6
    Forum Regular filecat13's Avatar
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    He'd need to look at what the conditioner was rated to deliver, then examine his receiver and amp to see what they require. If the receiver and amp are going to be fine under normal conditions, it might not be until he needed those momentary peaks that the starvation occurred. You're correct that the other components might not have much of an impact, but it's the needs of the amp and receiver that will be the potential starvation point.

    A five channel 1000W amplifier at idle might require 65W and 1A, while at normal (1/8 rated power) operation it can jump to 375W and 4.5A. At loud levels (1/3 rated power) it can reach 950W and 10.5A or more. If the conditioner can't pass that, then there's a problem. Despite manufacturer's claims that their units don't restrict current to your amps, one needs to be skeptical.

    My own experience with a Monster HTS5000MKII is that it worked fine with a couple of high current amps during normal usage, but when the Balrog and Gandalf were having at it in LOTR: FOTR, the amps sucked the Monster dry and permanently tripped its protection cricuits. Thankfully the amps survived, but I had to replace the Monster.

    I bought a relatively inexpensive surge protector with the ability to deliver more current and haven't had a repeat. Everything else is plugged into the replacement Monster.

    In fact, many high power amp manufacturers recommend plugging straight into the wall because 1) the amp's power supply is built to handle anything that comes into it anyway and 2) they don't want limited power through a conditioner to affect its performance.

  7. #7
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    Power Conditioners

    First, You Plug Your Digital Sources, Such As Cd, Dvd. Then Preamp. U Can Plug An Amplifier Into A Power Conditioner, But You Must Use A Good Conditioner, Such As Ps Audio, Shunyata, Etc. Not Garbage That You Buy At Wal-mart.

  8. #8
    BooBs are elitist jerks shokhead's Avatar
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    So Belkin,Tripp-Lite,Panamax are out?
    Look & Listen

  9. #9
    Forum Regular hermanv's Avatar
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    Power conditioners

    There is a lot of generalizing going on. There are three things "power conditioners" can do.

    1. They can provide surge or transient protection a good thing for your equipment that does little to improve the sound except of course when transients are present.

    2. They can filter out radio frequency interference. This is a good thing, it should help the sound but the specification war makes things a little tricky. Having the filtering start at a lower frequency say 500KHz is better than having it start at 2MHz but will usually result in being able to cliam less total noise attenuation at an arbitrarily high frequency. It might mean the best filter for you is not the best filter for someone in another location.

    3. They can regulate the power line voltage. There are two basic techniques. One uses a transformer with either an adjustable number of windings or an adjustable input signal. The second technique converts the input line voltage to DC and then re-generates a 60Hz AC power waveform.

    The adjustable winding technique is likely to let those things that disturb the sound sail right on through, they need to be combined with version 1 and 2 above to do any real good.

    The re-generating style of power conditioner should do the best job of isolating your system from the main power grid. The problem is that it might not have the kind of reserve power your power amplifier needs to handle high current music transients into your speakers. Additionally this technique is by far the most complex and expensive solution.

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