[Armaegis]

I haven't seen any mention of this little member of the Furman family, so I thought I'd post some quick thoughts.

I have ugly dirty power in my house. Could be dirty ground, could be DC offset, probably both, maybe others. In particular, the living room with the halogen fixture on a dimmer switch. I've got an APC surge bar whose "overload" warning light goes off when I have the lights on. I also have a heavy Tripp-Lite isolation transformer which hums like mad when plugged into the same wall outlet, and gets worse when I play with the dimmer.

I've tried several manners of surge bars/power conditioners from Furman, Tripp, Belkin, etc, but none removed the overload warning or transformer hum I mentioned above by any appreciable amount. But this AC-215A did it. The overload light doesn't come on, and the transformer hum is significantly reduced. It isn't entirely gone mind you, but it went from "so loud I can hear it over the music" to "I can only hear it if I've got my head next to the box". The noise floor in my system is noticeably reduced as well.

So overall I'm very happy with this product. It didn't fix everything, but it got a good chunk of it where others failed. I can't guarantee that it will work for everyone; it works for me in my specific power situation. The cheaper Furman merit series did nothing for me; I'd recommend if going Furman to get the stuff that at least has the SMP and LiFT tech in it. I'm not quite ready to look into the full sized regenerators, but I'm tempted now.

[Folsom]

Sounds like you should run a dedicated line for your breaker panel.

Dimmer switches are known to be absurdly noisy. Would a regular light switch work?

The Furman AC-215A barely has anything in it. It's 3 X caps, and an overvoltage protection circuit. I don't know what you tried before but it seems like you're playing with little stuff that's meant for sales, not performance.

[mresseguie]

Hello, Armaegis.

I'm unfamiliar with the Furman unit you mentioned. However, I'm am familiar with the P.I. Audio UberBUSS. I've owned one for over two years now and it gives me dead silence and the blackest of backgrounds. Back when I purchased it, I had also looked at Furman power conditioners that cost a minimum of twice as much.

When I think about power conditioning for other rooms, or my home in Taiwan, I don't bother looking for other competitors' products, I email or phone Dave. Hell, I actually visited him and his wife while we were in Albuquerque last month. 

Best of luck with your search for silence.

Michael

And yes, I'm a P.I. Audio fanboy. 

[Armaegis]

Actually overall, I dislike the concept of power conditioners. I'd rather attack the source of the noise than have a box to "fix" things. Alas, unless I'm building from ground up and running dedicated lines (heck, I'd get a dedicated panel if I could), that's a bit more difficult to do.

I know the AC-215a is a "simple" device, but somehow its particular config worked for me. I managed to buy it for cheaper than what I could equivalently build for myself, so no complaints on my end.

My other boxes do their jobs when I run PA gear in various venues. There's always varying degrees of success, which is why I bring at least two different ones to try when I run into issues. You'll never have the perfect tool for everything, but having multiple tools is a good way to go!

[Armaegis]

Dimmer switches are known to be absurdly noisy. Would a regular light switch work?

The Furman AC-215A barely has anything in it. It's 3 X caps, and an overvoltage protection circuit. I don't know what you tried before but it seems like you're playing with little stuff that's meant for sales, not performance.

The chunkier units I went through were a couple different older rack-mount Furmans; can't remember the exact models off the top of my head; some were light and weren't much more than distribution boxes, others had more heft to them. I also have two big heavy Tripp-Lite boxes, one was LC-something and the other was an IS-something, a conditioner and isolation transformer respectively I believe. I suppose aged caps have been a factor in some of the older units?

Oh I know dimmers are terrible. Half the lights in the house are also LED and those inject a ridiculous amount of noise. Running dedicated lines is not feasible, and lighting is not in my "domain" to alter  I've tried replacing the switches with trailing-edge dimmers which did reduce some of the buzzing, but only to a small degree (improves the life of the bulbs though, which is a big plus; now if only the dimmers didn't cost 5x as much).

[Folsom]

Actually overall, I dislike the concept of power conditioners. I'd rather attack the source of the noise than have a box to "fix" things. Alas, unless I'm building from ground up and running dedicated lines (heck, I'd get a dedicated panel if I could), that's a bit more difficult to do.

I know the AC-215a is a "simple" device, but somehow its particular config worked for me. I managed to buy it for cheaper than what I could equivalently build for myself, so no complaints on my end.

The only true fix is to move into a log cabin with no wire in it. You can get close by calling the power company and asking them to turn off the service to your home. You're bumping philosophy of a pretend world against the reality. You cannot "fix" "things" that simply exist due to the fact that your power is turned on. Sure you can get rid of a dimmer switch or other very bad noises, and run dedicated lines (panels don't change anything so much), but those are improvements, not "fixes" for "things". Everything is based on voltage division so there's no binary function.

The Furman likely simply hit the "spot" in the noise. The exact frequency range and/or voltage.

You can upgrade/correct dimmer switches to reduce the problem.

[Armaegis]

A cabin in the woods doesn't sound so bad, but alas I'm a suburbanite. I could just go off the grid with a battery/regenerator, which just starts from scratch rather than dividing out noise, but don't relish the thought of having a power supply that weighs more than my actual components.

Trailing-edge dimmers do make a difference over leading-edge dimmers, and most dimmers designed for CFL/LEDs are supposedly of this type. Unfortunately they cost about $25/each (in Canada).

Fluorescents/CFL's and LED bulbs are a real nuisance. Yeah it chops my electricity bill down, but each of those bulbs contains a little transformer and crapola inside, and at quiet points I can hear all this buzzing around the house (nobody else seems to hear it, so I *might* be crazy). Regular incandescents can buzz too, but typically at a lower frequency. I think all these energy saving bulbs are just working in tandem to create noise. Each one individually doesn't buzz, but it injects noise into the ground, which then affects the neighbouring bulb, so on so forth.

[Folsom]

Normal CFL bulbs DO NOT work with dimmers correctly. You might want to make sure you have dimmer capable ones... but CFL's are noisy themselves.

When I said cabin in the wood, I mean no electricity of any kind. Bring a guitar...

How many dimmers do you have, if $25 is a big deal?

[Armaegis]

Oh I was just mentioning CFL's for the sake of completeness. I got rid of most of those a while ago (except maybe the couple at the top of the garage... need to borrow a ladder for those). But yeah, most of them do not like dimmers at all. LEDs can be fickle buggers as well.

Oh I've got maybe... 13 dimmers around the house. The cost adds up. Not the end of the world, but it's kind of a knee jerk reaction when the regular ones are 6 a pop. The cheapest LED compatible dimmers are $25, and they go up from there.

[Folsom]

Well you could replace the ones on the same breaker as the stereo.

The irony to cost saving on electricity is that the more consumers find ways to do it, the more electric companies increase the rates to make money Good for the environment at least...

[Armaegis]

Actually, we sell a lot of our electricity to the US. So the less of it we use up here, the more we can sell to you guys down below. We get subsidies to upgrade all our lighting to LED (and years ago, it was the same with CFL)
Sadly, no same subsidies for the required dimmers.

I *did* replace the ones on the same breaker as all my gear, but the rest of the electrical noise in the house is quite atrocious. I think there must be something in that induction stovetop too. Even when it's not on, it emits this whine.

[Speedskater]

First get a 'Kill-a-Watt' (or similar) meter. Check the voltage on several of your circuits (lights, appliances & hi-fi) at different times of the day and day of the week. Sometime turn all the breakers in the house off except the one for only the hi-fi. How is the voltage and how does it sound. How close are your neighbors?

[doggie]

Hello, Armaegis.

I'm unfamiliar with the Furman unit you mentioned. However, I'm am familiar with the P.I. Audio UberBUSS. I've owned one for over two years now and it gives me dead silence and the blackest of backgrounds. Back when I purchased it, I had also looked at Furman power conditioners that cost a minimum of twice as much.

When I think about power conditioning for other rooms, or my home in Taiwan, I don't bother looking for other competitors' products, I email or phone Dave. Hell, I actually visited him and his wife while we were in Albuquerque last month. 

Best of luck with your search for silence.

Michael

And yes, I'm a P.I. Audio fanboy. 

I have been using the Furman for a couple of years and think that it made a nice difference. I bought it based upon some good feedback from members who used it.

The Furman AC-215A costs about $125 while the P.I. Audio UberBUSS costs about $1100.

I am not saying that the PI is not better but the Furman certainly gives good bang for the buck.