[bgewaudio]

Not sure if this is the proper forum for this discussion, thought I would ask anyway.  JT or anyone else, what characteristics do the Torus line conditioners employ to set them apart from the rest of the market?

[James Tanner]

A LOT - these produsts were 3 years in the planning and design stages.

Highlights are:

Total ISOLATION from the outside power grid.
Total PROTECTION using a non-sacrificial system (NOT MOV's)

Have a look on the Torus website literature under the 'Problems and Solutions' section. It gives more details.

james

[bgewaudio]

James, do they incorporate any type of power enhancements for amplifiers?
Separate Audio/Video banks?

[James Tanner]

Depends on the unit - the 240 Volt 60 amp unit I am using at home has three banks with 6 power outlets per bank.

Not sure what you mean by 'power enhancement'?

james

[bgewaudio]

James, to answer you question about "power enhancement", what I mean was that some companies will actually incorporate some kind of separate transformer meant to be connected in conjunction with power amps i.e High current outlet banks.  These high current output banks are used to supply more current to the amplifier to make up for the increased resistance, due to the other components utilizing the power source and also to supply additional power to the amp when call upon to reproduce dynamic bursts of power with movie scores.

[MrCool78]

Yeaah the prices is really scary

[bgewaudio]

Proof is in the price, I guess!

[James Tanner]

James, to answer you question about "power enhancement", what I mean was that some companies will actually incorporate some kind of separate transformer meant to be connected in conjunction with power amps i.e High current outlet banks.  These high current output banks are used to supply more current to the amplifier to make up for the increased resistance, due to the other components utilizing the power source.

Hi,

The way the Torus is designed any outlet is capable of full current to any device connected so there are no specific outlets for specific types of equipment.

What most of our Torus customers do is purchase the lower amperage units for their sources and the larger one for their power amps. That way they can isolate and use each unit where it makes the most sense.

For instance I have a 120V/2.5 amp unit which I use strictly for my projector and the the large 240V/60 amp unit I use for everything else.

What a power amp wants to 'see' at its power input is a very High-Current , Low - Impedance source.

james

[James Tanner]

Proof is in the price, I guess!

Correct - the knock against power conditioners using transformers in the past has been they tend to restrict dynamics - I agree.  The problem is not transformer technology though it is undersize transformers.  Therefore the transformers we use in all the Torus products are DOUBLE the size they have to be for a given amperage - so the power restriction is the wall power plug not the transformer.

This is a more costly but optimal way to do what needs to be done if total isolation and protection from the outside power grid is the goal.

james

[James Tanner]

Yeaah the prices is really scary

Talk about scary - have you priced exotic power cords recently?

james

[bgewaudio]

K, So each outlet bank is totally independent from one another?

[hometheaterdoc]

legitimate question from a curious person.  I don't want you to give anything away that may be proprietary...  but how do these PCs differ from units from say Balanced Power Technologies (BPT)?  It seems like you have higher power units that use bigger Plitron toroids... but within the same power range, both companies appear to be using the same transformers and appear to be using very similar technologies for surge suppression...  just curious what these units offer that is different than the BPT stuff... I might have to look into them

[Bob Reynolds]

legitimate question from a curious person.  I don't want you to give anything away that may be proprietary...  but how do these PCs differ from units from say Balanced Power Technologies (BPT)?  It seems like you have higher power units that use bigger Plitron toroids... but within the same power range, both companies appear to be using the same transformers and appear to be using very similar technologies for surge suppression...  just curious what these units offer that is different than the BPT stuff... I might have to look into them

My understanding is that the Torus products do not produce balanced power as do Equi=Tech and others. They are isolation transformers. There is some information in their brochure about wiring the 240V models in a manner that yield the benefit of balanced power.

An advantage to me over other products is that they use, I believe, ZeroSurge's surge suppression technology. It's quite convenient to have both isolation and true protection in a single chassis.

[Bob Reynolds]

Depends on the unit - the 240 Volt 60 amp unit I am using at home has three banks with 6 power outlets per bank.

How are the banks isolated from each other? Separate secondary windings?

[James Tanner]

The banks are not Isolated from each other. That is why I was suggesting using 2 smaller units rather than one larger unit if isolation from each component is wanted.

james

[Occam]

The operational principal of the Torus PIUs is the NBT(tm) technology from Plitron which is licensed from Menno VanderVeen's patent -
http://plitron.com/PDF/NBTWP.PDF

This oft repeated statement from the Torus literature -

Using balanced input power provides the benefits of symmetrical power without therequirement to use GFCI (ground-fault circuit interruption) outlets.

is simply untrue. It DOES NOT and CANNOT provide the cancellation of reactive leakage currents from connected components to ground  that technical (split phase balanced output) power does.

That being said, the NBT technology does attenuate mains noise very effectively.

May the Great Pumpkin save and protect us from marketing twaddle. Amen.

[Bob Reynolds]

The banks are not Isolated from each other. That is why I was suggesting using 2 smaller units rather than one larger unit if isolation from each component is wanted.

james

Thanks for the clarification, James. I saw your earlier post, but I assumed that the term "bank" implied isolation.

[Bob Reynolds]

Bob - the operational principal of the Torus PIUs is the NBT(tm) technology from Plitron which is licensed from Menno VanderVeen's patent -
http://plitron.com/PDF/NBTWP.PDF

Occam, thanks for the reference.

[bgewaudio]

I really like the idea of being isolated from the main power grid.

No more EMI/RF interference and no more pesky neighbours stealing you power

Seeing how these banks are not isolated from each other, what's going to happen with video polluting audio and audio polluting video?

[James Tanner]

The operational principal of the Torus PIUs is the NBT(tm) technology from Plitron which is licensed from Menno VanderVeen's patent -
http://plitron.com/PDF/NBTWP.PDF

This oft repeated statement from the Torus literature -

Using balanced input power provides the benefits of symmetrical power without therequirement to use GFCI (ground-fault circuit interruption) outlets.

is simply untrue. It DOES NOT and CANNOT provide the cancellation of reactive leakage currents from connected components to ground  that technical (split phase balanced output) power does.

That being said, the NBT technology does attenuate mains noise very effectively.

May the Great Pumpkin save and protect us from marketing twaddle. Amen.

Hi,

It is true that primary balanced power cannot provide cancelation of reactive leakage currents from the components connected to the secondary the way that Balanced Power can, but it still provides noise cancelation and clean power to the secondary.

james