Is this usefull at all or is it marketing bs..

[thylantyr 10+ year member]

So, unless you have perfect power, which I don't think you have it would be useless. However, I am pretty confident in saying 99% of house holds have a considerable amount of noise in their power.

I wouldn't say 99%, it depends. Lets use my house an example.

There are three computers, two fridges, lights, few televisions

and random appliances.

SMPS found in computers will have filtering to prevent noise from leaking back

into the AC mains.

Your fridge only creates a spike during turn on, then after that it's ok

and it never operates 100% of the time.

TV's aren't a real problem either.

Point is, I would say that for the majority of the time if not all the time,

there is no AC noise issue that contaminates my audio system, I'm sure

I'd heard it by now living there for decades. No problem to fix.

If there is measurable noise on the AC line and I don't hear it, then we

need to examine the audio electronics to see how well the stock

power supply handles filtering.

http://www.tnt-audio.com/clinica/ssps1_e.html

Basic form of AC to DC power supply found in the majority of electronics,

if not a 60hz conventional design, it will be a switcher design {SMPS}.

We already mentioned that SMPS design is more critical, they WILL have

better filtering in the design vs. the 60hz power supply.

That picture you see on the link shows the output side of the power supply

with capacitors. This is commonly referred to as an unregulated power supply

and there more power supply ripple in this power supply than there is

AC noise being leaked from your house line as the big caps will filter out

some crud, if any exists at all.

A more advanced design will have some extra filtering on the AC input side

of the power supply, sorta like this.

http://www.equitech.com/images/enigma6.gif

Usually this is done to filter noise from entering your house AC mains from

the equipment like SMPS or it can also be used to filter out noise entering

the power supply.

What if you live in an apartment where the wiring is such that there is too much

leakage from neigbors? Maybe the excess noise is audible in which case you

filter more.

BTW, when you by those esoteric filters, many are just simple coil and cap networks. You can probably mod your audio gear with these for lower

current applications.

http://hamelectronics.com/k1deu/pages/ham/general/pages/rf_noise_computer.htm

Heres another pic of AC input filter on existing equipment.

http://www.benchclub.com/zboard/data/mrpardon_pic/k1gvt_k1_400xl_emi_filter_2h.jpg

Another filter.

http://users.atw.hu/chieftec/emi.jpg

For power amps, you'd need higher current ones if you wanted to mod it.

But it depends on if the equipment has filtering already and to what degree.

Lets look at the QSC PLX amplifier design since schematics are public.

http://www.qscaudio.com/support/technical_support/schems1.htm

Download PLX3402.

Page 1. Block diagram. EMI filter designed in.

Last page. 4 coils, 5 caps.

The EMI is to not only filter out HF generated by the SMPS but it can also work

both ways and filter out any crud coming in. Adding a power conditioner to this

amplifier would be just a waste of money really.

EMI filter, upper right hand corner of the amp.

http://home.pacbell.net/lordpk/qsc/PLX3402-2.JPG

 

[joetama 5,000+ posts]

Wow, does anyone else feel like 'momma' bird just threw up in their mouth......

BTW, the case where the Power Filter worked were on QSC PowerLight 2's and CX1202, oh wait you haven't work with those before.

The pads and filters are only a few db of filter, the filter in the conditioner is much stronger (and wait is there a reason for that) than the one built in. Hence the reason to do it; and just for the record you don't need to mod everything btw.

You can send me every article on earth telling me it doesn't work and you shouldn't do it. But I can't argue with what I CAN HEAR, and what other who listen to my system CAN HEAR. You know maybe I should start writing articles in magazines; the people would actually listen to me and think I know what I’m talking about.

 

[thylantyr 10+ year member]

The pads and filters are only a few db of filter, the filter in the conditioner is much stronger (and wait is there a reason for that) than the one built in. Hence the reason to do it; and just for the record you don't need to mod everything btw.

Some of those cheap filters have pretty steep slopes, two coils, two caps is

24dB/octave of attenuation. Daisy chain as many as you want forever,

why stop at 24dB, make behemoth power conditioner with 1000db/octave

to really satisfy. // lol //

Power conditioner guts.

http://www.smarthome.com/images/4426guts.jpg

coils and caps.

My first post is where I stand on this topic. I never said they don't work,

I didn't say they will solve your problems, every install is different. You have

to find a problem first, then fix it. But it's your money to spend, if you don't

have an audible problem but desire to spend money to fix it, then go for it.

 

[Beat_Dominator 5,000+ posts]

All I have to say, the 60hz hum I have in my system pwns j00!

 

[joetama 5,000+ posts]

All I have to say, the 60hz hum I have in my system pwns j00!

Make sure that everything is grounded well, and that you have a good solid ground to your powerbox.

I agree, Power Conditioners don't fix everything, but they do help and make a difference in most cases.....

 

[Beat_Dominator 5,000+ posts]

No, I was joking. I wanted to hook up my gear while I was sick so in a VERY temporary install I just plugged it all into a $2 surge protector and turned it on. I was greeted by that warm/fuzzy 60hz hummmmmMMMMMMMmmmmm //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/tongue.gif.6130eb82179565f6db8d26d6001dcd24.gif

 

[joetama 5,000+ posts]

Since it's temp you could do the thing that I say to never ever ever do.... Lift the ground //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/wink.gif.608e3ea05f1a9f98611af0861652f8fb.gif