use of power cnditioners

leftwinger57

Again folks I cannot wrap my ever so simple mind of this product no matter what brand. First off I heard you use them in areas where your power can fluctuate and then put all things out of phase. Second reason was lightening
well I've seen first hand through my job what lightening can do. A direct strike
and anything that travels through the house wires are gone. garage door openers ,vac systems, tvs all stuff plugged in. I've seen skylights blown out and
every contact on the alarm system blown. Even a stray strike could do the same , were's the up side. The model I saw looked good w/ it's big blue logo shining away. Does any of this device do anything

Lost

leftwinger57 wrote: »

Again folks I cannot wrap my ever so simple mind of this product no matter what brand. First off I heard you use them in areas where your power can fluctuate and then put all things out of phase. Second reason was lightening
well I've seen first hand through my job what lightening can do. A direct strike
and anything that travels through the house wires are gone. garage door openers ,vac systems, tvs all stuff plugged in. I've seen skylights blown out and
every contact on the alarm system blown. Even a stray strike could do the same , were's the up side. The model I saw looked good w/ it's big blue logo shining away. Does any of this device do anything

Are you talking conditioner or a UPS? A UPS comes in to play with power fluctuations...

DarqueKnight

leftwinger57 wrote: »

Again folks I cannot wrap my ever so simple mind of this product no matter what brand. First off I heard you use them in areas where your power can fluctuate and then put all things out of phase. Second reason was lightening
well I've seen first hand through my job what lightening can do. A direct strike
and anything that travels through the house wires are gone. garage door openers ,vac systems, tvs all stuff plugged in. I've seen skylights blown out and
every contact on the alarm system blown. Even a stray strike could do the same , were's the up side. The model I saw looked good w/ it's big blue logo shining away. Does any of this device do anything

Again folks, I cannot wrap my ever so simple mind around this product no matter what brand. First off, I heard you use them in areas, like winding roads on mountain sides, where the need to stop real quick was imperative.

Second reason was if an animal, child, or another vehicle darts in front of your car and you need to stop on the proverbial dime.

Well, I've seen first hand through my decades of driving experience what slick roads, poorly lit highways, improper highway railing, drunk drivers, distracted drivers and speeding drivers can do.

A direct strike by a drunk driver crossing the center line at just the right moment and everyone in both cars is dead as a doorknob. I've seen some really gruesome films and photographs of the aftermath of fatal car collisions where the aftermath wouldn't have been different even if the vehicle or vehicles involved had been equipped with brakes designed by the mind of God and built by the hands of angels.

The model I saw looked good in its fancy glossy box with gold lettering and prestigious sounding German name. So, do any of these types of very expensive, high performance brakes really do anything?

tonyb

Yes they do good,unless you throw all concern of your gear to the wind, then don't bother. Maybe you can afford to buy new gear everytime a storm hits,most of us can't. Truth is power fluctuates even in normal conditions,some gear is more delicate than others,and the constant up and down in voltage is not good. Think of it as an insurance policy.

leftwinger57

tonyb , your an honest guy who I guess doesn't like to crap on the uniformed. As for Darqueknight ....what the f was that, yes I freely admit I'm uniformed and that's exactly the reason I'm here, goofing is ok just follow it up w/ some constructive advice. Besides I have great home owners insurance.

Lost

leftwinger57 wrote: »

tonyb , your an honest guy who I guess doesn't like to crap on the uniformed. As for Darqueknight ....what the f was that, yes I freely admit I'm uniformed and that's exactly the reason I'm here, goofing is ok just follow it up w/ some constructive advice. Besides I have great home owners insurance.

Can we see your uniform?

hearingimpared

tonyb wrote: »

Yes they do good,unless you throw all concern of your gear to the wind, then don't bother. Maybe you can afford to buy new gear every time a storm hits,most of us can't. Truth is power fluctuates even in normal conditions,some gear is more delicate than others,and the constant up and down in voltage is not good. Think of it as an insurance policy.

Bingo!

Leftwinger, quick experience I had. I generally don't like power conditioners or surge protectors but my gear is rather sensitive to power fluctuations. When I moved into this house about five years ago I found out that the power was rather unstable so I purchased a Monster Power Conditioner (a pretty good one at the time) and plugged all my gear except for my power amps into it. The power amps I plugged directly to the wall; 1) because power conditioners tend to have current limiting circuitry in them, and; 2) the power conditioning in the power amps are way better than what the Monster offered.

Well I noticed a shocking disparity with the input voltages throughout the day and night. During the day the voltage could drop as low as 114 VAC (sometimes for a short period 111 VAC) and at night be as high as 122)+ VAC. I found this out by keeping a log on the meter on the front of the Monster PC.

After about a year and a half later, my power conditioner took a dump due to the constant power fluctuations so it got the beating not my gear. At this point although the power conditioner doesn't pass the power through to its outputs the meter still works so I have it plugged into a wall outlet that is on the same circuit that the rig is plugged into to keep an eye on the voltage fluctuations.

When the input voltage is low to very low during the day, the rig sounds like **** compared the nice steady voltage applied in the evening.

Although the Monster was also a surge protector I was never once foolish enough to think it could take a lightening strike direct or not. When a storm is brewing or I will not be in house for hours I always unplug my two channel rig and my HT rig and make sure the power cords are at least three feet from any outlet. A reason I did like it as a surge protector is that we have pretty crappy power here and there are many nights (and days) where we might loose power momentarily or for a minute or two. This is time I feel safe with the surge protection because when the electric company gets that power back up the surge won't damage my gear.

leftwinger57

There's the answer I was looking for, Hearingimpared your the closest guy w/ the same attidude I think we have. I do unplug when a storms abrewing or leaving for any extended time. Saying that I probably will invest if my gear starts to grow in numbers and worth.

[Deleted User]

Folks,
Let's everyone take a deep breath and calm down. Questions can be asked and answers provided to everyone as long as a reasonable effort is made to make the posting as legible as possible. Replies should be made with a goal of being helpful and resisting the temptation to deride a person. Just because you happen to have a certain thought doesn't mean you should post it. In fact I'll borrow a phrase used in the carpentry business, "think twice, type once".
Best regards, Ken

Pauly

The only 100% sure fire thing is a good door stop.


My HDMI ports just got fried on my TV cuz of a brown out with my main setup hooked up to a Monster 3600 MKII. Cable box too, but thats free to replace...



Pauly

hearingimpared

Mine is a Monster 5100 MKII. It held up pretty good during brown and power outages. I think the constant daily voltage fluctuation did it in. At least it buffered my gear from the sages and surges and kept them out of my gear power supplies.

Did your 3600 take a dump Pauly? If it did and you can produce a receipt from an authorized Monster dealer you can send it to Monster and they will replace it free or replace it with a unit of equal value and features. If not then they want $150 to replace it which is still a far deal considering the MSRP. Mine is still doing door stop and voltage monitoring duty because I don't have a receipt in that I bought it used here.

DarqueKnight

leftwinger57 wrote: »

As for Darqueknight ....what the f was that, yes I freely admit I'm uniformed and that's exactly the reason I'm here, goofing is ok just follow it up w/ some constructive advice. Besides I have great home owners insurance.

Leftwinger57,

Actually, if you had taken the time to read carefully, my post was full of some of the best advice possible.

You used some extreme examples to question the validity of using power conditioners. My post pointed out that the same types of extreme examples could be used to question the validity of high performance brakes...or high performance anything else.

Another piece of constructive advice, which was somewhat hidden between the lines, was that the same common sense, discretion and good judgment you would use for any other consumer purchase should also be applied to audio.

If Roger Russel had said a particular wine was the best in the world, would you have taken his word for it...or would you have taken his advice under consideration and then went and tasted for yourself?

Like wine tasting, audio listening is a personal, subjective sensory experience. You can't just go by what someone else sees or tastes or feels or smells or hears. Wine making is based on the science of chemistry and audio is based on the science of electronics. Just as the science of chemistry can't explain everything that a wine drinker tastes and feels and perceives, the science of electronics can't explain everything that an audio listener hears and feels and perceives.

vc69

Did I miss something?

I could have sworn....

Pauly

hearingimpared wrote: »

Mine is a Monster 5100 MKII. It held up pretty good during brown and power outages. I think the constant daily voltage fluctuation did it in. At least it buffered my gear from the sages and surges and kept them out of my gear power supplies.

Did your 3600 take a dump Pauly? If it did and you can produce a receipt from an authorized Monster dealer you can send it to Monster and they will replace it free or replace it with a unit of equal value and features. If not then they want $150 to replace it which is still a far deal considering the MSRP. Mine is still doing door stop and voltage monitoring duty because I don't have a receipt in that I bought it used here.

Its still working along with my Elite's and speakers etc...

It happened while i was at work. Had a quick FL storm that lasted 15 min.
TV still works with RGB and VGA, just no HDMI which is all i used. Toshiba has a guy coming Wed to diagnose since its still under warranty.

My apt wiring is crap. Brown outs all the time. Get a storm with lightning and better hope you are home to unplug your gear, or pray nothing happens if youre not.



Pauly

Malbec

Ray,

I guess we can consider you one of our resident audio sommeliers.

quadzilla

I have a question; why are discussing this in the clubhouse instead of in one of the forums it would actually belong in?

cstmar01

agreed with Joe above. I also unplug everythign when there is a storm close by. I would rather be safe than sorry and even though its there to "protect" my stuff I really don't want to have to go find another pre amp that is no longer made...

scottyboy76

darque knight is one of the few little smart asses you will run into on this site. dont let his desire to seem cryptic and a deep typer throw you.
all the guys who rushed in to give you great advice without mocking you and make you read between his lines are much more indicative of the folks on here. i see you dont have many posts, i think you will like it here. stay with this bunch. as al swearengen would say"theyre allright"

hearingimpared

scottyboy76 wrote: »

darque knight is one of the few little smart asses you will run into on this site. dont let his desire to seem cryptic and a deep typer throw you. all the guys who rushed in to give you great advice without mocking you and make you read between his lines are much more indicative of the folks on here. i see you dont have many posts, i think you will like it here. stay with this bunch. as al swearengen would say"theyre allright"

Um yeah . . . :rolleyes::rolleyes::rolleyes:

grimmace19

Not to derail but along the same lines, how many people use a voltage stabilizer and has it helped your system? Also, when going this route do you plug your surge protector into the stabilizer?