Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion Home Theater line conditioners?

I can only say what I was told.I hear no difference when plugging my amp(Rotel RB1080) into the 2500 or directly into the wall.I am also using 2 dedicated 20 Amp hospital grade outlets with them connected to their own 20amp breaker.So I do believe I was told the truth.

First: a quick introduction - hi, I'm the debunker of myths, I've been away on a quest for a while, but I'm back. Ever seen Noel Lee (Monster Cables CEO) suddenly get a pee-shiver or audiotweaks.com suddenly go dim on your screen? - that's me.

Why precisely would one use hospital grade outlets for a HT setup?

Green dot outlets serve one purpose over and above the outlets you get at Home Depot/Revy/Rona/etc. - the one difference in manufacture is the grip strength. The only reason to use them in a home environment is if you have plugs routinely jumping out of outlets. The boutique types would have you believe you get better power through them... the boutique types must also live beside power stations, I can tell you from experience, that last 100 feet of wire between your breaker panel and outlet make a minimal difference in the quality of power you receive from the station 15km away.

Another laughable item (that the HT whizkids love) is the orange triangle outlet - it's a regular outlet, but it's marked for isolated ground. We've got them in the arena audio booth - it's just a way of denoting that the wiring to the plug is isolated from building ground so as to keep, say, the ice plant's huge motors from spitting EMI into our equipment. The plug itself has no magical properties, unless orange paint is magical.

Just FYI, so you can save yourself a few bucks next time.

Bren R.

Hey Bren,

Nice to see ya back.Never once did I think an outlet or a line conditioner for that matter makes ones sound system sound any better.As far as the outlets go there is no other reason for using them other than I just wanted to.I already knew the differences in the outlets but thanks anyway.The line conditioner is there just as a surge protecter as I don't believe they improve the sound,but it is a simple solution to not having enough outlets at hand.

Look forward to reading your posts

Bren,
In your professional opinion, would adding a Panamax 5100 surge protector/line conditioner be a worthwhile investment for a home theater set up consisting of Axiom/Hsu/Yamaha?Hitachi, et al?
b.

Your right about the constant 120v. I was reading the AVS 2000 specs, and that stuck in my mind for some reason. In regard to music sounding better, I did not notice anything significant. I may play with that when the wife goes out. The video was better in my opinon.

Hey Bob, Im thinking about the same Panamax for my setup. Ive heard the 5300 on Axioms and SVS sub....sound AWESOME

In reply to:

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would adding a Panamax 5100 surge protector/line conditioner be a worthwhile investment for a home theater set up

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First, what do you want it for? Surge protection is a good idea if you're in an area with bad power or prone to lightning strikes. If you're looking for AC boost/buck, it would probably help there too - but I couldn't find any info on the model you asked about on their website (MSRP, and technical specs). I was concerned by one thing they mentioned in a few pieces of their product lit - something about "adjusting line voltage without batteries"... umm, how do they boost then? huge capacitors?

I take my cues from the pro world. Our backup system is a gasoline gennie with battery operated UPSes on my DDR and Chyron (both PC-based) they're there to pull out the split-second sag when the power is shunted - all the other equipment hums happily along on generator power. Again, if it's good enough for a pair of $30K VTRs, it should be good for a $1K home theatre receiver.

In short, if you want it, buy it... but look past the hype, a UPS will do the same thing for you for probably a lot less money (except for the line conditioning aspect which is usually sketchy at best on consumer electronics, it's line conditioning, not power conditioning most times)

Bren R.

So, what your saying is, a power surge protecting UPS would be a great way to go when the demand is high from an amp or receiver??

In reply to:

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So, what your saying is, a power surge protecting UPS would be a great way to go when the demand is high from an amp or receiver??

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Can you explain further? Sounds like you're worried about the current draw from your amp being too much for the house AC... if that's true, it's an engineering problem with either the amp or house wiring.

I was assuming the discussion was on power conditioning and brownout/spike protection.

A line conditioner is a pretty broad term. A true line conditioner smoothes out small fluctuations in the AC line, usually through an electromagnetic coil (technical term is a toroidal something or other). There's no regulation on the term so it can mean pretty much whatever the marketing department wants.

A power conditioner strips out the AC sine wave and recreates it at a clean 60Hz. These are really expensive and do a good job of extending the life of transformers in electrical equipment (especially computer power supplies, which are notoriously inexpensively made). Again, most line conditioners call themselves power conditioners incorrectly.

As for voltage boost/buck:
Bucking high voltage involves having some metal oxide varistors (MOVs) connected between the hot and ground lines. The resistance of these MOVs is near infinite at 120v (keeping hot and ground separate) but with increased voltage, the resistance drops and power is allowed to shunt from the hot wire to ground causing a drop in voltage on the hot wire down to ~120v - the excess voltage is carried away on the ground wire. I believe some systems also use some kind of sacrificial material (besides the damage that spikes cause the MOVs) to take up the extra voltage.
Boosting low voltage is easiest with a battery system - when voltage drops below a prescribed amount, a power inverter kicks in to supply AC voltage from a DC battery.

Bren R.

I also spent a couple of secs hunting down this old Penny Arcade strip... took a while to find it: