Basic Power Line Conditioner Recommendation

I searched to see if there had been any current posts (within the last four months) recommending Power Line Conditioners, but came up empty, so I felt it best to start a fresh post.

I am recommending the Furman PL-8 C Power Line Conditioner. This is not an expensive power line conditioner. It is however well built, has some weight to it and provides electrical protection to your equipment without any negatives. I can not say it will improve the sound of your system, but will say it will not degrade the sound. The unit is very transparent and once it is in your system it will just disappear and give you greater flexibility with plug arrangements, condition the power coming to your equipment by eliminating ground loops, noise, and surges. In my opinion this is the value of this type of equipment. If you have really bad power in your house which needs to be addressed then this is not the unit you should be going for. That kind of improvement takes a lot of work and money to improve.

The unit has eight receptacles on the rear and one on the front. It also has two small down firing lights that pull out on the front face plate and can be turned on, dimmed and turned off. Out of the eight receptacles on the rear four are spaced far enough apart that you could plug wall warts in with plenty of room to spare or use hospital grade power cords that tend to have large plug heads. The unit fits nicely in a rack and does have the two ears for rack mounting if you choose to do this. I slipped it under my rack so that all my plugs hang down and are much easier to organize now. I love the fact that none of my power cords come in contact with my speaker wires or interconnects because the wires now are all going to a bank of receptacles that are located at the bottom of my equipment rack.

The unit offers a number of types of protection to your equipment including what they referred to as EVS (extreme voltage shutdown), it offers linear filtering technology with zero ground contamination, provides 15A (1800 watt) capacity with a 15A circuit breaker, filters noise and surges. My equipment is whisper quiet and I use tubed amps and a tube preamp.

My biggest concerns were would this piece of equipment hum, transmit noise to my equipment, congest the sound which would reduce the imaging and sound stage. I have found that none of these concerns reared their ugly heads. The unit is very transparent and just has no effect on the equipment other than providing protection. At this point since I have only had the piece in place for one day and have only listened to music for a few hours I cannot say that the sound hasn't improved, but I will say it hasn't degraded the sound and actually has created what seems to be an even darker and quieter background. If the sound does improve this will just be an added benefit. What I wanted was to be sure my equipment was protected from power line noise and surges and this seems to have been satisfied.

In the end I am happy with this purchase, so much so that I am writing this post in case someone else is in the market for a great quality but basic Power Line Conditioner. At $158.00 I feel this is a great bargain and am now considering one for my Home Theater set up.

 

I've been using a PL-8C for various electronics for a few years; computers, Audio Interfaces, Speakers, Mixers, Turntables and other stuff. They are easy to get if you're near a Guitar Center. I've had power surges knock out my electricity a bunch of times and its easy to reset. Never had a device give me trouble while on it.

I use a few other Furman power conditioners and they all seem to work as advertised. One I bought used and the LED light on the front panel didn't work. When I called Furman technical support and spoke with an engineer (I think) he said to just send it to them and they would fix it. They are a great company!

 

I'm using a Tripp-Lite LCR2400 power conditioner. It has 12 outlets on the rear and two on the front. I never thought I'd need that many outlets but all of them in the rear are filled up.

I put four felt pads on the bottom due it's a rack mount type of unit.

 

I've been using the Furman M-8Dx for some rack gear and pleased with it.

 

So far the more I listen the more I like. Time with the Furman in place has been long enough that I cannot say with a shadow of a doubt that there was an big improvement. I can say the system is dead silent and during those quiet passages or passages with no music it is pitch dark silent. For these reasons I will say there is a noticeable improvement in the lack of background noise, which must be allowing the music to come through with more clarity.

 

I just added a Shunyata Denali 6000/T tower and it's pretty amazing.

 

At that price point I would hope it is fantastic. I guess my post was for people on a budget and wanted a great power conditioner without breaking their bank. The Furman can be purchase under $200, not a bad deal, and plenty of money on the table to purchase music.

With that said, congradulations I hope it has made the difference you were looking for. It seems all your other components warrent a few grand for a power conditioner so its money well spent. Enjoy, your equipment certainly is safe from surges and dirty power.

 

You can also find the Shunyata PS8 for more reasonable money and add Defender later. The PS8 made a nice difference in my system. Hard to beat $200 however.

 

Thanks for the recommendation. I have been looking for a power strip/conditioner to replace a 10 year old consumer grade "Power Blocker" strip which provides basic RFI and surge protection.

The Furman's functionality is great. I could do without the rack mount form factor though...I wish this was a available in a more audiophile friendly enclosure. An incoming line voltage meter of some sort would be great also.

Some folks feel power conditioning impairs the dynamics of power amplifiers. Do you find this to be true with the Furman?

 

Interesting!
I really like Shunyata products. I recently added a Venom 3 power cord to my Lampizator Atlantic DAC. Fantastic stuff.
I researched the Denali online and found this picture of the innards. I am assuming the "magic" is inside that small box at the bottom. Otherwise it doesn't look like $5000 worth of parts inside...

 

I haven't noticed this to be the case with my tube mono blocks. I had them plugged directly into the wall outlet then moved them to the Furman and noticed no difference. On the other hand I did have a very powerful SS amp once plugged into a power strip, not the Furman, and this created a loud buzz so I went directly into the wall outlet and this corrected the problem. I guess it may depend on the amp and the power line conditioner.

 

Yes, I use Marantz 9 tube monoblocks and I find they are not particularly current hungry, drawing less than 2 amps at idle.
I currently have them plugged in to custom made bucking transformers (reducing 120V to 113V) and these are in turn plugged in to my power blocker 2 strip.

 

Thanks for the post. This is good to know. Ultimately I want a Torus but am in need of something inexpensive to hold me over. I'll definitely take a look at this.

 

I would love to see what's inside one of these Furmans. I looked online for images and could not find one of this particular model.
Apparently, like my Power Blocker 2, these have self re-settable protection with no MOV's which is good...

 

It's magic.

I've always liked this picture and corresponding article.



https://s20.postimg.org/c8bz50671/18s3pvm6mdzjejpg.jpg

 

Where's the article? Would love to read it !

 

Oops. Here it is.

http://gizmodo.com/371536/300-audiophile-grade-power-cable-is-really-worth-15

 

That was funny!
The good thing about the Shunyata Venom 3 is the clear molded connectors. At least nothing is hidden from view in this regard...

 

What I can say is, it does your amps justice by using larger gauge AC cables other than say 18g, IF, you're in the habit of pushing them to the max.

My Outlaw mono-blocks gained a big improvement when I installed 14g AC cables.

You figure too, the AC receptacle in the wall is fed with 12 or 14 gauge wire. At least carry that scheme out to the amps. When I had the Maggies connected, they sucked a ton of juice. I'm using Heresy's now, but I drive them hard. They sound real clean too.

 

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01C7NOPNA?psc=1

I think this is a reasonable solution to power cords. I use this with all my equipment with great results and a lot of money saved for music purchases. The price is so reasonable it can't hurt to try with this first before outlaying hundreds on a fancy 'audio' hyped power cord.

Cables, conditioners, power cords and vibration dampeners are areas in which if you look around and want to save some money it is very possible to get great savings as opposed to buying the hype from some boutique audio company. This is just my opinion. The biggest advantage to the boutique product is they look "marvolous", and for their price they should!

 

Thanks for the heads up on that cord. Looks great and the price is even better!

 

I am using a Shunyata Hydra 8, which might be a bit on the expensive side for most. There are cheaper options that I would recommend if someone does not need the conditioning functions.
For regular power strips with no bells and whistles there is Wiremold L10320 for $90 or Cullen Cable Gold Series Power strip for $220.

 

Purchased a MIT Z centre years ago used for $500 original price was $1,800 too rich for me.

sean

 

I bought a Blue Circle Audio PLC Thingee at RMAF last year and have been pleased with the improvements it made in my system as far as reducing background noise. It retails for $220 with 4 outlets or $255 with 6 outlets. You can also add other upgrades to it if needed or desired, but I feel like it's a great value even in it's basic form.

 

They make this model that is quite a beaut. FurmanSound.com - Home Theater Product - S-5500 » it can also be rack mounted with the supplied brackets.

I have been using one for the last 5 years or more and never had issue with it. On the few occasions something happens there is a fuse you can reset and the way things cycle off is an added layer of protection