AC Line Power Conditioners

[yeoldestereo]

Looking to add a AC Line Power Conditioner to the system. Main reason returning to Florida and FP&L there is just brutal with surges,spikes, brown outs, you name it.

Anyway there are quite a few manufacturers out there and prices are all over the place.

Some of the brands are:

Monster Cable
PS Audio
Smart
Chang
Audioprism
Richard Gray

As well as some others. Need something that has excellent surge protection as well as clean up the line noise.

Some units embellish that the AC line becomes balanced. Anyway for this ole audiophile, it is information overload and at 63, just don't have the time or patience to build something.

So if anyone can shed some light on this subject as well as some of the brands above, it would be appreciated.

[serengetiplains]

Hi,

I use Elgar Ultra Precision Line Conditioners (called UPLCs in Elgar's terminology). I find they're better than the audio versions (PS Audio etc) with better build, better components, better design. For instance, they use a large shielded transformer as the main source of power output, they use film capacitors entirely as coupling caps, they have PIO caps on the input and output, etc. Best thing is you can pick up a 1000VA unit for $100 on Ebay ... just need to wait up to a month for one to be listed. A 3000VA model is also available (one is now on Ebay, but $$).

[BigSmooth]

I was friends with the guys from Audio Prism before they were sold to Mark Levinson (who ran the company into the ground BTW). Thier AC conditioners are top notch. Since all the filter is in parallel with the line, their conditioners are not current limiting like some of the other products you see in the market.

Since this is DIY audio after all, why not build your own?

If you want a kit:

http://www.diycable.com/main/product...roducts_id=536

From Scratch:

http://www.geocities.com/jonrisch/surge.htm