Hi everyone.

I have a brief story: my CDP was playing some beautiful Mahler last night. I was putting my finishing thoughts on my BA thesis, when a rude reminder of the derelict nature of my city towards its own infrastructure forced me to use my laptop's battery. While i was fulminating at Berkeley a thought came over me: what affect this might have had on my gear. Thanks to the knowledgeable advice from this forum, I had connected my ZD straight to the wall, and now I was regretting it. While I'm sure the ZD is alright, I really want something to protect it that will not compromise my dynamics... So... what are your recommendations?

Thanks everyone...

Well if you really want to do it right you need a UPS (AVR) and Surge protector. To provide surge protection and protection from brown outs and such. Some like the Brickwall surge protector will do perfectly and perhaps an AVR from APC?

Well if you really want to do it right you need a UPS (AVR) and Surge protector. To provide surge protection and protection from brown outs and such. Some like the Brickwall surge protector will do perfectly and perhaps an AVR from APC?

It's true. Unfortunately, UPS with surge protectors that are built well and sound good tend to be quite expensive. The usual $200-400 UPS devices will be less than satisfactory, often worse than straight off the wall. The following review is fairly typical of my own experiences as well:

http://www.audaud.com/article.php?ArticleID=1594

Unless you are willing to put in some heroic efforts and $$ into the power conditioning equation, I would say get a nice power cord and plug direct into the wall. It's unlikely that properly-designed gear will be damaged by power outtage, etc.

Going to threadjack a little here, but are there good and bad surge protectors/power strips? I see that $50 Eichmann Express Power Strip, pretty expensive for a power strip.

Going to threadjack a little here, but are there good and bad surge protectors/power strips? I see that $50 Eichmann Express Power Strip, pretty expensive for a power strip.

Brickwall makes very good surge protectors.... ones that are not dead after one surge. Will last a life time.

http://www.brickwall.com/

Huh, that looks pretty nice but I think for now I should just stick to wall outlets and normal power strips due to lack of funding.

Hey Zach,

Didn't you used to have a Brickwall? Which one was it and how did you like it?

I'm not Zach, but I have and use a Brickwall (8-AUD) for several years now, replacing a Monster HTS2000 (IIRC). I can't hear any difference with my power amp (Odyssey Stratos) plucced into the Brickwall versus into the wall. Dimmer in same room would effect the audio (hum or buzz) with the Monster... no noise with the Brickwall. Works for me...

Monster relegated to TV duty

Cool, thanks for the info.

While we are on the topic, anyone know if PureAV stuff from Belkin is any good? For that matter, any power conditioner that actually works and isn't just a pure BS?

someone once told me that most common UPS as those used for PCs are no good for audio gear because instead of a nice round sine wave, when they kick in on their battery they output a square wave that is no good for audio equipment

can anyone confirm this?

I disagree that it doesn't matter. I will agree that it will matter the least with the equipment that has the best power supplies, to the point of negligible. But it's not a black-and-white issue: matter/doesn't matter. It's more like, the better power supplies your gear has, the less it'll matter, but if you want to do everything you can to improve your gear, certainly clean power can be one of them.

Now, there is some gear that actually benefits from square power waves. Unfortunately, that's the limit of my knowledge -- I don't know which ones.

I use either a Brickwall or the newer Zerosurge units. Check these out. For the power requirements of an headphone amp these are very good and provide some A/C conditioning. I use them on my HDTV surround setup and I could see blacker blacks or more contrast. Even my wife said this. BTW, the Zerosurge people are the OEM for the Brickwall people.

i said "much," dammit!

Oh, okay then.

Belkin PF60 here. Probably not the best conditioner out there but does the trick for me

brickwall yall, damn

I think I'm going to be picking up a Brickwall/Zerosurge unit soon.

So this past Monday, I received my Zerosurge unit - the 15 amp/8 outlets model. The first thing I realized was that the power cord on it was wee bit short for my purpose. The cord is 6 feet long and I had to move things around a bit so the unit can reach my rack. I'm not sure how much of a difference it has made, but one thing I know for certain is that my σ22 power supply for β22 barely hums when it's connected through the Zerosurge unit.

one thing I know for certain is that my σ22 power supply for β22 barely hums when it's connected through the Zerosurge unit.

I have not kept up with what you have said about your σ22 power supply does this mean that it now hums or that it hummed before and is now almost quite?

I have not kept up with what you have said about your σ22 power supply does this mean that it now hums or that it hummed before and is now almost quite?

Well, I hadn't actually said anything about the power supply before so you haven't missed anything. Before Zerosurge, the power supply hummed a bit - not all that loud, but I could definitely hear it if I was sitting near my rack (and with limited background noise). With Zerosurge, I can't hear the hum unless I put my ear right next to the power supply.

Well, I hadn't actually said anything about the power supply before so you haven't missed anything. Before Zerosurge, the power supply hummed a bit - not all that loud, but I could definitely hear it if I was sitting near my rack (and with limited background noise). With Zerosurge, I can't hear the hum unless I put my ear right next to the power supply.

Sounds like a positive outcome to me. I am glad it has worked for you as a conditioner as well. Did you read about the technology behind it? The Brickwall is seems to be a chock with capacitance while the Zerosurge seems have it's chock changed into a transformer with just enough secondary output to be feed back into the circuit to cancel out any surges that come through and of course with the capacitance of the Brickwall. At least that is how I understand about it. Any clarification would be appreciate.

I have also noticed that it seems to function somewhat like a UPS but for those very short burst of lost power, say a tenth of a second.

Well, I hadn't actually said anything about the power supply before so you haven't missed anything. Before Zerosurge, the power supply hummed a bit - not all that loud, but I could definitely hear it if I was sitting near my rack (and with limited background noise). With Zerosurge, I can't hear the hum unless I put my ear right next to the power supply.

Here is a device that people talk about using that gets rid of this problem in this thread:

http://www.audiocircle.com/circles/index.php?topic=45312.0

Device home:

http://alanmaherdesigns.com/default.aspx

Later in the thread they talk about putting choke into the line in some way to kill hum and lower the floor level of the background.

Just a thought.

I have a dedicated circuit in my little studio, and I use a TICE Audio MBF-3 power conditioner. Very fitting I thought since Tice is my last name as well.

Hello, Nenso here. I am here to seek help for power. My question is very simple. Will buying power improve my sound significantly if I have a decent rig (which I don't at the moment but I'm working on it.) Another question is that in one of the Brickwall/Zerosurge units, all of the outlets are ONLY for protection from surge, and two of them are on at all times, am I right?

Which company buys from the other and slaps their brand on it like OEM? Zerosurge or Brickwall? I know it shouldn't matter but which company has a better deal?

Hello, Nenso here. I am here to seek help for power. My question is very simple. Will buying power improve my sound significantly if I have a decent rig (which I don't at the moment but I'm working on it.) Another question is that in one of the Brickwall/Zerosurge units, all of the outlets are ONLY for protection from surge, and two of them are on at all times, am I right?

Correct for the 8 outlet models.

Which company buys from the other and slaps their brand on it like OEM? Zerosurge or Brickwall? I know it shouldn't matter but which company has a better deal?

Zerosurge makes the Brickwall units. I haven't priced them lately, so I don't know who has the better deal.