Clean Power Solution for Small Setup

[James Chia]

Hey guys,

I'm looking for the most economical solution to power up my bedroom studio which comprises a computer, interface, preamp, guitar amp, pedals etc.

Keen to hear what everyone else is using to get clean and stable power.

The only products I know of are the Furman power conditioner (which seems to be a glorified power board) and voltage regulator which is way overpriced compared to its 110V counterpart.

Thanks for any input!

[Sammas]

I am also curious about this. I've heard of UPS systems being used to regulate power...

Does anyone have a hint on what specs I would be chasing for such a UPS?

[ChrisW]

To be honest I'm just going into one wall socket.
The power at my place is pretty useless too. But I'm getting clean, hum and crackle free recordings and I have a stack of vintage outboard too.
Our expensive Miele oven blew it's logic board last year when we had a thunderstorm, so when I hear distant thunder I tend to power down the studio and go do something else for a couple of hours.

[Drumstruck]

Add up all the consumption figures from your devices (watts to amps) - work out how long you need it to keep running if the power goes down - then check out some of the UPS sites (e.g. APC) and identify the one that meets your needs.

There are smart and "not so smart" UPS:
- the smart ones work as a voltage regulating / pass through device for power and can be programmed to manage your PC to perform a graceful shutdown before all the UPS juice has been used
- the dumb ones are basically just a battery and don't have the management features but they still provide filtered power that is of benefit to a studio.

UPS are a backup device - they're not (generally) designed to replace electricity but rather to extend it during an outage - though if you get a big enough UPS you can charge it up overnight (offpeak power being cheaper) and run much of your gear through the day.

I'm in the process of setting up my studio independent of the grid using a battery, voltage inverter and solar charging system - so far I've got rid of most the high consumption devices and next step is identifying the "home-made UPS" kit. Initial estimates are about $1K to setup the power "device" and it looks like it will take about 2 years for it to pay for itself.

[James Chia]

I don't necessarily need a UPS as I'm running a laptop. Just looking for a clean power solution.

Thanks for the info so far, keep chiming in!

[Hud]

Might not be helpful but I bought a conditioner/sequencer made by Tasso from Tom at Swamp Audio. It made an audible difference to my monitors, my missus could hear the difference too. Then again, I bought it because the power is really crap at my place.

I believe Tasso is a Chinese or Taiwanese brand. My conditioner was originally set up for a big 15 amp powerpoint, and Tom had a hell of a time trying to get a sparkie to change it over. So you probably won't find the same unit I have

ok pointless story over

[The Tasmanian]

There's no cheap way out of this conundrum James - you need a power conditioner (like a peach) - they cost about $700 and they are really heavy beasts
- if they are not heavy then they are shit for cleaning power!
- and they don't come in a 1RU - in any brand - all the furman stuff is pretend power conditioning - I'm surprised how many people believe they are actually power conditioners - like you say they are power strips with fancy lights

[Sammas]

I don't necessarily need a UPS as I'm running a laptop. Just looking for a clean power solution.

Thanks for the info so far, keep chiming in!

I am quite happy without a UPS as well, but some of them provide clean, regulated power as well.

[audioio]

There's no cheap way out of this conundrum James - you need a power conditioner (like a peach) - they cost about $700 and they are really heavy beasts

i thought those Peach units were pretty rare... and not being made any more. Were they voltage regulators as well as being balanced?

all the furman stuff is pretend power conditioning - I'm surprised how many people believe they are actually power conditioners - like you say they are power strips with fancy lights

Maybe, but in the past Furman made some pretty beefy balanced power units... for about $5k for the 240V version.

[rob]

I guess the starting point is to know wether your current power in NOT clean and stable? So, is this something you know for sure. One of the most important things is a solid mains earth connection. Only an electrician can do this for you, not a piece of gear. Next on the list is the integrity of your audio cabling, connectors and grounding scheme.

If in reality you do have a wildly fluctuating and or noisy mains supply, then the only solution is an online style UPS. You don't need battery backup, you need a UPS that regenerates 230V mains for an input supply range of say 210 to 250V, preferably one that has low harmonic content, ie is "pure" sinewave output.

[The Tasmanian]

Yeah David - I was talking about the 1RU Furmans that people put in their racks thinking they are getting clean power.
The Peach ones are still being made in the central coast NSW under licence.
http://www.tortech.com.au/balanced_stud ... upply.html
I think the point I meant to make was any decent UPS or power conditioner will be a heavy unit - and it wont be cheap.
A lot of people just cannot get their own clean earth (especially renters - or people in a block of units) so a decent UPS/filter or power conditioner is the only way to go - there is no cheap way out on this one.

[ChrisW]

Thanks for the link.
I don't perceive any problem at my place, although I know my power is on the dodgy rural side.
$700 you say?

[The Tasmanian]

Last time I got a quote they were $700 - and you could get a smaller unit than the one on the link - good for you James with your very small set-up.
I have a Peach here and we had 2 at BJB - they definitely make a great difference to noisy amps - stereo image on monitoring etc etc.

[Manning]

I'm in need of some sort of power solution, so I've just emailed them for a current quote on their various "Studio" models. I'll report back when I get a reply.

[ChrisW]

Thanks.
Would be interested.

[James Chia]

What about something like this?

http://upssolutions1-px.rtrk.com.au/back-ups-pro-550-br550gi

[wez]

Sola (now Powerware) online UPS here. only 700VA and it powers the whole studio EXCEPT for the big power amp - just enough juice. i run a non-ups line for guitar amps etc. gives me a few minutes of battery time when the mains goes off (although the battery is starting to get a bit old, used to give me a solid 10).

noticeable improvement re: glitches, clicks and general reliability when it's online.... 'online' being the key word, not all of the cheaper UPS units are (sometimes called 'double conversion').

cost me $100 on ebay 7 or 8 years ago.

[Alastair Reynolds]

Ah , Clean Power, one of my favorite subjects.

As Rob said earlier a good earth is essential. If you can have a sepearate Technical earth installed. Dig a hole , put in long copper stakes and plates , fill with "Good-Earth" (that is a brand-name) and use heavy cable into your studio to a solid copper star point, feed all power points used for audio equipment from this . make sure the powerpoints you are using are new(ish) and haven't had heaters and the like plugged in and out for years. you must have good contact surfaces for the plugs without corrosion or hot spots.
In my radio studio installations I used 6 metre long copper stakes driven into the ground, then 125mm earth cable to the star point and into each studio, rack or anywhere where technical power is used. To make it easy to identify technical power , use a different colour powerpoint, E.G. Red.

On the UPS front, use a double conversion system with pure sinewave output. cheaper ones use modified sinewave (crude squarewaves essentially) and squarewave= harmonics=noise. UPS's are rated for 10 minutes operation
e.g. a 2KW UPS will deliver that power for 10 minutes only. At 1 KW it will run for about 20 minutes before shutting down ( A little longer as the mass transfer effect means that the electrolyte in the battery can move the electrons around a bit more).

Balanced power filters like the Peach or Tortech ones are similar to servicemans isolation transformers, but higher quality . It's like an audio unbalanced to balanced transformer. The large inductance from a nice big chunk of iron filters out RF and other mains borne noise very effectively.
BE AWARE when you isolate equipment in this way you remove it from RCD or safety switch protection, which means you are no longer protected from a faulty device (except by the safety Earth in some cases).

For small home installations requiring only a modest amount of power, there are some Belkin brand devices that offer some filtering of RF and other noise reasonably well. They are marketed as AV / Home Theatre power boards.

A few other things to reduce noise, Use incandesant lamps not compact flurescent (CF-energy saver) . CF lamps put out masses of RF crap going way up into the GHz range (C-band). They also affect Wi-Fi (G and B) experiment with using your Wi-Fi device in a room with CF lamps and watch the signal level/quality as they turn on and warm up.Modern "electronic" transformers for downlights also put out noise in a lot of cases.You can remotely mount transformers and run long 12V cables to the downlights to help reduce radiated noise.
Devices with switch mode power supplies, Computers, TVs, DVD players mobile phone chargers etc etc ,put out heaps of harmonics and RF crap too. disconnect anything you don't need turned on and listen closely.

There we go, my 2c worth

[Drumstruck]

A separate circuit is excellent - I had dedicated power wired from the meter when I built my setup and never get a click or pop from anything else in the house turning on or off.

Surge protectors are my 2nd line of defence on the DGPOs and on the ADSL router. Be really careful of this connection - lightning strikes can travel up the telecoms line and get into your computer by the back door.

And on fluorescent lights - how can anyone stand them? The squealing drives me mad.......

[Manning]

@Alistair - that was gold, thank you.

[Hookemeister]

There we go, my 2c worth

That just about covered everything... excellent value for 2 cents. I think you deserve a raise.

To make it easy to identify technical power , use a different colour powerpoint, E.G. Red.

I always specify that the white GPO's are at the back of the room or far enough away from the console and all the equipment so that somebody doesn't mistakenly plug some outboard gear or a synth in to them.

If you can have a sepearate Technical earth installed. Dig a hole , put in long copper stakes and plates , fill with "Good-Earth" (that is a brand-name) and use heavy cable into your studio to a solid copper star point, feed all power points used for audio equipment from this

If you building a new facility this is essential. It never ceases to amaze me how studio owners will think nothing of spending a couple of grand on some super low noise piece of gear but won't outlay on a decent grounding system.

In small commercial facilities, with 3 phase power, I always specify that one phase is dedicated to audio, the other 2 provide for airconditioning, lighting and general purpose outlets (GPO's).
This helps to minimise all those nasty clicks and pops you get as the aircon, fridge and other nasties cycle on and off.

I then have the individual phases measured for the lowest noise and assign that phase to the audio power.

For the home studio guys, particularly those living in older houses, I'd suggest getting the earth tested for low ohms at the point of connection, at the distribution bus bar in the switch board and then tested at the outlets (this will check for any bad connections in the power points).

In the old days, before the introduction of ground rods, they would strap the earth to a water pipe and after time due to a combination of pipes being painted, corrosion and movement, the resistance between the pipe and the earth connection would increase... not good for audio or safety.
I've even seen an earth connection disconnected due to a plumber re routing a water pipe! That's scary.

Sometimes if you go for a walk around the house you'll find the earth strap connected to water pipe feeding a tap. If so, check that connection and then when watering the plants, water the base of that pipe, keep that area damp.

Devices with switch mode power supplies, Computers, TVs, DVD players mobile phone chargers etc etc ,put out heaps of harmonics and RF crap too. disconnect anything you don't need turned on and listen closely.

In these days of all in the box DAW's, I was wondering if anyone has thought about replacing the switch mode supply in their computer with a high quality external linear supply. Easy to do with a laptop, a little more complex with a Desktop PC or Mac.

It would be interesting to take some before and after measurements to gauge the amount of improvement.

Are you up for the task Alastair?

[Manning]

Last time I got a quote they were $700 - and you could get a smaller unit than the one on the link - good for you James with your very small set-up.
I have a Peach here and we had 2 at BJB - they definitely make a great difference to noisy amps - stereo image on monitoring etc etc.

I emailed them for current prices - here's the reply:

"Hi Manning,

We have 2 units available in the audio isolation range:

1000 watt Audio Equipment Transformer
ISO1000ESCT $709.00 Inc GST

2000 watt Audio Equipment Transformer
ISO2000ESCT $954.00 inc GST

Further details and specs:
http://www.tortech.com.au/category/audio-transformers/
"

[ChrisW]

The more I read, the more confused I get.
But the smaller Tortech box looks good.

[Drumstruck]

Wattage is normally on the back of each device along with the voltage info - here's a link about calculations:http://www.powerstream.com/Amps-Watts.htm

I find it easier to create a spreadsheet and list all your devices with the wattage /voltage etc - then get it to calculate / sum as required.

It'll frighten you when you see how much power some doovers use - e.g. my old Mackie mixer used 650watts whereas my new Ta@#$% uses 90watts. An old P.A. head I have uses 120watts but most of my transistorised FX etc only use about 30watts each. Big LCD uses over 100watts ....... it all adds up.