Furman, long known for power conditioners, has introduced a series of UPS (Uninterruptible Power Supplies) that go into operation if your home (or office) AC power goes off due to storms or other factors. From the point that your AC goes off, and the Furman supplies AC power to whatever is plugged into it, you have a certain amount of time to shut down the components you have plugged into it. The amount of time you have depends on the current draw of the connected components. The Furman F1500 is rated at 900 watts load. The optional BATT1500-EXT battery pack allows additional time. The F1500 UPS was designed with home theater users in mind, and since a sudden loss of power can corrupt receiver settings and damage bulbs in projectors, the addition of a UPS to your home theater is something to consider.

Tags: Power Conditioners

The PS Audio Power Plant Premier (PPP), the company’s latest version of the Power Plant P300 that company head Paul McGowan first introduced in 1997, is a true power regenerator. The PPP takes "dirty" and variable AC power from the wall socket, converts it to DC voltage, and then regenerates a new AC sine wave signal at 120 volts. It also serves as a surge protector and all-around power distribution system.

Tags: Power Conditioners | Power Regenerator

I’ve been suspicious of power conditioners ever since they first appeared – sometime in the Jurassic Park period I think. Just like the science in that movie is a little glossed over, so is the science of AC power glossed over by wild claims for power conditioning products. Besides, when we shell out the big bucks for good hifi a lot of what we’re paying for is the power supply. That’s why we pick it up before we buy it. A good power supply means a big transformer, which is heavy. And big capacitors which we’d like to see neatly arranged. I was willing to give Furman a try however because for one thing, they got their start in pro-audio. I don’t necessarily think that the pro-audio world has an advantage over the retail audiophile crowd (that’s you and me) when it comes to good ears.

The gloves were off, and the gauntlet thrown. On May 26, 2008, Jim Pierce of Amazing Audio sent me (Jason Serinus) a major challenge via e-mail.

Tags: Line Conditioners

Torus Power makes as wide an array of isolation transformers as I have ever encountered. The 100 amp version (RM-100) would be a great addition for supplying isolated AC to an entire home theater in custom install situations, but a small one like the RM-10 is useful especially for digital sources and projectors, the total power of which does not exceed 10 amperes.

Tags: Power Conditioners