@immatthewj And that's exactly why I use Furman with EVS. More than once I've come home to find that EVS has shut down my power conditioner due to some random power issue.
Summer Power Issues
The past few days my system has sounded very harsh and lacking bass impact when listening before 4pm. Between 4 and 5 pm the wonderful sound I’m use to miraculously returns. Guessing this heat wave is putting stress on the grid and screwing up power because I have not experienced this until now.
Does this mean I need a power conditioner? Will that help?
Been looking at the Isotek Aquarius V5 but it’s $3k
However I’ve already invested a lot in my system so Adding one more item that will clean up the power is not out of the question.
Anyone else having this experience?
Any owners of the Isotek?
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It's been seeming unreliable, to me, here in Western Pa. I had my system warming up last night by playing background music while I was preparing a meal and pwer went off--I ran as fast as I could back there and shut off all the switches before it could come back on. Tonight I was thinking about listening and power went on/off real quicjk, so I changed my mind and went back there and unplugged everything. HOT forecasted for tomorrow, T'storms for Sunday, and theoretically it should be nice on Monday. |
always have 45 amps on reserve within it’s capacitors (get the PF R version) Furman P-1800 PF R from amazon |
Instead of spending money on regeneration just treat the room. Especially the windows. Like Carlsbad said, ambient noise. My favorite time to listen is in the s we inter during or after a heavy snow. Everyone is inside their house and no one driving except the occasional snow plow. This is during my listening sessions. Normally I like the activity of people outside. |
I work for a utility and 4 to 5 pm is near the peak and probably still increasing. Now some solar will come off if you have solar. Solar and wind are the worst power--not synchronized to the grid and have to be managed by the system. I have an oscilloscope on my power and total harmonic distortion does not change much with the clock. the thought that your system sounds better at night because the power is cleaner is an old wives tale. It sounds better because less ambient noise, relaxed listener, and pehaps a glass of wine. I would not expect bad power to make your system sound harsh since that implies a change in bass/treble balance. It would more affect transparency, detail, accuracy and soundstage. As for fixing summer bad power, the only way to do it is regenerative. "conditioners" that just try to filter noise are either useless or worse. JErry |
Besides summer demand droops, my grid has a bad habit of blinking off and on all year round on perfectly sunny days. I have used a Square D 1 kva isolation transformer at my distribution panel with a dedicated 20 amp circuit to feed a Furman SPR-20i conditioner/regulator since I moved here and have been very pleased with it's performance. One kva sounds low but delivers 8.33 amps which is more than enough for my system. The SPR-20i is very quick and has no trouble tracking voltage changes, and the surge suppression circuit is non-sacrificial. I have no idea if it affects the sound, but my system sounds the way I want it to sound using it, and I'm 100 % sure it sounds better than a fried system 😉. |
Ditto on the Furman. I use an M8X AR, which will handle 15 amps. Last summer my line voltage dropped as low as 113VAC, and my tube amps and tube preamp really suffered. The Furman keeps it at 118-120, and I have not felt it affected the sound. On the contrary, everyone sounds happier to be operating where they should be. Prices for this unit have gone up--I paid $385 for mine, they're now $500-700. But well worth it, IMO. Even if you just go with a conditioner, the Furmans are affordably priced and are regularly used by recording studios. |