Gearslutz.com - View Single Post - Power cords -- is there a difference?

Jax · 20th December 2002

I use no power conditioning whatsoever, and during the day if the rest of the industrial business park is running at full capacity, I notice the meters on my Furman balanced power waver within 5-10 volts of 110. The variations have never audibly affected anything in the studio during the daytime. When everyone goes home for the night except me, the meters are solidly at 110.

The Furman makes a very faint mechanical buzz that I don't notice unless I'm listening for it. This is with all my gear on and all plugged into it at the same time, except for the *computer which has no need for balanced power. The most dramatic improvements in noise floor are in my console (Ghost) and monitors (JBL LSR 28P's). My mic pres are very slightly clearer and maybe a tiny bit tighter sounding when fed this juice vs. the wall's.

I didn't go the Equitech route because their balanced power units were known to be mechanically quite noisy. They may have addressed that problem since I bought the Furman. In any event, Furman's balanced power unit is less expensive than Equitech's, but that doesn't make it cheap crap.

Hi Faeflora - our own Dave Martin uses one and he's just a dumb musician like me. lol (Don't worry Dave, I'm speaking for myself!)

* - anything with a switching power supply can suffer an increase in noise floor if connected to balanced power.

20th December 2002	#30
Jax Lives for gear Joined: Jul 2002 Location: San Francisco Posts: 4,779	I use no power conditioning whatsoever, and during the day if the rest of the industrial business park is running at full capacity, I notice the meters on my Furman balanced power waver within 5-10 volts of 110. The variations have never audibly affected anything in the studio during the daytime. When everyone goes home for the night except me, the meters are solidly at 110. The Furman makes a very faint mechanical buzz that I don't notice unless I'm listening for it. This is with all my gear on and all plugged into it at the same time, except for the computer which has no need for balanced power. The most dramatic improvements in noise floor are in my console (Ghost) and monitors (JBL LSR 28P's). My mic pres are very slightly clearer and maybe a tiny bit tighter sounding when fed this juice vs. the wall's. I didn't go the Equitech route because their balanced power units were known to be mechanically quite noisy. They may have addressed that problem since I bought the Furman. In any event, Furman's balanced power unit is less expensive than Equitech's, but that doesn't make it cheap crap. Hi Faeflora - our own Dave Martin uses one and he's just a dumb musician like me. lol (Don't worry Dave, I'm speaking for myself!) - anything with a switching power supply can suffer an increase in noise floor if connected to balanced power.