Consider power conditioning and benefits of a UPS for system

[rocky500]

I have a friend who is upgrading his system over time and has some very nice gear.

He has found mentioned a lot on here about power supply conditioning and asked me if a UPS is a good cheaper way to get some good benefits.

Here is what he mentioned.

"Also looking at Sine wave and straight forward line interactive ups. They have auto voltage regulation and clean input power with 2 to 6 plugs output plugs.

They cost a lot less than most stereo conditioners and seem to do a similar thing. Is there any reason for the big differences in price?"

 

I tried to find the threads on the advantages and disadvantages but it seems hard to search for the info again on here for UPS's.

I always thought they were not quite the best for Audio systems.

 

Can anyone way in on this?

 

 

 

 

Edited May 18, 2017 by rocky500

[Zaphod Beeblebrox]

Computer UPS units exhibit far more distortion than regular mains does. They are not a good choice for any audio system. Why does your friend feel that he/she requires an external regulation system? Admittedly, WA has the poorest mains supply in Australia, so I can see some justification. 

[rockeater]

rocky,

the price difference is in the fact, that audio stuff is for audiophiles and you pay premium for that.

When you look at cables sold for professional application at RS or Farnell, the you start at $30 and end at $150. Audio cables in audio stores start at $150.

Line filtering is good and useful if you have noise problem at your location. If you do not - naturally a filter will do nothing.

As far as sine wave regeneration, it is just plain silliness.

AC as it enters a piece of equipment is then immediately converted to DC. The first step of it is rectification which converts you perfect wave to ripple.

It is like cutting meat into perfect cubes before putting it into mincer.

 

[WhakPak]

54 minutes ago, Zaphod Beeblebrox said:

Computer UPS units exhibit far more distortion than regular mains does....

 

This is true. But I'd mention the PS Audio PowerPack 1500Mk2 is marketed as a UPS on the basis of low output THD, of the same order of what comes out of the wall socket.

 

To the OP. UPS are for backup mains power. For better than mains quality power you need a power regenerator, eg PS Audio Power Plant P3/5/10...soon to be a 20.

[rocky500]

Also having a UPS that runs on its battery the whole time, could that impede dynamics if you have your amp/s plugged into it?

[jakestar]

Hi guys

I'm the friend of Rob who kindly posted the inquiry. Thanks dude.  You are a gentleman.

Thanks also for the responses. I am electrically brain dead so please excuse my ignorance with electrical interactions and effects, etc, and questions but if I don't ask I will never know.

I take your comments Trevor about distortion by UPS.  I am unclear about what one supply does and the other does not do to sound quality. (I did mention I am electrically brain dead - I am an end user, not a builder). I read on the Net that dirty power goes in (as in irregular voltage and noise) and both line interactive UPS and more expensive power re generators such as PS Audio Power Plants, etc, advertise the AC is converted to DC and output  much closer to the ideal 230/240V mains. I am not aware of the electrical and system interaction variations. didn't realise the limitations of UPS for audio gear.

 

I am slowly upgrading my system as Rocky500 has mentioned and am trying to maximize sound quality and not want electrical interference/ voltage spikes to the destroy the gear.  Hence my search for cost effective ways of achieving sonic/power supply benefits and the question about what the differences are given they seem to promote the same benefits.

Although I do not understand the whys and wherefores I gather that UPS gear may not provide the sonic benefits I thought and that electrical re generators may be the way. I run an Isotek power filter board with cables so not best protection out there for voltage spikes.

Still learning and feeling my way. have been away from stereo for many many years and started rediscovering last year. Digital based this time around though.

 

 

 

 

[rocky500]

Paul from PS Audio mentioned that one of the criteria for his re generators was to make sure their design had a very low output impedance (lower than the mains) which he says is why the Regens work so well for audio.

Not sure if that is even a consideration in something like a UPS.

Edited May 18, 2017 by rocky500

[WhakPak]

1 hour ago, jakestar said:

..Thanks also for the responses....

 

I have a PS Audio Power Pack 1500 Mk2 for sale on eBay, if you wanted to try a low distortion pure sine wave UPS.

[TerryO]

Not sure if this is the answer or not but check out this link, it's not so much the Isotek Titans for sale but the solution that Halcro used which he reckons was that good that he could get rid of the Titan's.

 

 

 I pmed him yesterday asking if he still reckons the Eaton DSFI, which is pictured, is the answer. If it is then it could potentially save all of us a lot of money.

 

cheers Terry

Edited May 18, 2017 by TerryO

[rocky500]

Here is a couple of quotes by others on the gearsltz forums.

 

I have not yet seen a UPS system that can supply the needed current at LOW IMPEDANCE for audio reproduction circuits. 
They are great for saving your computer files during brown-out or black-outs, but I do not recommend their use in a professional facility on anything but the computer and/or hard drives.

 

and another

 

No such thing as a DC battery pack out there that can produce a pure sine wave! Ain't happenin!
Some higher end UPS units do take the incoming power company AC sine waves and regulate and filter that, but when the power goes away that battery pack is using a DC voltage multiplier circuit and chopping up DC square waves to produce a derived synthetic "stepped" sine wave.

[rockeater]

Rocky,

UPS is an Uninterpretable Power Supply.

It works when your mains are out during blackout. Normally, it just sits there in parallel with mains and does nothing.

Most provide some surge protection as well, but your friend already has a power board with surge protection.

To complement his power board with noise filtering, you can search for Lampizator's Silk Mains Filter. It is easy and cheap to build.

I made a couple and I am using them on some of the systems I have.

Sine wave re-generators - as I have written previously - are useless and expensive things.

Clean power is one with no interference and not one that has nicer sine wave than that generated by your electricity provider.

Your second quote: ..."chopping up DC square waves to produce a derived synthetic "stepped" sine wave" is dead right.

Don't waste your money on this.
 

[jakestar]

Great info folks. Thank you. I take it that ups is not the way to go to prevent voltage surges and spikes and noise rejection. Straight forward dedicated power re generation seems the way. Was tempted with the ups option as regulates supply voltage as part of the ups setup but seems negatives out weigh positives.

Interesting comment about the halcro solution Terry. What is that about?