AC Filtration

[Pure_Brew]

Joe, The depth of your knowledge is very impressive. Thanks for your input.

By the way the most reasonable product I can see that would actually take care of the rest of the bad looking AC would be a UPS for APC. They have a regenerator that converts the AC to DC, then back to a correct AC. It's rack mount and was designed for computer environments. They have some really high power versions, but the one that offers about 1000w (500w for AC/DC/AC conversion) seems like it would be fine for my 60wpc tube amp and a couple sources. Yes/no? I don't really want to spend $500 though but that's about what that goes for.

 

[Gepetto]

Yeah I was thinking the same thoughts Joe and went looking for used Elgar AC power sources on Ebay. They were quite pricey so I did not hold that out as an option, plus they are noisy with a fan to cool the conversion electronics.

Most of the low end UPSes with AC regeneration give you back pretty crappy AC, close to square wave because computer power supplies do not care and for the most part will run on just about any input signal. So before you plunk down your money, ask some questions about the waveform fidelity. The other problem you may have is that these are meant to power modern computers with advanced power factor correction front ends in them (required by EU regulation). The UPS may do fine on your light duty gear but may current limit if you hook up an amplifier with a capacitor input front end on it (most amps are built this way). These have very poor power factor and all the energy is delivered at the very top of the AC waveform. The UPS may also have the fan noise problem.

 

[Pure_Brew]

I think these have a 1:3 crest factor. Fan noise would suck. I'm not spending without some more research or maybe not at all actually. Still, I wonder what besides these huge expensive things are out there. Wouldn't it seem somewhat simple to have a simple box, one in from the wall, one out to the distribution of choice? No bells and whistles, no backup, just a pure power machine.

 

[laatsch55]

And it gets more interesting.....................

 

[Pure_Brew]

Well, the power company now has a work order to come look at their feed to the building. Cool.

 

[laatsch55]

Very cool......and still interesting..............

 

[Pure_Brew]

A guy came out today but I wasn't home. My daughter called and handed the phone to him. Apparently he doesn't look at the quality of the AC, or the waveform. He came to do some sort of load test and check the voltage. I told him my voltage is 119-124 typically and doesn't really change from that. He seemed to think that after there service came to the building, what and how things were set up to this place were very old and likely it couldn't be done the way it is now because of code changes etc. So no real help here but I appreciate the fast response. I can't believe that my audio needs are driving me further into wanting to buy a house lol. Ah well, my wife and I are still looking and someday it'll happen.