On The Subject Of Amplification...

[László]

Since I can't play my amps, I thought I'd try an experiment with my studio monitors.

I have a Furman P-1800 PFR that I've been using to power my amplifiers. It has a 45 Volt power reserve that allows the amplifiers to draw more instantaneous power than they can get from the wall.

But before I bought it, I spoke to one of the guys at Furman who during our discussion said, "Wait 'til you try this thing on your powered studio monitors."

Well, it sounded so good with my amps, that I didn't want to move it to my workstation area to try that.

However...the issue I have with the nerves feeding my fingers being so screwed up, means I can't play guitar. And since I was working on mastering a couple of my electronic music tunes, I thought, "Gee, why not try it with the studio monitors?"

So I hooked it up. I have a pair of Event Opals, that I think are among the finest sounding near field monitors I've used yet, including my beloved Genelecs (I've had several of their models), B&W 805s with Krell amplification, various Dynaudio models, etc. Anyway, tonight I powered them with this unit, that in turn was plugged into my Equi=Tech isolation transformer that has voltage regulation.

I was absolutely floored. It makes a very significant difference that you can hear right away. Everything came to life. And these were VERY good sounding monitors beforehand!

What happens is that monitors need to draw power for peaks faster than the wall can deliver it, just like amps. This is not a subtle difference. It is night and day. I am amazed.

This is not a cheap box. But if I keep an amp or two around in my studio for session guitarists to use when they come by to lay down tracks, I'm going to need another one of these. This thing WORKS. It's great for guitar amps, it literally transforms my Lone Star, and it's great for studio monitors. Wow.

 

[squirrel211]

I'm wondering if I can extrapolate this to a PA system....

 

[Boogie]

I didn't get all the way thru your post before I had a question regarding the reserve feature of your Furman device: *edit* (my comment came across as WAY too dickish and douchey. I'm sorry...)

I think you need to change the word volts to amps of current.

Now I'll finish reading...

 

[CoreyT]

Yes, 45 amps.
Les, I am actually thinking about this for home use after seeing you post it before.
I like high tech stuff, wish I could rock out in your studio, but you be far away.

 

[andross182]

I've actually been browsing Furman sound products lately, as while my Roadster combo is very quiet, my Archon is not. It picks up all kinds of nonsense and what not going on that I am thinking is the power in my house. Was looking at starting with a Furman power strip and going from there...

 

[László]

I'm wondering if I can extrapolate this to a PA system....

Probably not worth it, since a PA has a different purpose, live work, where the acoustics can't be as easily controlled as in a studio. It's a $600 box. I wouldn't use it with a PA myself.

 

[László]

I didn't get all the way thru your post before I had a question regarding the reserve feature of your Furman device: *edit* (my comment came across as WAY too dickish and douchey. I'm sorry...)

I think you need to change the word volts to amps of current.

Now I'll finish reading...

Yes, you're right. Amps. Sorry. My brain got sloppy.

 

[László]

I've actually been browsing Furman sound products lately, as while my Roadster combo is very quiet, my Archon is not. It picks up all kinds of nonsense and what not going on that I am thinking is the power in my house. Was looking at starting with a Furman power strip and going from there...

Well, what makes this thing work for me is the 45 Amp reserve power supply. I honestly think that most noise filtering is useless without an isolation transformer. A power strip thing doesn't have sufficient filtering for your use. Good power filtering is expensive, and at the same time, even that doesn't isolate your equipment from the line circuit. So if you have power noise, you need an isolation transformer, and those are spendy.

I have one for my studio. It works.

But I'll also say that if your Roadster is quiet, and the Archon isn't, the problem isn't in the AC. Because if the AC was the source of the problem, your Roadster would be noisy, too. I find Mesa amps noisier than PRS amps.

Check for ground loops and other factors, or even a bad tube.

 

[László]

Yes, 45 amps.
Les, I am actually thinking about this for home use after seeing you post it before.
I like high tech stuff, wish I could rock out in your studio, but you be far away.

I wish you could, too! It'd be great just to hang out as well as play.

You certainly have some nice gear, you might find this thing useful. Although it's more noticeable with my 100 Watt Lone Star than my 30 Watt PRS amps, you can still hear a difference. Obviously the Lone Star at 100 Watts needs more current.

My studio monitors each have 320 watts in the woofer and tweeter amplifiers (270 W for the woofers, 50 W for the tweeters), so they need to draw a lot of AC, too.

So far, I'm thinking that the higher the power of the amplifier, the more noticeable the effect of this thing is.

 

[andross182]

Well that would be unfortunate, as this amp is less than a month old. The noise it there going straight from guitar to amp as well....sometimes. Tonight it wasn't there at all. Odd.

 

[László]

Well that would be unfortunate, as this amp is less than a month old. The noise it there going straight from guitar to amp as well....sometimes. Tonight it wasn't there at all. Odd.

That is odd. I'd honestly suspect a tube before anything else.

 

[Dusty Chalk]

I think you need to change the word volts to numbers of fast-moving electrons.

FIFY

There was a headphone amp builder who put these enormous capacitors -- we're talking car capacitors, these huge almost liter sized jobbies -- in his amps just so that they could have this backfill of electrons to go when the going got tough.

Damn, that was a nutty amplifier. You could electrocute yourself going inside one of those things.

But it was revelatory -- you listen to the psychedelic percussive section of "Desire" by Talk Talk from Spirit of Eden, and all of a sudden you could separate out every percussion hit. It was almost too clean. But that's what you want when you're monitoring.

 

[bodia]

I had a sometimes noisy Archon too. Turned out to be the power strip I had plugged into the outlet with the Archon. As long as the Archon was the only thing plugged into that outlet, it was never noisy again.

 

[elvis]

I'm curious how they store 60Hz AC Line power to get the 45A reserve. I doubt they are converting between AC and DC, so capacitors are out.

 

[László]

I'm curious how they store 60Hz AC Line power to get the 45A reserve. I doubt they are converting between AC and DC, so capacitors are out.

You'd have to ask Furman. They're very responsive to customer inquiries, took my call right away, and I had no prior experience talking with them, so I was just some dude on the phone asking questions.

 

[Deleted member 5962]

Elvis! What's up brother? Good to see you here!

 

[elvis]

Hola! Just celebrating my neverending GAS. My experience with PRS is funny in that I always thought that they were beautiful and they were built exactly the way you should build a guitar, but whenever I picked one up, it just didn't feel right in my hands. I never thought I'd own a PRS guitar, and now my main axe is an SC245 I got in a trade that I had intended to flip. I never considered a PRS amp, and the Archon knocked me for a big loop.