ISOTEK EVO3 Aquarius Power Conditioner Review

[MacCali]

Personally I am sick of UPS home systems (which I religiously used for my home workstation environment for many years, not for my audio) because the batteries die and the system goes berserk beeping while the replacement arrives... and my problem isn't keeping the system going for another hour (what good is that?), it's simply protecting it from overvoltage and spikes and damage, which cheaper stuff without as much maintenance will do. I have my UPS with a new battery after the old one died and the system beeped annoyingly at times... but I haven't reconnected it, and I don't notice the difference.

Depends your use case, I have one on my security system and to keep internet running. So even if the power goes out the security system will stay on for upwards for 4 hours on the 1350. The other one I have in the living room for the TV, I live in a big city but when the power goes out it goes out for like 45 mins, so it goes 12 hours running the TV solo and basically just being used as extension cord with extra plugs for anything else.

As mentioned one for my PC, as it costs so damn much and I dont want anything to go wrong with it even though I doubt anything that horrible can occur. I paid like 160 on sale for my 1500, it's pure sinewave. All gravy

 

[pablolie]

...for my PC, as it costs so damn much and I dont want anything to go wrong with it even though I doubt anything that horrible can occur...

I build my own workstations to be very silent yet powerful. Never budget friendly. Yes that I want to *protect* but not necessarily keep going with UPS. The work-issued laptop will keep going for hours on end, and if it dies they'll send me a new one :-D

I must say I have never had a computer die because of power issues ever - but I have always had them "protected". I had an amp die where I live that was connected to UPS but maybe the surge protection was questionable or maybe it was just bad luck.

What really goes bad are often cheap power supplies for equipment. In my experience many deteriorate over time, start emitting stuff that interferes with some remotes etc.

 

[MacCali]

I build my own workstations to be very silent yet powerful. Never budget friendly. Yes that I want to *protect* but not necessarily keep going with UPS. The work-issued laptop will keep going for hours on end, and if it dies they'll send me a new one :-D

I must say I have never had a computer die because of power issues ever - but I have always had them "protected". I had an amp die where I live that was connected to UPS but maybe the surge protection was questionable or maybe it was just bad luck.

What really goes bad are often cheap power supplies for equipment. In my experience many deteriorate over time, start emitting stuff that interferes with some remotes etc.

I think it's simply for erasing memory if you are working on documents or lets say editing a video that isn't saved, if the power goes out the computer should stay on with no issue. I do know that on occasions where I have simply unplugged my turned off computer there's errors on hard drive that have to be repaired before the computer is once again booted. Not expecting it to fry lol

 

[Rottmannash]

The beeping is so annoying. It has no place in most situations as you can tell the lights are out and such. It is a pain to wake up in the middle of night with UPS beeping.

FYI my usage is special. We have a whole house generator that kicks in on power failure. But has 30 second warm up delay before it powers the house. So for that 30 seconds, the UPS kicks in and keeps everything from shutting down and restarting.

Isn't there a way to disable that beeping alarm? Some settings I didn't bother to read about? I have 2 of those CyberPower units from Costco I'm using with a couple PC's and most of my main AV system.

 

[audio2design]

@amirm @pablolie - APC has lithium battery based UPS with a claimed 8-10 year life. They don't indicate if they are using LiFePO4, or a higher voltage lithium chemistry. 8-10 years is very viable for LiFePO4, and possible for higher voltage chemistries if they only charge to about 85% of the final value. They are not $149, but reasonable starting at just over $500

https://www.apc.com/ca/en/campaign/lithium-ion-ups.jsp

I have had pretty good luck getting 3+ years out of SLA batteries, but good batteries are not cheap.

 

[DualTriode]

My home is in the state of Jefferson (NorCal), during fire season P. G. & E. often turns off the power, sometimes for days at a time. We have PV on the roof which will not function without utility power and or battery backup. A pair of Tessla Power Wall batteries will provide power for several hours. I am considering the Power Wall batteries plus a Kohler generator.

 

[danielbaen]

Sort of. The problem with UPS is that invariably the battery goes bad in them and you incur that cost. Or that the unit itself goes bad. I had had both happen a number of times.

Really, best to have a whole house surge protection and home owner's insurance. Between these two, you are covered. UPS is only useful if you want to keep operating during a power failure. Not anything else.

Thank you very much take good note of your advice

 

[tomtoo]

Could I undervolt my active (for my aplication way overpowered) PA speaker to make it hiss less?

Sry dont know. And i would not try it. There should be cheaper ways to this.

Buying a high power class d and a signal generator to undervolt some actives to get less power out of them makes my brain somehow hurt. Alone the switching on process would drive me crazy.

 

[amirm]

@amirm @pablolie - APC has lithium battery based UPS with a claimed 8-10 year life.

I bought one of those for my workshop network enclosure. It has been running since 2017 so maybe it will last longer.

 

[voodooless]

But I was not commenting on the reviewers rigour

That is not at all the point! The point is that the whole marketing strategy of these companies is a "don't believe us, believe them" approach. The second sentence of the product page:

Aquarius is a multi-award-winning six-way mains conditioner that redefines the power cleaning market.

The awards are plastered all over the place. It is very clear how this is supposed to work.

I’m not so much an adept of conspiracy theories neither. If you say so.

What conspiracies are those? This whole industry is a parasitic symbiosis between companies and so-called "review" sites and magazines. They feed on each other excrements to rid the unsuspecting consumers of their hard-earned money... Well okay, reading it like this, it sounds like a conspiracy indeed

Proof of the pudding is the Strake incident. If these audio magazines and sites had any shred of interest in the consumers and had even a morsel of journalistic ethics, they would report of what happened. What do we see: nothing, nada, zip, zilch. It's just embarrassing .

 

[dasdoing]

Buying a high power class d and a signal generator to undervolt some actives to get less power out of them

nahhh. I was thinking of a voltage converter

 

[tomtoo]

nahhh. I was thinking of a voltage converter

Ah sry my fault. I realy dont know. Sry.

 

[sarumbear]

View attachment 181613Why yes, they are! Here is a photo without the goop!

May I ask how you find that photo?

 

[PeteL]

That is not at all the point! The point is that the whole marketing strategy of these companies is a "don't believe us, believe them" approach. The second sentence of the product page:

The awards are plastered all over the place. It is very clear how this is supposed to work.

What conspiracies are those? This whole industry is a parasitic symbiosis between companies and so-called "review" sites and magazines. They feed on each other excrements to rid the unsuspecting consumers of their hard-earned money... Well okay, reading it like this, it sounds like a conspiracy indeed

Proof of the pudding is the Strake incident. If these audio magazines and sites had any shred of interest in the consumers and had even a morsel of journalistic ethics, they would report of what happened. What do we see: nothing, nada, zip, zilch. It's just embarrassing .

It's OK, but again, all I read in your response is a critic of the audio magazine Ecosystem. Yes, as soon as you decide that you want to manufacture and sell something, you want people to talk about it. The fraud would be, do they pay them to put word in their mouth, that is very possible and that is what I was talking about by conspiracy, the very definition of it, as I say, possible but I do not know that so I am not commenting on that. An other fraud would be, am I selling something that is not doing what I am claiming it does, ether in specs, in statements, or in advertising. I appear not. That's my only point, before saying a company is fraudulent, we have to demonstrate a fraud. Indeed, people that get fooled by reading biased reviews is a real problem.

 

[voodooless]

It's OK, but again, all I read in your response is a critic of the audio magazine Ecosystem.

Your assumption is that they act alone. Mine is that they don’t.

Yes, as soon as you decide that you want to manufacture and sell something, you want people to talk about it. The fraud would be, do they pay them to put word in their mouth, that is very possible and that is what I was talking about by conspiracy, the very definition of it, as I say, possible but I do not know that so I am not commenting on that.

Nowhere did I say that the reviewers get paid. Nor did I say it’s fraud (in legal sense). That doesn’t mean I must be happy with the way it goes, or that I can’t criticize it.

 

[PeteL]

Your assumption is that they act alone. Mine is that they don’t.

I don't do assumptions, I don't know and I don't assume.

Nowhere did I say that the reviewers get paid. Nor did I say it’s fraud (in legal sense). That doesn’t mean I must be happy with the way it goes, or that I can’t criticize it.

You are allowed to criticize what you want, but you are replying to me, I am making my point and you are responding to my point, not the other way around... So, what to say, I am glad we both agree that it's not a fraudulent company, just a company that sells an over priced products that don't bring audible benefit to a sound system, at least in most typical cases. That's the facts that have been demonstrated by this rteview. Anything else are just suppositions.

 

[voodooless]

I don't do assumptions, I don't know and I don't assume.

You clearly assumed I was talking about fraud otherwise you would not have brought it up But no harm done. I made my point clear and so did you.

 

[audio2design]

I bought one of those for my workshop network enclosure. It has been running since 2017 so maybe it will last longer.

One of the lithium ones? I got one for the lab computers a few months ago. Fingers crossed.

I remembered that one of my friends put his "older" UPS (lead acid based) in his cold-cellar and ran an extension cord out. It's about 20F colder than the house on average. It makes the batteries last longer. It is like car batteries. We have cold-start issues in cold climates with lead-acid batteries as they age, but the battery can also last 2, even 3 times longer than the battery in a warm climate.

 

[Hipster Doofus]

Of course thank you repeating your reviews of poor equipment. The myths die hard.

Not being a science guy it is good to hear over and over again just how and why this equipment is useless. ( a little sinks in each time)
the desire to justify our uneducated purchases with more uneducated purchase must be built into our DNA. We all want Michelin tires on our Fords, 200 dollar pack packs for our stroll through Central Park, 13 different road condition buttons in our SUV’s for our trips to the mall.

just looking for the shortest distance between me and reasonably great sound. I have found it here.
keep dry my friend

 

[audio2design]

We all want Michelin tires on our Fords, 200 dollar pack packs for our stroll through Central Park.

Bad analogy. Never scrimp on tires, no matter the cost of your car. The best rated tires, really are better, especially when dealing with inclement weather whether rain, snow or ice. Wider tires will almost always give you better dry traction as well (within the same tire model), even if you don't have a great suspension.

I don't scrimp on backpacks either , but it is about quality of design, not cost. I think I have 6 or 7 for a wide variety of activities.