Power options?

[GXAlan]

Furman PST-8 is the cheapest way to get Series Mode Protection with high voltage disconnect. I have had it trigger appropriately, so I consider it a good design.

My Yamaha CX-A5100 (2 prong power) into Meyer Sound Amie (3 prong power) generates a ground loop EVEN though I am using balanced XLR cables. Using a line conditioner WITH A GROUND LUG is very effective. Panamax has this feature as do vintage Monster Power and Belkin PureAV products. You could manually do this too.

Then you have the 12V trigger features of these power centers to consider.

 

[Bvbellomo]

Furman PST-8 is the cheapest way to get Series Mode Protection with high voltage disconnect. I have had it trigger appropriately, so I consider it a good design.

My Yamaha CX-A5100 (2 prong power) into Meyer Sound Amie (3 prong power) generates a ground loop EVEN though I am using balanced XLR cables. Using a line conditioner WITH A GROUND LUG is very effective. Panamax has this feature as do vintage Monster Power and Belkin PureAV products. You could manually do this too.

Then you have the 12V trigger features of these power centers to consider.

There is another long thread on here about Series Mode Protection (Furman calls this "Lift"). That thread doesn't give much technical detail, but says most surge protectors are based on MOV which has a limited lifetime and potentially catches on fire. However the PST-8 I believe is also a MOV device, so I don't know what the advantage is here.

The PST-8 does seem to be a noise-removal device. As I said, I don't need that, but as long as it is harmless, I don't mind paying for it. I'd much rather spend $120 on a decent looking and well built device, even if it has features I don't need and doesn't perform noticeably better than a $12 device from the local drugstore. My concern is this filtering may not be harmless, and may end up causing some sort of problem itself.

 

[GXAlan]

There is another long thread on here about Series Mode Protection (Furman calls this "Lift"). That thread doesn't give much technical detail, but says most surge protectors are based on MOV which has a limited lifetime and potentially catches on fire. However the PST-8 I believe is also a MOV device, so I don't know what the advantage is here.

The PST-8 has a series mode protection, an over voltage disconnect, and a MOV as the final stage of protection. Many other surge protectors just have a MOV. So with the Furman, the micro surges should be handled by the Series Mode protection which is not by a traditional setup. With a SurgeX, eventually you have too high of a transient to be handled by the series mode protection and electricity keeps going. Some SurgeX’s have the over voltage disconnect and none have an added MOV for safety.

The PST-8 does seem to be a noise-removal device. As I said, I don't need that, but as long as it is harmless, I don't mind paying for it. I'd much rather spend $120 on a decent looking and well built device, even if it has features I don't need and doesn't perform noticeably better than a $12 device from the local drugstore. My concern is this filtering may not be harmless, and may end up causing some sort of problem itself.

If you have an E1DA Cosmos ADC or UMIK-1/2 you can measure and see if your filtering causes problems (it really doesn’t).

 

[Bvbellomo]

Any reason to choose a PST-8 over a PL-8 C? The price is close enough and I'd rather have a neat stack and maybe even rack mount this eventually.

 

[egellings]

For the issue the OP describes? Absolutely not.

Perhaps it was just what you needed to hear more than what you wanted to... My bad.

No, for protection from line voltage misbehavior, nothing else.

 

[Amused]

I use multiple Furman PST-8s for my office/studio. It's the only Furman that I can recommend. I've tried several of their rack mount offerings, but they've all made noise. The PST-8 is the only model that "runs" dead silent. I used to use the Tripp Lite Isobar series, but they too hummed after a short while with no indication of being triggered. I'd try Zero Surge, SurgeX, Brick Wall, but cost is a serious deterrent as I'd need 3 to replace my current setup.

 

[T0paz]

The PST-8 has a series mode protection, an over voltage disconnect, and a MOV as the final stage of protection. Many other surge protectors just have a MOV. So with the Furman, the micro surges should be handled by the Series Mode protection which is not by a traditional setup. With a SurgeX, eventually you have too high of a transient to be handled by the series mode protection and electricity keeps going. Some SurgeX’s have the over voltage disconnect and none have an added MOV for safety.

Furman used an expired series mode patent as a basis for their surge protection technology. They could not replicate or license the SurgeX inductor, so they used a smaller one. On it's own their technology could not handle the surge so they strung a series of technologies together to reduce the surge but in the end still had to rely on the venerable MOV which still fails.

It is therefore not the true Series Mode protection used by SurgeX and Zero Surge. In their literature, Furman refers to their technology as Series Multistage Protection.

 

[Speedskater]

Note that MOV's have come a long way in the last half century. And with modern MOV's and better circuit designs, most every home has way more than a dozen MOVs but we don't often hear of failures. Now the NEC/UL require surge suppression in new homes.

 

[Gary_G]

I use this as a place to consolidate all the power needs. Furman ELITE15 DM I Surge/Power Conditioner

 

[T0paz]

Note that MOV's have come a long way in the last half century. And with modern MOV's and better circuit designs, most every home has way more than a dozen MOVs but we don't often hear of failures. Now the NEC/UL require surge suppression in new homes.

Damage from surges is cumulative and most people will replace their gear long before the damage is permanent.