Are APC products suitable for Audiophile equipment support

[Anonymous user]

I use dozens of APC UPS's in my computer support business, but am not an EE.

I've had great stereo equipment for years, but just recently started to learn more in a couple of high-end audio forums.

I've always assumed clean power is clean power, and felt a properly sized APC would condition power to an audio amplifier, turntable or CD player just as well as to a PC. A lot of snobs in these groups seem to feel APC is NOT "audiophile" grade.

Is there any reason the collection of components (capacitors, resistors, transistors, etc.) in APC would not be as good at providing power as those brands claiming to be "audio power conditiioners"?

[Anonymous user · Accepted solution]

Thanks, that clears up my questions.

[BillP]

[take a look at our audio/video products here|http://www.apc.com/products/category.cfm?id=15]

those are the products i'd have to recommend for audio video equipment. these products are built to filter noise and sustain themselves under high current situations which a lot of audio video equipment present when they turn on. their internal components are rated to do the job and are advertised to do so.

a regular UPS probably wouldnt handle a high current draw/really fast overload as well as these devices would.

did you have a specific model you were talking about though? that isnt in the AV line up?

[Erasmus_apc]

inspired wrote:
I use dozens of APC UPS's in my computer support business, but am not an EE.

I've had great stereo equipment for years, but just recently started to learn more in a couple of high-end audio forums.

I've always assumed clean power is clean power, and felt a properly sized APC would condition power to an audio amplifier, turntable or CD player just as well as to a PC. A lot of snobs in these groups seem to feel APC is NOT "audiophile" grade.

Is there any reason the collection of components (capacitors, resistors, transistors, etc.) in APC would not be as good at providing power as those brands claiming to be "audio power conditiioners"?

Clean power is indeed clean power. There's no real difference between one conditioner that outputs 120v @ 60hz and another unit from another mfg. that has the same output (assuming neither unit has a fault on it), other than potentially having input line "noise" passed along to the load, or allowing feedback or "signals" passed between the load components.

Our APC AV power conditioners and UPS systems have isolated, filtered sets of outlets that are meant to provide the cleanest power possible to the attached load and prevent the passage of signals/transients from one outlet to another. We use high quality MOVs and other surge protection circuitry to allow our power conditioners and UPS systems to have a "let through voltage" that is above and beyond the UL standard for let through/clamp voltages. Our power conditioners/UPS' also have active EMI/RFI noise filtering, and are designed for systems that have high inrush currents such as amps, speakers and subwoofers, and we also provide delayed outlets for such systems to prevent overload or power up in stages to prevent transient feedback or signals between connected components. Our AV power conditioners and UPS' also have Automatic Voltage Regulation through a tap transformer built into the UPS' output, which allows us to "boost or trim" bad voltage to ensure steady output to the load. We also provide a high quality, gold plated AV coax cable to use with the unit (on most AV offerings).

Does APC make the best AV power conditioners? I'm sure some would disagree...but then again there are a lof of people that claim Monster HDMI and AV cables are light years better than regular cables, and there's mountains of evidence against that 😛

You can check out our product offerings here:
http://www.apc.com/products/category.cfm?id=15

[Anonymous user · Accepted solution]

I understand many amplifiers can present extremely complex high-current loads to the electrical circuit. I'm guessing even a relatively robust computer UPS like an old Back-UPS Pro 1100 would not be suitable.

But for a CD player or turntable, I would think even a 350 and certainly 550, 650, 725 models would suffice unless there si some specific difference with the circuitry that would affect audio properties.

[Erasmus_apc · Accepted solution]

The BE series 350, 550s, etc. pass utility power to the load while the UPS senses that power input is acceptable, and during this time there is nothing in the UPS circuitry that would cause issues with a device such as a CD player. When the Back-UPS series goes to battery they create a stepped-approximated sine wave that can cause sensitive electronic equipment or devices with Power Factor Corrected power supplies to skip or reboot, but if this is just a portable CD player or "boombox" it should be just fine.

I would keep high-end AV equipment away from the Back-UPS series and move towards our AV line of products. If you are restricted by price...you could get away with a Smart-UPS since they are a higher performing brand of UPS (in terms of on battery output, voltage regulation, state transfer times, monitoring, etc.), although they are much less feature "rich" in terms of AV functionality.