J15 ASW really that bad for home theater equipment?

[Anonymous user]

Hey, I recently purchased a J15 that I am currently very happy with. However, I ran across a review of the S15 and the reviewer went on and on about how the approximated sine wave output from the lesser J15 could be very harmful for home theater gear. My question is what harm would really occur? Is it likely? Is it just interference type harm or could actual damage occur? I am not watching movies on battery power, I just shut everything down if the power goes out, and it occasionally switches to battery power for 2-3 seconds for occasional drop outs.

I am starting to worry about it and I would really appreciate any insight to it.

Thanks!!

[BillP]

Hello:

If it is very sensitive equipment it is possible that the quality would be affected, since the input power will slightly differ from what it is expecting. However, these products are designed specifically for high end Audio/Video equipment, and therefore should not cause any damage to the equipment. Some equipment, in general, does not respond well to a stepped approximated sine wave, but if anything they will just not run properly while on that power. Though this does not really relate to your product or your equipment, there are some examples in this knowledge base: http://nam-en.apc.com/cgi-bin/nam_en.cfg/php/enduser/std_adp.php?p_faqid=1356

The review you mentioned is correct in the fact that the S15 does provide a pure sine wave, as the S15 is an even higher end product than the J15. However, to answer your question, the J15 should not cause any damage to your equipment; again, A/V equipment is what the product is designed to be used with.

Thanks.

[Anonymous user]

Hey thanks for getting back to me so quickly.

So if I understand you, the ASW output from the J15 is detrimental to only to "high-end" equipment. My samsung LCD, xbox 360, PS3, Onkyo AVR, Emotiva amp, and HDDVD player arent the type of high end equipment that would be damaged? If I were to upgrade, what type of gear would not play with the J15? And the "damage" that occurs is it simply just doesnt run, as in no actual physical harm to the equipment?

Lastly, suppose I was paranoid about it and wanted to use the APC with some of the higher end equipment, is there a way to basically just turn into an H15, like shutting off the UPS section of the J15 so it simply boosts and trims voltage like the H15?

Thank you again for your help!!

[BillP]

Hi:

Sorry perhaps I phrased it wrong. I was not implying that it would ever cause any physical damage to any high end equipment (or any equipment at all really) but that the S15 was designed for higher end equipment. Basically the S15 is the Ferrari and the J15 is the Mercedes. 😉

No equipment should have any permanent damage from this type of sine wave. As the sine wave is slightly different than a normal wave that the equipment is used to, though, an AV fanatic may notice a slight difference in picture quality or sound quality while on battery. This should not ever result in any damage.

To answer your last question, though, if you wanted to use this as a power conditioner only with no battery backup, you could simply just remove (or disconnect) the battery. I honestly don't think that is necessary, however.

Thanks

[BillP · Accepted solution]

As a followup, let me also add that all of our Back-UPS products (which also output a stepped approximated sine wave) are of course commonly used with LCD monitors and computers. Your Samsung is really just a larger version of one of those, and your PS3 is really just a fancy computer. 😉