line conditioning

[Anonymous user]

After buying a high end surround sound system and plasma tv the store salesman is attempting to "sell" me on a line conditioner to eliminate noise. I have given serious thought to buying a whole house surge suppresor ans a large ups to protect this investment ....but I do seriously question a "line conditioner" ....my question is would such a thing even be needed if using a ups?

[Anonymous user]

If your TV is connected to the Battery backup terminal, then a line conditioner is unnecessary.

[BillP · Accepted solution]

Depending on what kind of UPS you are using, merely connecting to the battery-backup outlets, such as on a Back-UPS ES unit, would not fully constitute line conditioning.

A basic UPS that employs Stand-By topology, while in normal operation (not on-battery), provides surge protection and minimal filtering, but no voltage correction.

A UPS with Line Interactive topology, such as Back-UPS LS, XS, RS or standard Smart-UPS, is able to make corrections to incoming voltage without utilizing its battery. The inverter in this UPS topology is always connected to the output and the load, meaning you will enjoy full-time conditioning of the power.

A discussion of [Types of UPSs can be found here|http://nam-en.apc.com/cgi-bin/nam_en.cfg/php/enduser/std_adp.php?p_faqid=727].

I use a [BR800BLK|http://www.apc.com/resource/include/techspec_index.cfm?base_sku=BR800BLK] to provide battery back-up and line conditioning to my HDTV setup at home. It works great.

APC also offers high end [AV-specific power protection|http://www.apc.com/products/category.cfm?id=15&segmentID=1] that are engineered for home-theatre applications.