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In the Forum: Audio Discussions
In the Thread: It’s mad, mad, mad... electricity.
Post Subject: Quick researchPosted by steverino on: 2/9/2014
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I did some research about non audio marketed AC regenerators. The terminology used commercially is either "online" or "double conversion" UPS. They all have expandable battery packs. There is another topology called "line interactive" which is equivalent to the audio power filters/conditioners without double conversion. Any double conversion unit running on a 15A circuit retails from about $400 - 900. At the lower price end you get a double conversion unit between 700 and 1000W capacity. At the upper 900-1500W. For 20A circuits these units cost between $1000 - $1500. There are also 30A circuit models up to 8000W. These latter models cost about $4000. There are 6-8 companies that are very visible in the market and there seem to be dozens more both in the US and internationally. The 15A models all have conventional outlets but 20A and 30A models are
more variable. Some have conventional 20A outlets, some are meant to be
hardwired etc.
The issue with most of the commercial units is the fan. Their fans seem to be way overbuilt for home use. They are built
for commercial-industrial use so they may be put in utility closets or
near hot equipment. Digging around I found several people who either disabled the fan or replaced it with a smaller quieter fan with no ill effects in home settings.
Some folks have used the commercial units described above to power home theater systems and have given them a thumbs up. I'm sure some models are quieter than others and as noted sometimes the fan has just been replaced with a quieter model. My guess is that the audio marketed units just optimize the fan since they know it will be restricted to home use.
Obviously there was no systematic sonic analysis of all these various units. FWIW a few users did say they heard no sonic difference between the commercial units and the audio specific units.
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