IEC and barrel power conditioner advice...

Evo

Here's the deal folks,

I'm currently running a rack mount Kemper in a 4u rack with a furman power conditioner.

I've never noticed any ill effects from not using a power conditioner before, but now I'm using one (it came with the Kemper) I've decided I quite like the warm, safe, fuzzy feeling I get from a little green LED saying "protection OK".

Part of the reason I've gone for the Kemper rack was the view to eventually adding a wireless and IEM units into the setup at a later date...well now I'm looking at adding the wireless in. 

My conundrum is this, most of the rack mount wireless units (and IEMs to be fair as well) are run off barrel power cables. Not ideal for my power conditioner with its bevy of IEC outputs. 

Do I go for a regular rack mount wireless, grab an IEC to regular plug cable and just use the provided power cable? Then the same for the IEMSs Feels a bit un-elegant somehow.

Do I ditch the power conditioner for one of these? https://www.thomann.de/gb/harley_benton_powerplant_iso_1ac_pro_modular.htm I can run the Kemper from the courtesy IEC output and wireless/IEMs from the barrels, but I lose my warm fuzzy LED. Or do I? What is the difference between an isolated power supply and a power conditioner?


Do I grab a line 6 relay g90 which runs off an IEC anyway and kick the problem down the road for future me to deal with when I want to add the IEMs into the rig?

OR!! do I sack the lot off and just use one of those amazon lekato jobs for £40 and enjoy a smaller, lighter rack with just the Kemper in it?


Any thoughts? I think I've had far too many myself already.

Snags

You can get a blank IEC C14 plug that you can then wire on to a standard 3-core PDU with 3-pin sockets to mount in the rack if you want to do it neatly. 

Snags

In fact,  I may have one. They used to come with some APC UPS units. 

Evo

That’s certainly one option I’m considering, but for some reason I’m feeling like I’m missing a cleaner and neater possibility. 

I’m probably overthinking as usual. 

jasonbone75

Keep the conditioner and add the DC power supply or a similar one. In simple terms, the conditioner removes noise and stabilises the voltage level at 240VAC. The isolated DC supply just protects connected devices from each other - noise and faults. You want both whatever format you end up with for the DC supply.

Depending how serious the IEMs are about their power and the stability/quality of that supply I would consider a dedicated high quality DC supply adapted to fit safely in rack with custom cabling to all the IEM units. If they are not picky and the supplied individual DC converters are chinese off the shelf like most others the Thomann or similar will work just fine.

Evo

I think you might be considering a multi-unit rack type setup @jasonbone75 ?

The majority of my work is split between different acts, so I won't be incorporating a "band" rack. It'll literally just be my Kemper, my wireless, and my IEM unit going in there. No additional units for other players. 

The risk of noise, interference, etc between the devices is fairly minimal. Especially considering the Kemper will be running off IEC which leaves only 2 devices running off the barrel cables. I could probably even daisy chain them with a 1 spot and a splitter without it being a huge issue. 

jasonbone75

Gotcha! In that case I would still keep the conditioner if it were mine and add 1spot or similar.

robinbowes

You *could* use something like this: https://www.amazon.co.uk/1STec-Standard-Trailing-Converter-Adaptor-10-x-C14-3-Pin-Socket/dp/B0B1JKL86J/ref=sr_1_14

But, as others have already suggested, you'd better with either:

1. wireless/iem units that run off mains plugs, so you can use the conditioner (I can heartily recommend the G90, BTW)
2. A good quality DC supply that is not a wall wart so you can run it from the conditioner, and can mount it securely in the rack. A Gigrig generator with a couple of high-current adaptors should do the trick.

R.

Evo

I don’t think the gigrig generator runs off IEC but I do get your point. I have a couple of options already which I could stick in the rack and run off the power conditioner. 

The g90 is definitely on my radar, I keep talking myself between that, a g55, and just mounting a g50 in the back of the rack. 

Definitely food for thought though. 

robinbowes

Evo said:

I don’t think the gigrig generator runs off IEC 

Sure it does - check here: https://shop.thegigrig.com/products/power-base-pack-1