|
|
Post by raddistribution on Apr 20, 2023 10:27:20 GMT -6
CHICAGO, ILLINOIS, USA: boutique audio company Black Lion Audio is proud to present its PG-2R 120V Regulating Power Grid as a studio-grade regulator/power conditioner with surge protection — duly designed to maintain a steady voltage of 120V within a tight ± 2V tolerance to ensure that no voltage fluctuations from the power source get through to treasured studio hardware connected to its back- panel-positioned banks of 12 switched, filtered, and surge-protected outlets, meaning that hardware will be consistently and safely running on the voltage it was intended to use, thereby enhancing reliability and prolonging lifespan as a direct result — as of April 18… Everyone’s equipment deserves the best power possible; with that very thought in mind, Black Lion Audio took great care in ensuring that the PG-2R 120V Regulating Power Grid does just that — thanks to its PG-99 FILTERING Noise Filtering Technology that, in testing, has provided up to 99.7% noise filtering, as opposed to the typical average of 85% found in other power conditioners at the same price point. Put it this way: the PG-2R encourages eliminating high frequency noise that robs equipment of its peak performance by being built using premium Panasonic and Wima capacitors. Combine that superior power with an impressive power absorption rating of 2,775 joules and any connected equipment is not just getting quality power but also protected from far from ideal scenarios, such as acquiring a must-have piece of gear only to find it noisier than expected or missing high-frequency details — or, worse still, having that gear fried by an unwanted power surge! No need to worry, though, since the PG-2R’s back-panel-positioned banks of 12 switched and filtered outlets are all surge-protected. All are divided into three groups, labelled as DIGITAL AUDIO OUTLETS, ANALOG AUDIO OUTLETS, and HIGH CURRENT OUTLETS — the latter two categories being time delayed to always ensure that any connected speakers and power amplifiers are last to turn on and first to turn off, thereby preventing the dreaded ‘pop’ that can occur if speakers receive power at the same time as any connected sound sources. Saying that, the PG-2R’s feature-packed front panel includes two conveniently-positioned unfiltered UNSWITCHED OUTLETS alongside two USB chargers — 100W USB CHARGER (that can charge most laptops) and USB CHARGER 5V 1A, as well as a handy XLR lamp connector — LAMP 12V, 3W — and associated DIMMER control knob. (Needless to say, there is also a rear-panel-positioned REAR LAMP XLR connector and associated DIMMER control, so seeing those back-panel-positioned outlets in far-from-ideally-lit lighting conditions need not prove problematic.) Power conditioner confidence takes so much more than a few rack-mounted outlets — certainly as far as the truly discerning user is concerned. Clearly, however, here is where the PG-2R really delivers: thanks to the inclusion of a suite of alert and status capabilities — comprising INPUT VOLTAGE MONITOR, VOLTAGE REGULATION STAGE, and AMPERAGE MONITOR for real-time analysis, as well as LED (Light Emitting Diode) indicators for Ground OK, Wiring Fault, Clean Power On, Abnormal Voltage, Protection On, and Regulation On status, plus an audio alarm for unsafe voltage, such users can count on the PG-2R 120V Regulating Power Grid having their treasured studio hardware’s safety at the considered core of its heavy-duty design — even in worst-case power scenarios! The PG-2R is available to purchase in territories that use 120V power through Black Lion Audio’s growing global network of dealers/distributors (https://www.blacklionaudio.com/dealers) with a MAP (Minimum Advertised Price) of $1,199.00 USD. For more in-depth information, please visit the dedicated PG-2R webpage here: www.blacklionaudio.com/store...r-conditioner/Attachments:
|
|
|
|
Post by tkaitkai on Apr 20, 2023 10:54:44 GMT -6
Yep, I definitely want this.
|
|
|
|
Post by copperx on Apr 20, 2023 11:58:16 GMT -6
This product only reinforces the idea that BLA is in the business of selling snake oil.
Sure, power regulation isn't snake oil. But there are already many units from reputable brands that do the job flawlessly. There's no need for a unit with a silkscreened "Analog audio outlets" label.
|
|
ericn
Temp
Balance Engineer
Posts: 16,107 
|
Post by ericn on Apr 20, 2023 12:10:23 GMT -6
In the middle of shopping for some new power conditioners
So I’ll start with what I like.
First 2 u format since we live in a world of even space racks 2 u works for most installations. The removable front and rear lights are a winner, but I can tell you didn’t talk to any contractor clients who buy 10x the number of rack mount power strips because you put the rear dimmer in the back. You’re going to find that rear dimmer either impossible to locate or you’re disconnecting Edison plugs or disturbing cables to get at it. I need that dimmer to be quick access to problem solve, not create more problems, should be on the front.
Love the locking Powercon inlet, in fact I’m looking at retrofitting all Powercon on a Furman so all cables are locking, but not all Powercon are created equal. The standard Powercon isn’t hot patchable, think your customers are going to read your manual and remember that power switch needs to be off if you play with the power inlet?
Yeah I assumed it was only 15a but the fact that to confirm it I had to zoom in on the back and see the inlet is only rated at 1800w rather than find it in the first paragraph of the press release is a turn off.
What kind of surge protection is this really being used? Is this typical MOV where once it’s seen a spike and no more protection and my gear is now plugged into the Equivalent to a $4.99 IKEA strip?.
|
|
|
|
Post by plinker on Apr 20, 2023 23:46:30 GMT -6
Man, it’s getting cold in here…
|
|
|
|
Post by Ward on Apr 21, 2023 13:08:37 GMT -6
Sign me up!
|
|
|
|
Post by sirthought on Apr 21, 2023 21:01:22 GMT -6
This product only reinforces the idea that BLA is in the business of selling snake oil. Sure, power regulation isn't snake oil. But there are already many units from reputable brands that do the job flawlessly. There's no need for a unit with a silkscreened "Analog audio outlets" label. I've seen some tests on YouTube showing that many reputable brands' power conditioners do little to nothing. So, whether this device is snake oil or not is unclear. That said, I think the silkscreening is a really nice feature. There are clearly devices that need to be treated differently from others, and not every consumer out there thinks about that. So, any helpful direction is working in their favor. I have their PG-2 box, and it has served my needs so far. But I haven't done any real testing. I just appreciate the timed on and off delays that protects the monitors. |
|
ericn
Temp
Balance Engineer
Posts: 16,107
|
Post by ericn on Apr 21, 2023 21:37:24 GMT -6
This product only reinforces the idea that BLA is in the business of selling snake oil. Sure, power regulation isn't snake oil. But there are already many units from reputable brands that do the job flawlessly. There's no need for a unit with a silkscreened "Analog audio outlets" label. I've seen some tests on YouTube showing that many reputable brands' power conditioners do little to nothing. So, whether this device is snake oil or not is unclear. That said, I think the silkscreening is a really nice feature. There are clearly devices that need to be treated differently from others, and not every consumer out there thinks about that. So, any helpful direction is working in their favor. I have their PG-2 box, and it has served my needs so far. But I haven't done any real testing. I just appreciate the timed on and off delays that protects the monitors. Most don’t they are just pretty MOV strips that mount nicely in a rack. I honestly used to tell guys who were looking at the cheap ones to go to the hardware store, by a strip with screw flanges and buy a rack panel, drill and screw together. My boss was pissed, got reamed bigly then when I was in the coma the guy took his $30K a year somewhere else because as he told the assistant sales manager “ I expected more honesty and less Bull Shit! He still calls to sort through the BS. |
|
|
|
Post by wiz on Apr 21, 2023 23:39:36 GMT -6
|
|
|
|
Post by RealNoob on Apr 22, 2023 15:44:56 GMT -6
I have the earlier released PG2 and love it. Connections are plentiful. Regarding the silkscreened plug labels, they help you plug the right gear into the right plugs for power on and power off delays. Once done, it’s flawless and stress-less. Turn on and off without having to worry. This really helped when auditioning the Audient monitor controller. It is a popping beast. I ended up returning it and getting the heritage. But the PG2 saved my speakers.
Powering on - (immediate) interface/digital -> (3 secs) 500 rack -> (6 secs) speakers
Powering off - exact opposite
|
|
|
|
Post by christopher on Apr 24, 2023 9:19:45 GMT -6
Ok so the back where it says “analog” and “digital” that’s just for the time delayed power up of devices? They are all the same performance correct?
|
|
|
|
Post by svart on Apr 24, 2023 9:37:04 GMT -6
This product only reinforces the idea that BLA is in the business of selling snake oil. Sure, power regulation isn't snake oil. But there are already many units from reputable brands that do the job flawlessly. There's no need for a unit with a silkscreened "Analog audio outlets" label. I've seen some tests on YouTube showing that many reputable brands' power conditioners do little to nothing. So, whether this device is snake oil or not is unclear. That said, I think the silkscreening is a really nice feature. There are clearly devices that need to be treated differently from others, and not every consumer out there thinks about that. So, any helpful direction is working in their favor. I have their PG-2 box, and it has served my needs so far. But I haven't done any real testing. I just appreciate the timed on and off delays that protects the monitors. I was going to hold my tongue, but it's true.. "power conditioners" do absolutely nothing. At best they have surge protection. The notion that they'd "clean" the power is ludicrous. Most will have some kind of filtering components and maybe even an isolating transformer, and some might still have a ferric transformer, but they're "solving" a problem by mostly false pretenses. What they typically solve is ground loops, and that's because you end up plugging all your gear into parallel outlets on the device so no loop can form. 80% of rack gear will be switching power supplies these days. These WILL have filtering on their inputs, rectification and MORE filtering, then chopping that DC into high voltage square waves fed into another transformer to be smoothed out by even MORE filtering, while the output is isolated from the input. There will be ZERO % noise from the AC input on this DC output. Even analog power supplies will see some filtering, rectification, filtering, transformation (which acts as filtering) and then MORE filtering before being decoupled at the active parts. Virtually no AC noise will be present on this DC voltage. That leaves mostly ground loops. These should be solved at the source, not allowed to be patched by an isolating transformer. |
|
|
|
Post by christopher on Apr 24, 2023 9:44:53 GMT -6
thanks Svart, that makes a lot of sense. On the plus side this seems to be priced a little lower than the 2U Furman.
|
|
|
|
Post by christophert on Apr 24, 2023 14:43:04 GMT -6
I doubt this is a worthy addition to any studio. Not all power conditioners are useless though. Balanced single phase transformer power conditioners make a big difference to all equipment in a studio environment. They are also used in hospitals and science facilities to eliminate earth hums, interference and ground loops etc, for extremely sensitive medical equipment measurements, like brain scanning equipment where all power needs to be 100% clean of any interference. A lot of pro studios and mastering facilities I know use these because they make a noticeable difference in keeping everything quiet - and they do lower a studios noise floor. But I live in the land of 240v, where we have an active, neutral and earth power. Not sure how this all relates to US power. What do they use in USA hospitals, science labs ? This would be my first choice to find reliable clean power conditioning, not some cheap 1RU box with fancy lights and $50 worth of parts in them. A couple of decent surges will then make them redundant for ongoing surge protection - let alone doing anything to actually eliminate ground loops and hums. I have had a balanced single phase transformer power conditioner for 20 plus years, and just bought another 2 for my new studio. They have massive transformers in them, and weigh about 30kgs / 66lbs each. These are the ones I use: www.tortech.com.au/three-phase-custom-transformer-designs/balanced-transformers/ |
|
|
|
Post by Ward on Apr 24, 2023 15:12:18 GMT -6
I doubt this is a worthy addition to any studio. Not all power conditioners are useless though. Balanced single phase transformer power conditioners make a big difference to all equipment in a studio environment. They are also used in hospitals and science facilities to eliminate earth hums, interference and ground loops etc, for extremely sensitive medical equipment measurements, like brain scanning equipment where all power needs to be 100% clean of any interference. A lot of pro studios and mastering facilities I know use these because they make a noticeable difference in keeping everything quiet - and they do lower a studios noise floor. But I live in the land of 240v, where we have an active, neutral and earth power. Not sure how this all relates to US power. What do they use in USA hospitals, science labs ? This would be my first choice to find reliable clean power conditioning, not some cheap 1RU box with fancy lights and $50 worth of parts in them. A couple of decent surges will then make them redundant for ongoing surge protection - let alone doing anything to actually eliminate ground loops and hums. I have had a balanced single phase transformer power conditioner for 20 plus years, and just bought another 2 for my new studio. They have massive transformers in them, and weigh about 30kgs / 66lbs each. These are the ones I use: www.tortech.com.au/three-phase-custom-transformer-designs/balanced-transformers/Isn't your UK/IE 240V single phase balanced power the same as our 117V single phase balanced power, essentially? |
|
ericn
Temp
Balance Engineer
Posts: 16,107
|
Post by ericn on Apr 24, 2023 15:38:52 GMT -6
I doubt this is a worthy addition to any studio. Not all power conditioners are useless though. Balanced single phase transformer power conditioners make a big difference to all equipment in a studio environment. They are also used in hospitals and science facilities to eliminate earth hums, interference and ground loops etc, for extremely sensitive medical equipment measurements, like brain scanning equipment where all power needs to be 100% clean of any interference. A lot of pro studios and mastering facilities I know use these because they make a noticeable difference in keeping everything quiet - and they do lower a studios noise floor. But I live in the land of 240v, where we have an active, neutral and earth power. Not sure how this all relates to US power. What do they use in USA hospitals, science labs ? This would be my first choice to find reliable clean power conditioning, not some cheap 1RU box with fancy lights and $50 worth of parts in them. A couple of decent surges will then make them redundant for ongoing surge protection - let alone doing anything to actually eliminate ground loops and hums. I have had a balanced single phase transformer power conditioner for 20 plus years, and just bought another 2 for my new studio. They have massive transformers in them, and weigh about 30kgs / 66lbs each. These are the ones I use: www.tortech.com.au/three-phase-custom-transformer-designs/balanced-transformers/Depends on the need, the most common US lab power conditioner is a Topaz iso transformer but most are only 7-10 amps. Most lab equipment uses better PSU’s than what we see. Walmarts are not found in lab or most industrial applications. |
|
|
|
Post by svart on Apr 24, 2023 16:20:00 GMT -6
"balanced" power is likewise a misnomer. "Balanced" in any electrical sense means "balanced impedance", which is generally guaranteed by the cabling.
What they try to sell is "differential" power, by using isolating transformers to create sin/cosin leads.
The problem with the theory still holds from my earlier assessment, that an SMPS input stage can not take any advantage of this.
Likewise, an analog supply typically has a transformer of it's own doing rudimentary filtering and having differential output before rectification, in the case of dual supplies.
If they intend to justify it in the sense of a differential signal cable like an XLR, then they have to explain that the extremely low impedance of power cabling compared to the signal level (120v here in the US) makes for a poor antenna that does not need balancing, shielding, or differential signaling.
The actuality is that is all about that isolation transformer. The large amounts of magnetic flux needed to work, the large windings and large core material make it efficient in a small window of tuned frequency, effectively making it a very large inductor-based low pass filter. Any high frequency noise of significant energy will be outside this band and be rejected.
Simple as that. The rest is marketing fluff unfortunately.
|
|
|
|
Post by RealNoob on Apr 24, 2023 21:40:34 GMT -6
Ok so the back where it says “analog” and “digital” that’s just for the time delayed power up of devices? They are all the same performance correct? Yes. As best I know. And about conditioners, I just need plugs and these units have way more features than 2 separate Furmans had that were in my rack. The extra plugs, XLR light, front side plugs and USB plug and timing feature are a help. |
|
|
|
Post by Bat Lanyard on Apr 24, 2023 21:46:13 GMT -6
Just asking based on the blowback. So this is just a money-grab type device? There's no benefit?
|
|
|
|
Post by copperx on Apr 24, 2023 22:39:01 GMT -6
Just asking based on the blowback. So this is just a money-grab type device? There's no benefit? Well, I think the $199 they're asking for it is not too overpriced for a bunch of extra power outlets and some blinking lights in a 2RU if you like the aesthetics. Definitely nicer looking than a $50 power strip. |
|
