LibraryGuy
New Head-Fier
- Joined
- Feb 22, 2011
- Posts
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- 14
TL;DR: No voodoo, just power. Quite large, heavier than I was expecting.
--
It was early at the warehouse, but Jerry liked to get started before the rest of the crew rolled in. He pulled his packing list and retrieved his favorite cart: a yellow-and-black plastic, caster wheeled jobber he'd used since his first day. Others poked fun at him for not upgrading, but Jerry would just reply: "I know I can count on her."
First item of the day...a Furman alphabetsoup? "They make what? power strips? People and their gizmos." Jerry shook his head and set out for the row of shelving marked on the sheet. "Easy item, quick pack. Good way to get going."
Jerry rounded the corner, and it took a moment to realize he was in a zone reserved for oversize items. "That can't be right."
Jerry approached the correct shelf tag, finally realizing what he'd gotten himself into.
The blood drained from his face. Jerry gaped. "We're gonna need a bigger box."
--
I feel for the guy. I live all of 20 minutes from work and my arms were sore after carrying this thing home:
Point the first: Blister packaging! Booooo. Does anybody like these? No, nobody does. They're punishment for buying things. And in this case, the plastic was too weak; one of the corners (of the packaging) was damaged and there was a lot of play in the whole affair. Bleh. At least it was relatively easy to get into.
No damage to the item, though; so, hooray.
Yup, 4 CDs across. It's big.
7.5 standard jewel cases high. The points for the coax are 8.5 high, same unit of measurement. It's really quite large.
Here's a shot comparing its size to the rest of my horribly organized living room setup. I swear that there is no foreshortening due to camera angle and distance to the other components. It's really that big.*
TESTING-initial
I plugged a lamp into the strip, and the strip into the wall. I turned the strip on, and there was a slight pause before an audible click and the blue 'protection ok' light came on. The lamp also came on, as evidenced by the increased amount of light in my living room.
Prong retention is firm, but requires only a slight increase in force versus the wall or the outgoing power strip. The lamp has no ground pin.
Test Passed
What did we learn from initial testing?
1. The strip successfully takes power from the wall and passes it on to the devices plugged in to it.
2. Said devices do not immediately explode.
3. The solid-feeling power switch appears to run a relay of some kind, thus the click after switching and before power. Nice. I'm assuming (probably incorrectly) that this will give a softer ramp to the juice and/or make for less crud/corrosion on the actual switch connections over time.
4. The plug for the strip has one of the wall-hugger type plugs, cool, but instead of coming straight down, it's off to the 4 o'clock position, for some reason. This might let you use the top plug and keep the bottom one free on a standard US wall socket, but I didn't think of that until just now.
IMPLEMENTATION
Power off. Lamp removed from strip. TV, blu-ray, Bifrost (DAC), C-162 (preamp), mini-X a-100 (amp) added to strip. Power on. Click. LED.
Ground prong retention in the strip is tight, some force required for insertion; nothing I'd consider out of bounds.
TESTING-primary
No change detected in noise floor. Slight hiss from tweeter unchanged. Transformer noise from preamp unchanged. I had my fingers crossed, but wasn't really expecting any cleanup of those.
If/when the upstairs neighbor uses the restroom again I'll know if it cures the associated speaker thump. I wish I were kidding.
Self-noise: zero. No audible noise coming from the power strip of any kind. If there was any, the preamp transformer hum was drowning it out, and there's not a lot of that, either.
Music: Bon Iver Bon Iver, Daft Punk Random Access Memories. Testing confirms that music plays. I'd love to say that there were better resolved cymbals, glissandi, and tighter bass...but I can't. I enjoy both of those albums tremendously, but I hear something different every time I listen. And this time I was listening especially hard (if that makes any sense). Allowing for bias there was no significant improvement.
I can say with confidence that it had no negative impact. I enjoy both of those albums tremendously, and they sounded as good as I've heard them through my system before.
I was unable to test the surge protection, and I hope I'll never have to. If something happens, I'll update this post.
CONCLUSION
If you're like me and are in the market for a ridiculously over-sized power strip--I honestly had no idea when I ordered the thing (I swear I am not compensating for anything)--with great apparent build quality and an assumption of good protection, the PST-8D from Furman will turn the trick.
Just don't all rush out and order one from Amazon for $105, as I did, or we'll kill poor Jerry.
*No, it really isn't**
**Yes, it really is.
--
It was early at the warehouse, but Jerry liked to get started before the rest of the crew rolled in. He pulled his packing list and retrieved his favorite cart: a yellow-and-black plastic, caster wheeled jobber he'd used since his first day. Others poked fun at him for not upgrading, but Jerry would just reply: "I know I can count on her."
First item of the day...a Furman alphabetsoup? "They make what? power strips? People and their gizmos." Jerry shook his head and set out for the row of shelving marked on the sheet. "Easy item, quick pack. Good way to get going."
Jerry rounded the corner, and it took a moment to realize he was in a zone reserved for oversize items. "That can't be right."
Jerry approached the correct shelf tag, finally realizing what he'd gotten himself into.
The blood drained from his face. Jerry gaped. "We're gonna need a bigger box."
--
I feel for the guy. I live all of 20 minutes from work and my arms were sore after carrying this thing home:
Point the first: Blister packaging! Booooo. Does anybody like these? No, nobody does. They're punishment for buying things. And in this case, the plastic was too weak; one of the corners (of the packaging) was damaged and there was a lot of play in the whole affair. Bleh. At least it was relatively easy to get into.
No damage to the item, though; so, hooray.
Yup, 4 CDs across. It's big.
7.5 standard jewel cases high. The points for the coax are 8.5 high, same unit of measurement. It's really quite large.
Here's a shot comparing its size to the rest of my horribly organized living room setup. I swear that there is no foreshortening due to camera angle and distance to the other components. It's really that big.*
TESTING-initial
I plugged a lamp into the strip, and the strip into the wall. I turned the strip on, and there was a slight pause before an audible click and the blue 'protection ok' light came on. The lamp also came on, as evidenced by the increased amount of light in my living room.
Prong retention is firm, but requires only a slight increase in force versus the wall or the outgoing power strip. The lamp has no ground pin.
Test Passed
What did we learn from initial testing?
1. The strip successfully takes power from the wall and passes it on to the devices plugged in to it.
2. Said devices do not immediately explode.
3. The solid-feeling power switch appears to run a relay of some kind, thus the click after switching and before power. Nice. I'm assuming (probably incorrectly) that this will give a softer ramp to the juice and/or make for less crud/corrosion on the actual switch connections over time.
4. The plug for the strip has one of the wall-hugger type plugs, cool, but instead of coming straight down, it's off to the 4 o'clock position, for some reason. This might let you use the top plug and keep the bottom one free on a standard US wall socket, but I didn't think of that until just now.
IMPLEMENTATION
Power off. Lamp removed from strip. TV, blu-ray, Bifrost (DAC), C-162 (preamp), mini-X a-100 (amp) added to strip. Power on. Click. LED.
Ground prong retention in the strip is tight, some force required for insertion; nothing I'd consider out of bounds.
TESTING-primary
No change detected in noise floor. Slight hiss from tweeter unchanged. Transformer noise from preamp unchanged. I had my fingers crossed, but wasn't really expecting any cleanup of those.
If/when the upstairs neighbor uses the restroom again I'll know if it cures the associated speaker thump. I wish I were kidding.
Self-noise: zero. No audible noise coming from the power strip of any kind. If there was any, the preamp transformer hum was drowning it out, and there's not a lot of that, either.
Music: Bon Iver Bon Iver, Daft Punk Random Access Memories. Testing confirms that music plays. I'd love to say that there were better resolved cymbals, glissandi, and tighter bass...but I can't. I enjoy both of those albums tremendously, but I hear something different every time I listen. And this time I was listening especially hard (if that makes any sense). Allowing for bias there was no significant improvement.
I can say with confidence that it had no negative impact. I enjoy both of those albums tremendously, and they sounded as good as I've heard them through my system before.
I was unable to test the surge protection, and I hope I'll never have to. If something happens, I'll update this post.
CONCLUSION
If you're like me and are in the market for a ridiculously over-sized power strip--I honestly had no idea when I ordered the thing (I swear I am not compensating for anything)--with great apparent build quality and an assumption of good protection, the PST-8D from Furman will turn the trick.
Just don't all rush out and order one from Amazon for $105, as I did, or we'll kill poor Jerry.
*No, it really isn't**
**Yes, it really is.