So, you’ve spent all that money on a nice new shiny AV system.. Did you take a service contract out with it? Did you think about how to protect your investment?
You wouldn’t go out in the rain without an umbrella so why buy expensive AV equipment without protection? Spending that little extra at the beginning (sometimes no more than £100) can save you £1000’s in the long term and will actually improve your return on investment.
One of the main causes of electronic product failure is the damage to components from an irregular or ‘dirty’ mains supply. Over time a bad mains supply will attack and degrade the electronics in a product causing them to prematurely fail, rather like plaque attacks your teeth. We all want to keep that shiny white smile don’t we, so we protect our teeth by brushing and removing the plague. Well, we can do a similar thing to our shiny new AV equipment by using something called a power conditioner. A power conditioner has several functions – it ‘cleans’ the mains supply going into the rack, thereby eradicating a large proportion of the nasty aspects that may cause your well-spent money to stop working. It also has the ability to stop surges or spikes from a mains supply reaching your lovely new kit. In certain models, a power conditioner can even schedule the AV kit to turn on/ off and report back its kW/h usage thereby saving you money. So a product that not only protects your money but gives it back to you…
What if you don’t have protection? “It’ll never happen to me… “(if only I had a pound for every time someone said that to me). In a worst case scenario, an unprotected rack can catch fire causing more than just damage to the equipment!
Some people will rightly ask, what is the difference between a power conditioner and the power surge strip I can buy from a domestic retail outlet – watch this video and you’ll see why we strongly suggest you take out the ‘insurance’ of a true, professional power conditioner…..
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=JujCqjLSQF8
Simon Druce, CUK Audio
