Furman: P-1800 AR vs PFR

I currently own the AR15 SERIES II that I've had for about 10 years and I was wanting to get a new unit. I decided to go with the P1800 PF R since it said it's made for instrument amplifiers. I called Furman for some technical info then thet tell me it's not a voltage regulator. I was going to sell my AR15 SERIESII to recoup some money but now after all of this I'm thinking of piggybacking the AR 15 off of the PFR....? Thoughts?
 
Jsale83":38zlqmrs said:
I currently own the AR15 SERIES II that I've had for about 10 years and I was wanting to get a new unit. I decided to go with the P1800 PF R since it said it's made for instrument amplifiers. I called Furman for some technical info then thet tell me it's not a voltage regulator. I was going to sell my AR15 SERIESII to recoup some money but now after all of this I'm thinking of piggybacking the AR 15 off of the PFR....? Thoughts?

I don't have a PFR but I have both the P-1800 AR and the AR-15 Series II. They are both basically the same thing with the P-1800 being the newer model. That being said, much of the above discussion regarding the P-1800 AR/P-1800 PF R used together would apply to your situation.
 
FourT6and2":3c162upk said:
Also I don't know why Furman doesn't offer one unit that does both regulation and conditioning. It would have two displays. One that shows incoming mains voltage and the other shows outgoing regulated/conditioned voltage.

If I had to choose just one to use, it would be the PFR, as voltage regulation on the AR isn't precise enough to matter if your voltage doesn't fluctuate more than +/- 5v and the PFR seems to filter noise better.
But, what happens if the voltage does fluctuate more than +/- 5v, say during a surge (i.e. thunderstorm). I’d rather have the regulation for piece of mind and live with the slightly higher noise floor.
 
I have a monster home audio power conditioner/voltage regulator that I bought at a thrift store for $30, and it makes an insane difference. It can handle 15 amps too. Best $30 I have ever spent.
 
I found this discussion after an exhaustive search.

After a lifetime of not thinking about it, I began to worry about surge protection and power conditioning the day the tree branch fell on the electric wires feeding my mother in laws house. The resulting surge killed every single devices, motor, and appliance in the building, and turned all the power strips/surge protectors into pools of melted, charred plastic that welded themselves to the carpet.

I just remodeled my basement music room and I want to be sure my guitar rigs and tube amp collection are absolutely protected and maximally optimized to deal with the unpredictable AC power and unforeseen events using some kind of device between the wall and the gear.

A simple rack mouth device would be ideal. I am definitely not one of those guys that re-biases his amps to suit local voltage supplies ever since the electric bug zapper incident.

I need specifically in this order:
Lightning strike type non sacrificial surge protection
Voltage regulation (in and out) with Extra current reserves
Noise reduction / filtration

I am about 500 feet from a giant substation, have lots of power outages, brown outs, fluctuations, transformer explosions.
Preventing damage is job one, with noise reduction and amp performance closely behind.

It is midday here in Seattle during a wind storm and the 25 year old Furman PL-Plus Power Conditioner, and the Furman AR-1215 A.C. Line Voltage Regulator on my P.A. system both indicate 115 v, however it is often much higher, and sometimes lower.

This is one of the best discussions I've found on this subject and it is almost 15 years old.

Is there newer, better, strategy and equipment brand/model to protect and optimize my guitar rigs and tube amp collection?

Any thoughts or recommendations?
 
This discussion isn't 15 years old. I started this thread last year...
The Furman units discussed here work.
 
My bad. Confused the "Date Joined", with "Date posted".

Fantastic information that I thank you for. Well done and thank you for sharing.

Is your set up still performing as described? Would you change anything today?
 
Thank you. I appreciate your time and experience.
When I speak to electricians on this subject they immediately suggest the whole house suppressor, and then those guys who suggest this then state that they know nothing about Furman or similar products for audio/visual/sound/production.
I'm being convinced that the whole house protection and Furman style conditioners/regulators as described above are as good as it can realistically get, for a reasonable investment that is.
And sure, as some have stated, unplugging everything when not in use is the ultimate protection... although crap will happen when they are plugged in too.
After more than 40 years of moving and setting up and breaking down gear and systems I have become LAZY.
Just taking the dust covers off the heads is almost a barrier to playing. LOL!
This will probably be my last set up and for the next decade I want peace of mind and one switch to flip in order to play.
 
FourT6and2":1amu010i said:
I still use both units and they seem to work as adevertised.
I think I missed this thread last year but just read up. So both furmans into each other cured the radio issue you had? I have some radio issues that I would love to be rid of lol. I tried using a shit ton of ferrite beads on audio and power cables that helped quite a bit not 100%. I'm gonna look for those models you bought. Let me know if you have any other tips ;)
 
errrrrl":2t7l243z said:
FourT6and2":2t7l243z said:
I still use both units and they seem to work as adevertised.
I think I missed this thread last year but just read up. So both furmans into each other cured the radio issue you had? I have some radio issues that I would love to be rid of lol. I tried using a shit ton of ferrite beads on audio and power cables that helped quite a bit not 100%. I'm gonna look for those models you bought. Let me know if you have any other tips ;)

Yeah using both units solved about 95% of my noise issues. Some of the issues I had came from the amp itself (bad fx loop design). But I use these things with all my amps now and it keeps everything consistent and repeatable.
 
Got the Furman 1800ar last year, upgrade from an old ar117.

Massive improvement in everything, and at the time i also ulgraded to Voodoo Labs 4x4z

No more power issues here. Budget solutions do work but i wanted pro level.
 
Hi rig-talk, this is my first post here! I've just bought a furman P-1800 AR & P-1800 PF R, through which to route much of my studio gear, and I'm struggling to determine how best to prioritize which types of gear goes into which of the different furman units. I've consulted the manuals for both units and they were alas rather unhelpful wrt to using the units together, as well as how to approach what to plug into them, and where! The only real note in the manuals was that it is best to try and separate analog and digital equipment into distinct banks of the furman units. I've tried to do this as detailed below. I've also reached out to furman, and am crossing my fingers that they'll get back to me w/ some insight here. In the meantime--maybe we can crowdsource some wisdom!

My overall objective for this setup is to attain a clean production rig that can provide consistent performance in different places, especially wrt the sound out of my electric guitar rig.

I believe I'm first going to try plugging the 1800-AR into the wall, and then the 1800-PF R into one of the "BANK A" outputs of the 1800-AR.

The different "categories" of my gear are as follows:

Computer stuff:
- 2x powered hubs
- 1x display
Monitoring:
- 2x near/midfield monitors
Converters:
- 1x audio interface
- 1x dac
Outboard stuff:
- 3x synths
- 1x sampler
- 2x turntables
- 1x analog dj mixer
Guitar rig:
- 1x 30W tube amp
- 1x UA OX attenuator
- 2x pedal power supplies

This comes out to 18 different things-with-plugs! 19 if I add a sub to this setup.
The AR & PF R have together 18 plugs-17 if the furman units are daisy-chained.

Here's a screenshot of my current plan:

D7gB34K

Edit: Ahh...the screenshot isn't working.

Here's the text:

GEAR:__________OUTPUT:
SYNTH 1_______AR BANK A
SYNTH 1_______AR BANK A
P-1800 FP R___AR BANK A
DJ MIXER_______AR BANK B
SYNTH 3_______AR BANK B
SAMPLER_______AR BANK B
USB HUB 2_____AR BANK B
TBD/FREE______AR BANK B
TBD/FREE______AR FRONT
UA OX_________PF R BANK A
AUDIO INTER.__PF R BANK A
DAC___________PF R BANK A
30W TUBE AMP_PF R BANK B
PP 2+ SUPPLY__PF R BANK B
PP MONDO S___PF R BANK B
T3+ HUB 1_____PF R FRONT
MONITOR 1____PF R HIGH CURRENT
MONITOR 2____PF R HIGH CURRENT
PC DISPLAY____POWER STRIP
TURNTABLE 1__POWER STRIP
TURNTABLE 2__POWER STRIP
HP TUBE AMP__POWER STRIP
P-1800 AR____WALL

I'd love some feedback as to whether or not this seems like a sensible approach wrt which pieces of gear are going into the different banks of the different furman units, as well as which pieces of gear it is most okay to relegate to power strips. I'll be doing some experimentation until then, but I'd love some input to help get oriented.

I definitely have some questions which I don't really know how to answer, such as "is it necessary or way overkill to run the pedal power supplies through the furman units?", "should I plug the guitar amp and ox into the HIGH CURRENT outputs of the PF R, or my monitors?", and "if I add a subwoofer, where should it go? If into the PF R, what should I boot to the AR?"

warmly,
echo
 
Reading this made me want to try my 5150-3 50 watt head a try...in bedroom is only place I can have/use my gear so..

Amp plugged into wall with no effects on in loop..ceiling fan/light combo when I pull on light cord some barely noticeable popping..with 1 boost pedal on noise increases barely when switching fan speeds on and off..then the other boost pedal on with the first one still on..popping increases..then the reverb pedal and 2 boost pedals on much louder popping and of course when the KFK 10 band eq gets mashed on major popping when changing fan speeds..the light switch has more of a scratchy noise than popping when turning on and off..and I have the KFK 18v on its own wall wart plugged into wall by itself..amp plugged into wall by itself..and this is at very minimal volumes until I start stomping on boost pedals,then the eq pedal.

Amp by itself has no noise at any volume(s). Wall voltage is 120-124 steady,but have not checked with stuff plugged in..damn the popping makes me wonder if I should get some noise reduction going..hoping it doesn't hurt my gear..I am a stay at home with the gear guy so will start looking.

I'm glad I saw this post..very good info. sorry I am bad about invading on peoples threads with my BS.
 
FourT6and2":rmrwmf3b said:
errrrrl":rmrwmf3b said:
FourT6and2":rmrwmf3b said:
I still use both units and they seem to work as adevertised.
I think I missed this thread last year but just read up. So both furmans into each other cured the radio issue you had? I have some radio issues that I would love to be rid of lol. I tried using a shit ton of ferrite beads on audio and power cables that helped quite a bit not 100%. I'm gonna look for those models you bought. Let me know if you have any other tips ;)

Yeah using both units solved about 95% of my noise issues. Some of the issues I had came from the amp itself (bad fx loop design). But I use these things with all my amps now and it keeps everything consistent and repeatable.
Reading through this thread was awesome..helped me with issues with noise..have the touching things makes noise and other popping/scratching noises..going to investigate with at least one of these Furman units..Thanks !
 
I actually called them and understood circuit breakers more. We checked and come to find out the circuit breakers in my apartment are 20 amp, therefore, they recommended the P-2400 AR (https://amzn.to/3CDi509) which is 20 amp versus the P-1800 (15 amp). It made me check out the PL-Pro C 20 amp (https://amzn.to/3QvzqxF) but after reading this thread, it’s voltage regulator for me. I’m just in a bit of disbelief that I actually need this for my workstation. This is my setup:


I ran all these electronic devices on these two power surge protectors (15 amp) and my Pro Tools Carbon just died out.

1. Power Strip Surge Protector,... https://www.amazon.com/dp/B078YLFFXL...p_mob_ap_share

2. Yeatel 2 Prong Power Strip-10 AC... https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08F1ZFM9P...p_mob_ap_share
 
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