Print Page | Close Window

UPS Experiences/recommendations

Printed From: Graham Slee Hifi System Components
Category: And the rest
Forum Name: Power Sources
Forum Description: Where the power comes from has always been a hot topic - even more so now with new World legislation
URL: https://www.hifisystemcomponents.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=5477
Printed Date: 29 Mar 2024 at 10:21am
Software Version: Web Wiz Forums 12.01 - http://www.webwizforums.com


Topic: UPS Experiences/recommendations
Posted By: peterb
Subject: UPS Experiences/recommendations
Date Posted: 09 Jun 2022 at 8:10pm
Has anyone dabbled with adding a UPS to their Audio Setup?
I am getting fed up with unexpected power failures and to date it has cost me at least one replacement Digital Control board, a damaged PIC.
The UPS power requirement wouldn't have too great, just standby power, probably less than five watts. It mustn't degrade the audio when is use and it would be useful if either automatically and smoothly powered everything down or, sent an alert so it could be done manually.
Thanks


-------------
Peter
---------------------------------------
Dual 505-1, Cyrus CD T, DIY 80W MosFet amp and PreAmp, 2xKEF 103.2



Replies:
Posted By: lfc jon
Date Posted: 09 Jun 2022 at 8:31pm
Originally posted by peterb peterb wrote:

Has anyone dabbled with adding a UPS to their Audio Setup?
I am getting fed up with unexpected power failures and to date it has cost me at least one replacement Digital Control board, a damaged PIC.
The UPS power requirement wouldn't have too great, just standby power, probably less than five watts. It mustn't degrade the audio when is use and it would be useful if either automatically and smoothly powered everything down or, sent an alert so it could be done manually.
Thanks
That must be a bloody nuisance AND money consuming, how offen does it happen?
Not long ago I was having the same problem but it didn't cost me money it was just inconvenient, sometimes it would be out for up to an hour and always around early evening week days. Sorry I can't help you I had to look up what a UPS was. The only experience I have is my battery charger has it but I didn't know what they called it until now.


-------------
Reflex M, Solo (both with PSU-1) CuSat50, Lautus, Spatia & Spatia links cables. Ortofon Bronze.


Posted By: peterb
Date Posted: 10 Jun 2022 at 12:16pm
Thanks for the reply. Yes perhaps I should have said: Uninterruptable Power Supply (UPS), mains to mains.
I live in the countryside, which is lovely, but the mains supplies are all overhead and wind and trees are often the cause. And of course there are failures on the supply equipment, yesterday it was breaker/fuse apparently, must be a darn great fuse!
I might be able to use a Mains Conditioner if they have a bit of UPS capacity, but I don't know enough about them.


-------------
Peter
---------------------------------------
Dual 505-1, Cyrus CD T, DIY 80W MosFet amp and PreAmp, 2xKEF 103.2


Posted By: lfc jon
Date Posted: 10 Jun 2022 at 7:31pm
A good mains conditioner should stop any spike in the electicity which I think will be causing your equipment failure. The one I have is by "Tacima" has surge protection but no UPS. I didn't find it made that much difference to the sound quality (some say it improves the sound quality) but it didn't make it any worse. cost new £40

-------------
Reflex M, Solo (both with PSU-1) CuSat50, Lautus, Spatia & Spatia links cables. Ortofon Bronze.


Posted By: lfc jon
Date Posted: 10 Jun 2022 at 8:26pm
I had a look again and found Masterplug with surge protection 13A 4-Gang extention lead 2m on ScrewFix £11 again no UPS and it's not a mains conditioner but you can switch each socket off individually. I'm not having much luck in finding one with UPS.

-------------
Reflex M, Solo (both with PSU-1) CuSat50, Lautus, Spatia & Spatia links cables. Ortofon Bronze.


Posted By: Fatmangolf
Date Posted: 10 Jun 2022 at 8:44pm
Sorry I can't help. I have used 240 volt UPS with file servers to ensure smooth shutdowns but not with hifi. I live in town so accept fluctuations but luckily very few powercuts. I have seen some UPS units suggested for hifi systems but need to dig out the details if this would help you?

-------------
Jon

Open mind and ears whilst owning GSP Genera, Accession M, Accession MC, Elevator EXP, Solo ULDE, Proprius amps, Cusat50 cables, Lautus digital cable, Spatia cables and links, and a Majestic DAC.


Posted By: peterb
Date Posted: 10 Jun 2022 at 10:13pm
Thanks Jon, all suggestions welcome!
I tentatively switched my setup back on today after a power cut yesterday, fortunately all is well this time! My son suggested leaving the power off all together, no standby, seems a bit retrograde.



-------------
Peter
---------------------------------------
Dual 505-1, Cyrus CD T, DIY 80W MosFet amp and PreAmp, 2xKEF 103.2


Posted By: Fatmangolf
Date Posted: 11 Jun 2022 at 12:24pm
Clearly the standby current draw of your hifi compared to the UPS battery capacity wold be the key factor. It would determine how long a power cut could be sustained without effect on the standby state. But you'd be offsetting that against the possible change in sound due to having a UPS in your hifi's power supply during all your music listening.

-------------
Jon

Open mind and ears whilst owning GSP Genera, Accession M, Accession MC, Elevator EXP, Solo ULDE, Proprius amps, Cusat50 cables, Lautus digital cable, Spatia cables and links, and a Majestic DAC.


Posted By: lfc jon
Date Posted: 11 Jun 2022 at 2:33pm
Originally posted by peterb peterb wrote:

 My son suggested leaving the power off all together, no standby, seems a bit retrograde.

I agree. In this day an age you should not be having this problem. When I was having power cuts it was a problem under ground so it took over week for the power company to find it and sort out. So far no more power cuts.


-------------
Reflex M, Solo (both with PSU-1) CuSat50, Lautus, Spatia & Spatia links cables. Ortofon Bronze.


Posted By: peterb
Date Posted: 11 Jun 2022 at 3:48pm
We have lived here for more than 10 years and I estimate we have had, on average, at least one an-planned power failure a year. Some less than an hour, the worst for 36 hours!
My web search for something that would protect my Audio has just confused me, unsure where to go now!


-------------
Peter
---------------------------------------
Dual 505-1, Cyrus CD T, DIY 80W MosFet amp and PreAmp, 2xKEF 103.2


Posted By: lfc jon
Date Posted: 11 Jun 2022 at 5:47pm
I think something with only surge protection is what you should be looking for, one where you can switch off your most vulnerable equipment. Like Jon said you may find something with UPS will affect the sound quality and if the power is out for a long time say hours your going to need a UPS with a long battery life. Mains plugs with suge protection are cheap but I would advise going for the best you can afford with your sircumstances. I can't offer much more advice really. 

-------------
Reflex M, Solo (both with PSU-1) CuSat50, Lautus, Spatia & Spatia links cables. Ortofon Bronze.


Posted By: gwebster
Date Posted: 12 Jun 2022 at 11:10am
Back when I was living within a village in Cornwall and working from home with a desktop computer, I invested in a UPS. It was as big as the desktop box and would only give about an hours backup in the case of a power outage. My hi-fi was left to fare for itself. During that time, we had one or two outages and everything worked fine. When we moved within Cornwall to a more rural setting, a converted stables within a country estate (which you visited once to look at my Genera pre), we suffered a few more power outages but never any equipment failures due to them. Now we live in rural Hampshire in the South Downs and get more frequent power outages (more trees?) and, judging by the occasional few second tripping of my mains protection circuitry within my power amp, brown-outs.

The only time I've suffered equipment failure has been due to phone/power surges from lightning strikes locally (fried modem).

I suspect your problems are due to power surges / spikes. As others have suggested, a decent surge suppression power block is likely to be your best solution.


-------------
Inspire Apollo tt, O/L modded RB250, Ortofon 2M Black, Slee Different Approach inspired Phono, Putzeys Pre, Cusat, Raspberry Pi/Volumio, Bitzie, Self Load Invariant Power, Acoustic Energy AE509s


Posted By: lfc jon
Date Posted: 12 Jun 2022 at 12:20pm
As gwebster said, my mate would agree with him, He had one for his wife whom was working from home when in lockdowns and they had a power cut and he was vary disappointed that his UPS only lasted hour and half and he said his was the size of two suitcases. I still think a good surge protection is what you need.

-------------
Reflex M, Solo (both with PSU-1) CuSat50, Lautus, Spatia & Spatia links cables. Ortofon Bronze.


Posted By: peterb
Date Posted: 12 Jun 2022 at 12:24pm
Thanks Geoff, I well remember visiting you, down the road from my Cousin in Mylor Bridge.
The component failures I have had seem to be related to the spikes associated to the failing supply as it disappears. I hear my setup trying to turn on/off/on/off. Not sure what device would protect from that other than a UPS.  


-------------
Peter
---------------------------------------
Dual 505-1, Cyrus CD T, DIY 80W MosFet amp and PreAmp, 2xKEF 103.2


Posted By: gwebster
Date Posted: 12 Jun 2022 at 1:04pm
I've got Raspberry Pi based media server, Arduino nano, hi-fi, router  etc running 24/7 . We get power outs moderately frequently but no equipment failures so far. I suspect your problems have more to do with your power supply designs. You may be seeing issues due to device latch-up

-------------
Inspire Apollo tt, O/L modded RB250, Ortofon 2M Black, Slee Different Approach inspired Phono, Putzeys Pre, Cusat, Raspberry Pi/Volumio, Bitzie, Self Load Invariant Power, Acoustic Energy AE509s


Posted By: lfc jon
Date Posted: 12 Jun 2022 at 2:44pm
Originally posted by peterb peterb wrote:

The component failures I have had seem to be related to the spikes associated to the failing supply as it disappears. I hear my setup trying to turn on/off/on/off. Not sure what device would protect from that other than a UPS.  
That's different I thought it was when the power was coming back on, bear in mind how quick a UPS kicks in, you would have to find a UPS with a very quick responds time. From what I have been reading they seem to be very noisy even when not in use, so this may affect the sound quality. The one my mate was using was an old one but with new batteries and it was very noisy, I asked him if he thought it would affect the sound from his HiFi and he said most definitely. One thing you could do is add a mains conditioner after the UPS unit.


-------------
Reflex M, Solo (both with PSU-1) CuSat50, Lautus, Spatia & Spatia links cables. Ortofon Bronze.


Posted By: peterb
Date Posted: 13 Jun 2022 at 3:28pm
I think I might have found a solution on Rod Elliot's excellent website.
http://sound-au.com/project138.htm - http://sound-au.com/project138.htm

It is DIY a veroboard solution, but seems to fit the bill because it uses a normally open relay for the Mains In/Out to the load. If the Mains voltage varies outside the settings the relay opens.

I will investigate further.


-------------
Peter
---------------------------------------
Dual 505-1, Cyrus CD T, DIY 80W MosFet amp and PreAmp, 2xKEF 103.2



Print Page | Close Window

Forum Software by Web Wiz Forums® version 12.01 - http://www.webwizforums.com
Copyright ©2001-2018 Web Wiz Ltd. - https://www.webwiz.net