About a year ago Furman Sound introduced their updated Series II line of power conditioner and distribution centers. The PL-8 Series II included some very important upgrades from its predecessor. The original PL-8 had a traditional style surge suppressor circuit that would sacrifice itself if the power surge was great enough to damage equipment plugged into the unit. This was a very good insurance policy for your rack gear, but did require that you send the PL-8 in for a replacement of the suppression circuit. Unfortunately, this also temporarily shut down your rack system, or at least left you unprotected, while the PL-8 was being repaired. However, now with the incorporation of Furman's new "Series Multistage Protection" (SMP) technology, you will no longer need to worry about a surge causing the power center's circuits to be destroyed.

To understand how SMP is different than the standard MOV and Gas Discharge Arrestor styles of surge protection, you should have a basic idea of how electricity flows to your powered gear. Here is a quick and very basic primer.

The basic three elements of an electrical current are volts, amps, and ohms. For the purposes of this review I want to focus on the amps since it is really the determining factor relative to electrical damage. Amps can effectively be described as the rate of current. This is how fast the electricity is moving through the line. Voltage is the pressure that pushes the current through the line. Ohms refers to the resistance which is determined by the line size and the conductivity of the material from which the line is made. Do you see a connection here? If the voltage spikes (or surges), more pressure is placed on the current. In response to this voltage pressure, the current moves faster. If the current is too fast, the resistance level (i.e., ohms) can not effectively slow it down which results in your electronics being hit by too high an amperage. Thus, it is really the amps and not the voltage that will hurt your equipment.

Here is an analogy to help your understanding. You are driving your car at a speed of 25 MPH toward a brick wall. You slam on you brakes 100 feet before the wall. Mostly likely, you will probably be able to stop the vehicle long before you hit the wall. Now, take the same car with the same brakes and drive it at the same wall at 100 MPH and try to stop within in the same 100 foot distance. I hope you have your seatbelt buckled and your airbag turned on because the chances of you stopping in time are not very good.

In this analogy the voltage is the engine providing accelleration, the actual speed represents the current, and the brakes represent the resistance. Although, this is not a perfect example since the goal of resistance is not to stop, but rather to slow down the current and keep it stable at the point in goes into your gear. Nevertheless, it should be sufficient to at least make the point.

Series Multistage Protection works exactly the way its name suggests. It is essentially protection using a series of different surge protection techniques. In the PL-8’s case there is an MOV system followed by a large capacitor which absorbs and dissipates the excess voltage. This significantly increases the strength of the unit and the size jolt it can handle.

This technology offers significant advantages over other types of surge and spike protection. Most equipment is designed to run off of 120 volts at 15 amps. The old version of the PL-8 was capable protecting your gear from one jolt of 6000 volts at 3000 amps. This circuitry would sacrifice itself and the unit would be rendered useless until repaired, but the rest of your equipment would be saved. With SMP added, the PL-8 Series II can now handle 6000 volts at 3000 amps multiple times without sacrificing itself.

The PL-8 II is designed to detect and clamp the excess voltage in one nanosecond. A nanosecond is one billionth of a second, which is incredibly fast. In the rare occurrence that a surge is greater that 6000 volts at 300 amps, you will likely not need to worry about your gear, because a surge that strong is going to knock out the power at the meter on your pole outside.

Let’s put this level of protection into perspective using our car and brick wall example from above. 6000 volts at 3000 amps would be the equivalent of driving you car at a brick wall at 1250 MPH and trying to stop within 100 feet. That would be virtually impossible, but it is essentially what the PL-8 II is able to accomplish with electrical energy. Moreover, it is able to stop the same car multiple times in succession. If you've read our previous articles on the surge suppression, you will recognize that this is real protection and insurance that could very likely save you a lot of money in the long run.

Clean Sounding Power

I remember playing clubs where I used to get a lot of hissing and humming sounds from the speakers. This is cause by radio frequency (RF) noise. Electrical lines act as attennas for these airborne frequencies which like to hitch rides through your power line and into your gear. This can be extremely annoying to both you and your audience. Some very common sources of RF are radio stations, CB’s, florescent lighting, and neon lights. I actually picked up a popping sound in my guitar amp and could not figure out where it was coming from until a neighbor near the house we were practicing at turned off their electric fence! RF interference can show up anywhere and at any time from all kinds of unexpected sources.

The PL-8 uses advanced filtering technology to help keep RF pollution from getting into your audio signal. Their patented Linear Filtering Technology (LiFT) will remove or dramatically reduce most interference.

At my home, I have an electrical outlet that seems to think it is a radio antenna. When my amp is plugged into this particular outlet I receive a very loud and strong signal from a local radio station through the speaker. This seemed like the perfect test for this device. I plugged the PL-8 into this outlet and subsequently plugged my amp into the PL-8 and turned then it all on. To my amazement, the amp was dead silent with a super clean signal. I did not even get a trace of the radio station. I guess you could say that if you can not hear the LiFT working, then it is working great.

Rack Lights

The PL-8 includes lighting options to make viewing your rack in dark environments much easier. On the front to the unit there are two pull out swivel lamps to illuminate all of your rack gear. These lamps are an upgrade to older models by using low heat, long life LED’s in place of the old style 5 watt bulbs. These lamps provide more than enough lighting for viewing the rack components on a dark stage. The lamps have a separate on/off switches so that you can utilize the lamps even when the unit is turned off. Add to this the dimmer control and you are able to dial in your preferred light level.

I can not tell you how many times that I was trying to hold a flashlight in one hand and hook up wires in the back of my rack with the other. Furman adds a new feature to the Series II models that does away with this irritating inconvenience. They have added a BNC connector jack to the back of the unit. You are now able to use any standard gooseneck light adapter to light the back of your rack system. This light also runs off the same on/off switch and dimmer control as the front lights. Since you most likely will not want the unit turned on while you are hooking up your equipment, this is where it is very handy to have a on/off switch that allows the lights to work even when the unit is turned off. Furman offer the option of two different gooseneck lamps that may be purchased separately from the unit.

For those of you who gig with rack systems, the PL-8 or one of Furman’s other Series II units is an absolute must have. Every different club and venue you play will present different power problems at varying levels.

The PL-8 was designed to far exceed the standards of laboratory tests for such units. Furman realizes that the real world is not a controlled environment such as a laboratory test, and therefore their designs are made to face the unpredictable events of real world conditions. I have come to respect Furman Sound’s leadership and cutting edge innovation in their field. For their support and commitment to musicians and sound reinforcement professionals I award them the Guitar Gear Heads "Approved" Award.



Gary Allen

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Guitar gear Heads is a Division of Allen & Halberg Publishing, Inc.

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