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Coil Whine and Power Conditioners

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larason2

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Coil Whine and Power Conditioners

PostSat May 07, 2022 8:03 pm

I definitely feel like I'm a bit late to this party. I recall there being talk about power conditioners, UPS, and other similar power supplies in the past, but I've never paid much attention to it. Recently I posted about some issues with some Mac Studios having a particular whine. After reading a bit more about it, I'm also convinced it's coil whine (whine coming from inductors that regulate incoming power). I don't have it on mine, but reading more into it, apparently it is a fairly common issue for some people (particularly gamers), and can happen on any piece of electronic equipment:

https://clevercreations.org/what-is-coi ... ow-to-fix/

Now, one of the recommended "fixes" in some circles is to use a power conditioner. Admittedly, it may not work for everyone, but if unstable voltage or power coming in at particular frequencies is causing the inductors in your equipment to whine, it could help. Reading up about power conditioners though, apparently this is something that has been used in Pro audio for quite some time. Aside from surge protection, modern power conditioners have a number of other cool features that may help to reduce or improve noisiness from your audio equipment (though at a cost!). Some of them are rack mountable with your other audio equipment (like this model from Furman):

https://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail ... -pl-8c-15a

I've remember Hauptwerk posts mentioning this in the past, but not many and not in tons of detail. Anyone care to share what they use for power conditioning and how it has worked out? Anyone encountered coil whine on any of their systems?
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Romanos

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Re: Coil Whine and Power Conditioners

PostSun May 08, 2022 8:33 am

I use furman power conditioners and they helped reduce a lot of ground loop hum and other noise when I lived in Oklahoma where we had very dirty / unstable power (all those storms!).
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larason2

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Re: Coil Whine and Power Conditioners

PostSun May 08, 2022 3:52 pm

Thanks! Furman does sound like a reputable brand. Oklahoma sounds a lot like Manitoba!
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Romanos

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Re: Coil Whine and Power Conditioners

PostMon May 09, 2022 9:54 am

I should also mention that my power conditioners have been chugging along for years now.
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larason2

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Re: Coil Whine and Power Conditioners

PostMon May 09, 2022 11:34 am

Thanks! I ended up ordering the Furman PL 8C. It seemed like the model that has most of their more sophisticated power conditioning features. I also have some mains hum on my monitors I'm hoping it will help improve.

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