FurmanP-1800 PF R Advanced Level Power Conditioner with Power Factor Technology Rackmountable, Use for Instrument Amps

I used to have quite a bit of hum in my setup (guitar preamp -> effects processor -> pedals -> tube amp), and I have used other Furman AC conditioners without much luck. This unit finally took care of my hum-related problems. A tech I know advised me to get a balanced conditioner for best results, but those are prohibitively expensive. In my mind even $300 spent on a conditioner was a lot of money. I was very hesitant buying it because of the high price and the fact that it's not "balanced" (whatever that technical lingo means), but after hooking it up and hearing the results I think it's worth every single penny. The hum is 90% gone, from what I hear, and honestly I think that the rest of the hum exists in pretty much every tube amp, no matter how clean its power source is. I gave it four stars because it would have been nice to have some LED lights, like its less expensive siblings. To me, LEDs are practical and when you are spending so much money you'd expect to have them.Bottom line: Regardless of that little imperfection, If you have the cash and are serious about your tube sound, Furman P-1800 PF R is your conditioner. I am very happy with mine.

Excellent product! Very easy to use. I just took it out of the box and hooked my amps to the high current outputs and my keyboard to one of the regular outputs, and I could immediately hear an improvement in the keyboard sound. The unit is absolutely quite and makes no noise that I could hear. Also when my UPS goes offline, I would hear some noise in the amps, but with this Furman P-1800 PF R in the mix, I don't hear that noise either.

Short story: It might be OK for guitar amps, but it didn't work in a home audio system.Long story: The AC power in our house is noisy due to the usual suspects (local power utility, refrigerator, air conditioner, fluorescent/CFL lights, computers). I needed an AC power filter/conditioner that would reduce the buzz, clicks and and pops heard in my speakers.I did some research and Furman products received good reviews, They have many models with different advertised features, so I called their tech hotline and asked for a recommendation. The tech said the P-1800 PF R would solve my problem because it has "Power Factor Technology". He explained that in addition to the surge suppressors and filter chokes in other models, this model had a large capacitor across the power line for filtering and power reserve. He went on a techno-babble sales pitch that seemed geared to musicians and had many technical errors (full disclosure: I'm an MIT electrical engineer). I repeated that this was for a home audio system and asked if he still recommended it. He said this is the best for my application. All the online reviews were positive, so I ordered it.Two days later, It's in the rack and hooked up. Even with my amps turned off, the P-1800 PF R made a buzzing noise that could be heard 5 feet away. When I turned on the amps, the buzz in the speakers was louder before. After some testing, I found that simply plugging the filter into any nearby outlet made the buzz louder. I called tech support, described the behavior, and was told the unit must be defective and to return it for a replacement.Two days later I get the replacement. This one doesn't buzz when turned on by itself, but with the amps on, the buzz is worse. Maybe there are applications where this power filter/conditioner will help, but with my setup, it made the problem worse. The big capacitor that's the heart of their "Power Factor Technology" is exactly the wrong approach to the problem. It created noisy currents in our power line which in turn caused ground loop noise. I've solved ground loop problems before, but this time, the noise caused by the P1800 PF R was too severe. Besides, why should I need to fix noise that is caused by a device advertised to reduce noise?I sent the second P-1800 PF R back and now have an APC G50NETB2 that solved our noisy AC power problems. I can now enjoy music without the buzz, clicks, and pops.

TLDR; Probably fine for small amperage loads, but adds worse issues above 5 amps.I live in an old 1930s era apartment building, with old (cloth insulated) wiring, distributing rather poor quality San Francisco electric. It’s the kind of place where running the toaster and the microwave at the same time will definitely brown/dim the lights if it doesn’t cause a fuse bulb to blow and/or the 15amp breaker downstairs to trip. The entire apartment has 15amps; which should probably be illegal, if not cruel and unusual punishment. So when I say I wanted to “clean and protect” the AC to the oh so fancy all tube stereo, I want it to have the proper context.The power conditioner is always on, and has a mild buzz coming from it. I didn’t concern myself with it as it required my head to be resting against it to hear. Turn on the preamp (McIntosh C2300) and the buzz get a little louder. The noise is coming from the conditioner not the speakers. Turn on the first power amp (Manley Neo Classic 250) and the amperage jumps to a little less than 3amps, and the buzzing jumps up in volume a few notches. Turn on the second amp and this conditioner thinks it is center stage, audible from the next room over, negating any quiet or detailed listening. I found it had actually introduced a new buzz coming from the speakers where none was apparent before. One of my measures of clarity is to select “MC Phono” with no record playing and turn the volume up to max to listen for “imperfections”. The buzzing made this a heartbreaking experience. The internet suggested multiple “ground loop” solutions, some helpful but none complete even in combination. I stopped short of disassembling the conditioner to search for a “loose transformer”. I’ll need to replace this unit with something worthy. I need a bit more than a fancy power strip.

Terrible on all counts.1) It never fixed my noise issue. I have insane background noise and it did nothing to get rid of it.2) It made things worse. I bought it to have less audio noise, but it actually created MORE audible noise in my room. It does this in the form of a very annoying buzzing sound from the unit. This is actually the second unit I bought that has strange buzzing noise. I can't believe it creates more noise. I purchased this unit to get rid of the noise. Wooooooow so useless.3) I contacted furman SEVERAL times for one of my units in the past. No reply after months of waiting. This company is trash.

Great Product!

I use this product with my Fender amplifier; clean, clean, clean power/sound; Love it!