Furman PL-PLUS E

Furman has been the musician's choice in providing accurate and reliable power conditioning and distribution for years. The PL-Plus is one of their more popular offerings. Here are some of the features found in this unit:

-Two slide out lamps that illuminate rack with dimmer control.
-8 rear outlets that are turned on/off via switch on front panel
-Spike and surge protection for your gear
-Multi stage RFI filtering to filter out unwanted noise from your rig/gear
-15 amp circuit breaker
-led monitor system on front that reads incoming voltage

I bought my PL-Plus second hand late in 2010. I also purchased a small rack case at the same time. The Furman shipped inside of the SKB rack that I purchased. Upon arrival of the units, it was apparent that UPS had attempted to destroy my package!!! It appeared to have been dropped off of a skyscraper. When I opened the rack case, there were scratches on the case and the SKB's rack ears as well as the ears of the Furman conditioner were bent from the drop. I was pretty upset, but I tested everything and it worked! I eventually got over the damaged rack ears and the bent Furman and now it sits happily in my rig, and does what it's supposed to do!

Just a warning, do not ship anything important or fragile via UPS! I've had several pieces of gear broken and carelessly handled by them, and I know some amp builders who have had more broken shipments than intact ones delivered by UPS. Avoid them!

Some of the the bars and other places my band plays at have shady electrical wiring. This type of situation is where these units are important. If you play an expensive tube amp for example, you are taking a risk plugging into the venue's AC every night. Spikes and low voltage can damage your gear and cause unwanted noise and less than optimum performance. The Furman uses filtering to clean up the power as well as the signal from your gear, and will shut down your gear in the event of dangerous voltage before it damages anything. Another purchase I will eventually make will be to buy a Furman Voltage Regulator so I know that no matter where I'm playing, I'm plugging my gear into a controlled and filtered 120 volts. A standard power conditioner like mine can monitor the incoming voltage, but cannot change it if it is too low or high.

Every rig should have some form of surge protection, even if it's just a plain old power strip. But for optimum sound and performance, pick up a power conditioner and experience less noise as well as outlets for your rack gear and surge protection.