Top positive review
11 people found this helpful
Perfect For Powering Studios and Home Theater
By Don M. on Reviewed in the United States on October 22, 2017
This rack/table mount power supply switching module is top notch. I didn't realize just how versatile this was until I purchased it and ran it through its' paces. The module comes securely packaged and has an instruction manual that details all of the configuration options and settings. There are 7 outlets that can be configured for delayed power-on functions, and 3 always-on outlets. This allows you to set the delay power-up time for each item powered by the module. There is an option to set the contrast level of the front display, though I found that keeping it at the default setting works best in a normally lit room. On the face of the unit, are LED indicators that provide information about whether the module is grounded properly, if there is an overloaded condition, number of Amps the equipment is drawing, the line Voltage supplied to the module, and of course there is also a power button. The delay time you set for turning power on to each of the switch outlets, is also applied to the power down of those outlets. I use the module to supply power to my tube amplifiers, footswitches and whatever other audio equipment I may be using in my digital audio workstation. I've found this module to be dead silent, not introducing any noise, interference or cross-talk into my system. The module is also over-current protected so you can be certain that lightning or any other power surge will not damage your valuable equipment. All in all I would highly recommend this for anyone powering a home theater, home recording studio or any other situation requiring clean, safe power to your equipment. Great product and great value! Edit: 10/21/19 This unit is still simply awesome. I've purchased several thousand dollars worth of studio equipment since I've purchased this power conditioner, so now I need another G5BLK for rack-mount gear. No hesitation whatsoever. I ordered another one of these units to accommodate and protect the equipment in my ever-growing studio. I came upon a comparison recently between this APC and a Furman unit where both were opened to show the difference between them. The APC is a much, much higher quality unit, with completely isolated outlets and associated components. That's why this unit is heavy. All of the case space is used for integral components. The Furman honestly looked "cheap" and fairly empty, and it was more expensive. For my investment, I need quality. This is simply the best you can get under $400. Edit: 11/23/21 Both of my power conditioners are still going strong. I have added an RME ADI-2 Pro FS BE AD/DA to my studio for extremely high quality mixing and mastering. To enjoy the sonic benefits of such audio perfection, you indeed need power supplies and conditioners that keep noise levels null. Again, I cant stress enough how fantastic these units are for that purpose. I honestly feel like I found the proverbial diamond in the rough with these. You can easily spend 5 times more and not get better quality nor performance. I have relatively poor electrical in my 58 year old house. But I can literally see bit for bit performance in the software for my UFX+ and I’ve never had a lost bit of information, a crackle or pop in my recordings, or any other anomalies since I started using these power conditioners. I have a lot of faith in APC. Enough to protect more than $20k of gear in my small but ever growing studio.
Top critical review
15 people found this helpful
Nice machine, but does not solve our problem completely.
By Jack and Frances on Reviewed in the United States on July 24, 2016
This is a very nice machine and I think I am glad to have it, but it comes with a catch-22. We are gig musicians with a small portable sound system of various different components. I naively thought that since we routinely play in venues with marginal AC power - overloaded, underwired, badly wired etc., - that we should protect our system with something better than a common surge protector multibox. However, although this machine will and does run regardless of the following issue, here's the deal: it has an indicator light marked "Wiring OK" which does NOT light up in those problem venues where we know the power supply is substandard. If the "Wiring OK" indicator does not light up, then neither does the "Protection Working" light. These two indicator lights only come on in the one venue where there is never a problem and where we didn't think we should be needing this protection anyway. In the venues where we thought we needed "protection", the "Protection Working" indicator does not light. The manual says, "call a qualified electrician". Yeah, right. So, in those venues where the wiring is good, the unit protects against acts of God, and where the wiring is substandard, which is where we thought it might be useful, it claims to do nothing. It serves, then, primarily as a means of telling whether the wiring is OK or not, which could be done with a multi tester. Nevertheless, I am continuing to use it for the time being, under the fuzzy theory that it might be doing something. If the "Wiring OK" and "Protection Working" indicators do not light up, the unit still functions as long as the "Line OK" light is on, which indicates that the voltage is within the acceptable range (about 95 - 130 v). Just turn it on and it goes, regardless of whether "protection is working", firing up its sequenced outlets (a very nice feature). Exactly what it is doing when we run it in this mode, since the "protection" is "not working", is anybody's guess. It MAY be protecting the system in some way... you would think... maybe better than a cheap multi-box ... but without any guarantee. When the line voltage is outside of the acceptable range - which has happened once in a place where the whole electrical system was obviously overloaded - the G5BLK simply doesn't do anything and might as well be dead. The manual says this is what it does when the voltage is too low or high. I submit that it could have a readout on the LED screen that would give information on the reason why it won't turn on: too high, too low, and / or what the actual voltage is - but it doesn't. An apparent plus is the central ground terminal to which all peripherals which also have ground screws may be attached. The female 3-prong plugs are very well made and quite stiff, so it requires some effort from both hands to insert a power plug, (that is, you can't push a plug in one-handed because you will just push the rack around) and you can bet they will never jiggle loose. The unit also weights ten pounds. Since we move our sound system several times a week, this is not negligible. (I had earlier tried another naive solution: a UPS uninterruptible power supply, from the same outfit APC. Unfortunately, with the UPS, when the voltage drops it has a shrill alarm - a time bomb to ruin the musical moment, believe me.) Update: After a few months we decided to quit carrying this thing around and went back to a cheap multibox.
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Perfect For Powering Studios and Home Theater
By Don M. - Reviewed in the United States on October 22, 2017
Verified Amazon Purchase
This rack/table mount power supply switching module is top notch. I didn't realize just how versatile this was until I purchased it and ran it through its' paces. The module comes securely packaged and has an instruction manual that details all of the configuration options and settings. There are 7 outlets that can be configured for delayed power-on functions, and 3 always-on outlets. This allows you to set the delay power-up time for each item powered by the module. There is an option to set the contrast level of the front display, though I found that keeping it at the default setting works best in a normally lit room. On the face of the unit, are LED indicators that provide information about whether the module is grounded properly, if there is an overloaded condition, number of Amps the equipment is drawing, the line Voltage supplied to the module, and of course there is also a power button. The delay time you set for turning power on to each of the switch outlets, is also applied to the power down of those outlets. I use the module to supply power to my tube amplifiers, footswitches and whatever other audio equipment I may be using in my digital audio workstation. I've found this module to be dead silent, not introducing any noise, interference or cross-talk into my system. The module is also over-current protected so you can be certain that lightning or any other power surge will not damage your valuable equipment. All in all I would highly recommend this for anyone powering a home theater, home recording studio or any other situation requiring clean, safe power to your equipment. Great product and great value! Edit: 10/21/19 This unit is still simply awesome. I've purchased several thousand dollars worth of studio equipment since I've purchased this power conditioner, so now I need another G5BLK for rack-mount gear. No hesitation whatsoever. I ordered another one of these units to accommodate and protect the equipment in my ever-growing studio. I came upon a comparison recently between this APC and a Furman unit where both were opened to show the difference between them. The APC is a much, much higher quality unit, with completely isolated outlets and associated components. That's why this unit is heavy. All of the case space is used for integral components. The Furman honestly looked "cheap" and fairly empty, and it was more expensive. For my investment, I need quality. This is simply the best you can get under $400. Edit: 11/23/21 Both of my power conditioners are still going strong. I have added an RME ADI-2 Pro FS BE AD/DA to my studio for extremely high quality mixing and mastering. To enjoy the sonic benefits of such audio perfection, you indeed need power supplies and conditioners that keep noise levels null. Again, I cant stress enough how fantastic these units are for that purpose. I honestly feel like I found the proverbial diamond in the rough with these. You can easily spend 5 times more and not get better quality nor performance. I have relatively poor electrical in my 58 year old house. But I can literally see bit for bit performance in the software for my UFX+ and I’ve never had a lost bit of information, a crackle or pop in my recordings, or any other anomalies since I started using these power conditioners. I have a lot of faith in APC. Enough to protect more than $20k of gear in my small but ever growing studio.
Nice Product for the Price
By vero_engineer - Reviewed in the United States on July 21, 2012
Verified Amazon Purchase
When comparing price versus benefit compared to other brands, APC wins hands down. Pros: 1) Has a 10th of a digit accurate current meter which is important when you have all this gear on a 15A circuit and most people don't realize they are 1-2 amps away from tripping the breaker. 2) LCD displace has 4 dimmable settings with the last one being the best. 3) All those LED lights are nice, but terrible when you are watching a movie and all you see is the LEDs. They have 4 separate dimmable settings for the LEDs too, with none of them being low enough, but the last setting actually turns them off which I decided once the unit is turned on I can just turn them off which is best for movie watching. 4) You have very tight receptacles that hugged the plugs very well. 5) Comes with ear brackets and nice cushion feet that can be swapped out. I swapped them out. 6) Nice black profession looking product without any cheap looking components. 7) There is an upper and low level voltage threshold setting that will disconnect the load once reached and you are able to change that setting. 8) There is an always on outlet, switched on outlet, and 4 separate timed turn on outlets with each having its own delays time to turn on. When you turn the unit off the opposite sequence happens. Cons: 1) The back of the outlets mention high inrush receptacles, digital filtering, but no reference in the manual on what this means or a recommended sequence of connections. 2) Website mentions $450,000 down line product warranty, but I found no documentation with the unit on that or the manual. Only a lifetime warranty of the product and thus not convinced I really have any type of surge damaged equipment warranty. 3) The screened on name of "APC G5BLK Power Filter" had a gash across it leading me to believe that I might be purchasing a "TJ Max" (blemished) version of this product and thus the great price. I almost called to complain, but decided it wasn't worth it based on the great price I got.
Rain Sleet Hail or Snow!
By Relieved - Reviewed in the United States on January 11, 2014
Verified Amazon Purchase
I have a small home recording studio and I had been having issues with power spikes and pop when recording and producing music. I upgraded all of my cables but the spikes and pops continued. Then I read on a music forum that buying a power conditioner would help remedy this problem and protect my equipment as well. I researched different units from many companies for about a month before deciding to pull the trigger on this APC unit. A day after ordering, we (St. Louis, MO) were slammed by our worst winter storm since 1983, so I knew this would delay my shipment. Amazon later sent me an email confirming my thoughts and I appreciate them for doing so. After finally getting a pick up ticket left in my mailbox by the Post Office, I went down the next day to get it and it took them 20mins to find it. Also, the box was very beat up and half way open. I'm a bit worried at this point. I got it and went back to work. When I got home I installed it right away. The first thing I noticed it that one of the brackets was slightly bent due the terrible handling by the Post Office, but at the same time I'm glad they didn't leave it on my door step to freeze to death lol. After installing it in my rack, plugging in all of my equipment and powering it up, I must say that APC has cured my problem ladies and gentlemen. No more loud pops or spikes. Also it has lowered the noise floor of my equipment as well. This will improve my recordings. I strongly recommend this product.
APC Quality
By Mike M - Reviewed in the United States on December 9, 2012
Verified Amazon Purchase
This thing is apparently built like a tank. Despite UPS and my own best efforts to repeatedly drop the unit by accident, it still works properly. I bought the unit because I was having weird audio and video artifacts in my AV system when large fluorescent lights were switched on and off in another room. This unit did not fix the problem, which was actually due to a cheap improperly shielded HDMI cable. However, I keep most of my expensive digital equipment routed through this APC unit and I do hope to reap some benefits in lifetime and surge protection. If nothing else, the ammeter readout makes me more energy conscious as I mentally calculate the kilowatt hours flying by. I do not suggest routing power amplifiers through this unit. Even my modest 2x100W Carver TFM15 lights the APC's overload indicator, and it actually outputs a whoosh sound through the speakers when powering up. Definitely not good.
High Quality at a Bargain Price
By memberinkind - Reviewed in the United States on June 29, 2015
Verified Amazon Purchase
After having older units of this type from a different manufacturer fail, we decided to get two of these new units for a sound equipment rack in a church performance hall. They are of excellent quality, and we found the programming to be a cinch to get them going. The LCD display is a plus, and we found it best to set it on the screen that provides the amount of power that is passing to the equipment, so we don't have to worry about overdriving the unit. The unit comes with attached rack ears, which we did use but it also is shipped with rubber padded 'feet' if you choose to sit it on a shelf. We can also appreciate the fact that the power that is passed through this unit to our beloved equipment is conditioned and surge protected. Just what we wanted, and the price cannot be beat when compared to more expensive units. We have many different operators come into this sound booth to operate the equipment; these units make the power up/down sequence completely automatic and simplified. We could not ask for more, other than to have the sound mix itself! We felt the quality and features in this unit, the amount of switched outlets, the amount of other useful outlets, and again the LCD information display to be on-par with units that are much more expensive.
Great Power Conditioner for the Price
By AperturePriority - Reviewed in the United States on October 31, 2013
Verified Amazon Purchase
I did a considerable amount of online research prior to selecting the APC G5 and after a month or so I'm still satisfied with my choice. The APC G5 comes configured for rack mounting. However, the rack mount ears are easily removed and feet are provided for setting the unit up on a shelf. The unit provides sequenced On/Off in four stages utilizing five of the eight rear outlets (delay 2 has two outlets). Delay times can be configured from 1 to 60 seconds. In addition, two outlets are always on and a third is switched. LEDs provide the status of the outlets and an overload condition, if one should occur. A fluorescent display provides the line voltage and frequency as well as the total current draw. The display is also used to setup the device parameters. Display and LED brightness can be adjusted to suite the environment. Surge energy rating is 3400 Joules and EMI/RFI noise rejection is rated at 55 dB from 100 kHz to 10 MHz. The APC G5 display does indicate line voltage variations, although I have not made comparisons with a calibrated voltmeter. The display's current draw reading does increase as I turn on components. But I cannot vouch for the accuracy of the unit's ammeter. I am very satisfied with the APC G5. It seems well made and I think it is better than any of the competitive devices at this price point. I would recommend the APC G5 without hesitation.
Can't beat these for the money
By E. Franke - Reviewed in the United States on April 16, 2010
Verified Amazon Purchase
These APC G5 units are the best you can do without spending at least twice as much. I needed 2 of them, since my equipment occupies 2 different corners of the room and I didnt want to spend a lot. No one else offers this kind of quality and feature set for this price. They come with rack mounts intalled - just unscrew them and take them off if you are putting them on shelves like me. Then screw on the padded feet. They give you plenty of outlets and great protection from surges, and adjustable limits on voltage to shut everything down so they dont continue to receive under or overvoltage. The time delayed outlets can be adjusted from 1-60 seconds. The LEDs can be turned off, the LCD cannot - however it can be set to a pretty low brightness so it isnt a huge problem. The unit does not make any noise. Check out the thread at Audioholics Home Theater Forums. I dock this item slightly for not allowing turning off of the LCD screen and for not spacing any of the outlets for larger plugs such as transformers. If you have any of those, you'll end up using 2 outlets worth of space. For the design goals and price point though, it isnt enough to keep this from earning a high mark. Id give it a 4.5 out of 5.
Very Good Protection Power Conditioner
By Steve Mason - Reviewed in the United States on January 2, 2013
Verified Amazon Purchase
I've looked at plenty of conditioners and have Monster gear as well, I must say that this APC unit is as good as or better then Monster, Furman, Peavey, and other gear a like, and at a very affordable price. I use this for my home theater system which it works very well with. Since getting this conditioner my power source has been cleaned up considerably and it is nice being able to see my draw on the line when cranking the system. With all of the LED's you can easily see that all is OK or not if there is a problem. The only problems I encounter now is interconnects which are easily remedied if I pickup any noise. The only thing this unit is lacking is remote control which I wish it had but is certainly not the end of the world either. I will buy more of these and I will need one for my Karaoke rig which everything will mount is a 19" transportable rack with Crown amps and a Mackie mixing board.
Nice machine, but does not solve our problem completely.
By Jack and Frances - Reviewed in the United States on July 24, 2016
Verified Amazon Purchase
This is a very nice machine and I think I am glad to have it, but it comes with a catch-22. We are gig musicians with a small portable sound system of various different components. I naively thought that since we routinely play in venues with marginal AC power - overloaded, underwired, badly wired etc., - that we should protect our system with something better than a common surge protector multibox. However, although this machine will and does run regardless of the following issue, here's the deal: it has an indicator light marked "Wiring OK" which does NOT light up in those problem venues where we know the power supply is substandard. If the "Wiring OK" indicator does not light up, then neither does the "Protection Working" light. These two indicator lights only come on in the one venue where there is never a problem and where we didn't think we should be needing this protection anyway. In the venues where we thought we needed "protection", the "Protection Working" indicator does not light. The manual says, "call a qualified electrician". Yeah, right. So, in those venues where the wiring is good, the unit protects against acts of God, and where the wiring is substandard, which is where we thought it might be useful, it claims to do nothing. It serves, then, primarily as a means of telling whether the wiring is OK or not, which could be done with a multi tester. Nevertheless, I am continuing to use it for the time being, under the fuzzy theory that it might be doing something. If the "Wiring OK" and "Protection Working" indicators do not light up, the unit still functions as long as the "Line OK" light is on, which indicates that the voltage is within the acceptable range (about 95 - 130 v). Just turn it on and it goes, regardless of whether "protection is working", firing up its sequenced outlets (a very nice feature). Exactly what it is doing when we run it in this mode, since the "protection" is "not working", is anybody's guess. It MAY be protecting the system in some way... you would think... maybe better than a cheap multi-box ... but without any guarantee. When the line voltage is outside of the acceptable range - which has happened once in a place where the whole electrical system was obviously overloaded - the G5BLK simply doesn't do anything and might as well be dead. The manual says this is what it does when the voltage is too low or high. I submit that it could have a readout on the LED screen that would give information on the reason why it won't turn on: too high, too low, and / or what the actual voltage is - but it doesn't. An apparent plus is the central ground terminal to which all peripherals which also have ground screws may be attached. The female 3-prong plugs are very well made and quite stiff, so it requires some effort from both hands to insert a power plug, (that is, you can't push a plug in one-handed because you will just push the rack around) and you can bet they will never jiggle loose. The unit also weights ten pounds. Since we move our sound system several times a week, this is not negligible. (I had earlier tried another naive solution: a UPS uninterruptible power supply, from the same outfit APC. Unfortunately, with the UPS, when the voltage drops it has a shrill alarm - a time bomb to ruin the musical moment, believe me.) Update: After a few months we decided to quit carrying this thing around and went back to a cheap multibox.
Excellent and affordable rack-mount solution compared to what's available from the higher end market.
By Kenneth P. - Reviewed in the United States on October 14, 2018
Verified Amazon Purchase
There aren't a whole lot of affordable rack mountable, home theater power conditioners with good switching options these days. The market used to have tons of them made by Monster, Panamax, Belkin, Furman, and more, but these days only a couple companies are making a few suitable higher priced products. I found this APC on Amazon with good reviews and excellent switching options for $137. Wasn't looking for an amazing, audiophile grade product, just something simple that could handle power conditioning and switching for 8 devices. In its current configuration it handles my home theater including processor, amp, Xbox, PS4, DirecTV tuner, Sonos Zoneplayer, 10-channel home distribution amp, internet modem, and router all run into a dedicated 15 amp circuit breaker. I'm doubtful it would protect everything through a lightning strike (nothing really does), but it's made it through several spikes and thunderstorms without a hiccup.
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