Furman AR1215 Voltage Regulator

No documentation accompanies the unit.

Causes mechanical hum in my Adcom amplifiers. Here is the reply I got from Christos Desalernos at Furman:

"...this is caused because of a DC offset passed to your amplifier due to the triacs used in the AR 15. The offset is shaking the coils of the amplifier's transformer. This will not damage the amplifier, but it can couple into the audio signal and be annoying..." [!]

Who is this guy kidding? Perhaps there is a fine line between "damage your equipment" and "shorten the product life of the amp drastically.

I always have a backup.

Yes, I dealt with Christos Desalernos christosD@furmansound.com and Mike Anderson mikeA@furmansound.com. It was tought getting through Furman's voice reponse system. It is a maze that empties out into a queue an hour long. Here is a direct number to a rep.

707-763-1010 x2352
707-753-1069 (Cell)

All Aboard The Merry-Go Round
-----------------------------
First Christos Desalernos asked for the gear back and issued me a UPS label for it. Once they got it, Christos sent me an email saying it was in perfect shape. I spoke with Mike Anderson on the phone. He said, "sorry, you don't have an RMA number. I can't give you your money back without an RMA." If you are confused, don't feel bad. So was I.

I should note that their authorized dealer (Musician's Advocate) was non-responsive. That is why I had to contact the manufacturer (Furman). However, Mike Anderson and Christos Desalernos quickly became part of the charade. Once they had the equipment, they kicked me to the curb. Mike told me via telephone, "Call your credit card company. We don't do returns. We are a manufacturer. We don't sell to end-users." Why did they ask for the unit back?

The equipment worked well with my digital equipment, but was not interoperable with my amps. Furman is a good name, how is it their customer service people can be so terrible.

I'm putting this up for all of the Furman products because I had a bad experience recently with Furman's customer service. If you send them anything for repair, MAKE SURE YOU HAVE DELIVERY CONFIRMATION AND TRACKING INFO. I inquired about expedited service after noticing on the website they go out of thier way to help people in as hurry. Thier response was, "just send it in", more or less. I sent it via priority mail (3-4 day delivery) without tracking or confirmation info. I asked a week later if they got it and they said it didn't show up. After another week I had USPS put a tracer on the package. Within minutes of telling Furman this the package magically showed up in thier service department. After expressing my skepticism to Furman they told me (in a very egotistical tone I might add) that it was my fault for not putting tracking info on the package. When I responded by saying I didn't care who's fault it was and I just wanted my stuff back quickly, I got a snippy reply from Christos about how he was a rep for NBC...blah blah blah. Total peeing contest!!!! Not a pleasant experience AT ALL!!!! Cover your butt if you send them anything!!!!

I'm actually reviewing a AR117 which is the older version of the AR1215. Ease of use...very easy. Plug it into a moderately OK source of AC power ("the wall", a generator etc.) Then, plug your equipment into it. Everything should work.

The AR117 doesnt have "sound." However, it provides very clean power to everything else. A few years ago, I had to do some arc welding on the band vehicle while my housemate was recording. We plugged the studio equipment (yes, the entire home studio) into the AR117 and no welding noises got onto the tape. Still, its best not to weld while recording.

I bought the AR117 in 1991. It recently died on Sept 11, 2004. So, no problems whatsoever for 13 years despite using it to clean up bad house power, welding spikes, and power from portable generators. Excellent unit!!! I just ordered a AR1215 today to replace my old AR117.

I haven't contacted Furman yet about the bad AR117. We'll see...

Excellent unit! Great for anybody (musician or otherwise) who wants to protect sensitive equipment from bad power.

This is not my review...Just wanted to respond to the guy who trashed this unit because it didn't work.

YOU BOUGHT IT USED!!! That's the chance you take when you buy used stuff. Did you ever think maybe that's why the guy sold it to you?

If you bought a new one you probably wouldn't have that problem...This is a GREAT unit...Give the guy who sold it to you a 1, not the unit itself. You are making a judgement on a whole product based off of a unit that was probably faulty the day you bought it.

The guy probably dropped it and decided to sell it so he could buy another one.

very easy to use. Not much to it. Plug in and play. I use it internationally and so far it passed the test in Germany in combination with a transformer.

I run a rack of preamps, mixer, processor, compressor into it and run it out to a 300W transformer for international use. It didn't seem to add any extra noise. As long as the power is stepped down properly, it works fine.

Well I've had it for a little while now and although it's too soon to tell, no problems yet. I think it's reliable enough to use without a backup.

haven't had to deal with them

This was my answer when I wanted to stop carrying around the 60lb AR-Pro that although works great, was way too much of an overkill. So I think for just running processors and such, it'll do fine. It seems to handle enough juice for a Small PA setting too. It's a good choice when the meter 6 line is not enough and the AR-pro is just too much!

Plug in and flick the switch. Too bad the piece of crap doesn't work...

It doesn't make any sound, but it smells burned though...

"Can you depend on it?" I say NO. I had this unit for about 2 mohnts until the danm thing started to smell cinda burned. I turned everything in my rack off and thought it was my poweramp or something. A moment later, the burning smell had gone and I turned everything on again and suddenly there's this smoke coming from my Furman AR 1215!! So in a hurry I turned everything off once again and threw the danm thing out! "Would you use it on a gig without a backup?" I would NEVER use this on a gig anyway. The unit is supposed to protect my gear, wich it never did besides creating a short circut so nothing could power up until the next day when I fixed it.

I'm giving this a 1 only because the scale doesn't go any lower.

Never experienced their customer support.

If you're looking for something to protect your gear and/or give you clean and steady power, don't buy the Furman. The PL+ on the other hand, I have had no problems with whatsoever.

Nothing to it! Rack mount the unit, plug in your gear, and flip the switch.

This doesn't have anything to do with the tone, however it does keep a steady flow of voltage going out to my gear, so.....

I have used it in a club that is notorious for having bad power.
While the rest of the band watched their equipment lose tone from inconsistant voltage, my rig sounded the same every night.

Never had to deal with them yet, so I guess that would be a good thing.

I couldn't imagine owning caluable equipment with this unit in the chain. Absolutely essential

The Furman AR1215 is a single rack space voltage regulator. It is a single rack space with 12 rear and 1 front 15amp power outlet box. It is heavy at 15lbs or so but, its main feature is its ability to comensate for voltage peaks and dips. It generates a solid 117 Volts alternating current, or 117VAC, from any input voltage ranging from 87 to 142 volts. I think thats the range, I may be off a volt or two. It is in my main rack along with a Furman PL 8 Plus. I plug the AR1215 in to the wall, and the PL 8 Plus into the AR1215. The AR1215 doesn't have power conditioning but, that is not its main function. The unit does not have retractable lights either. It should not be place directly next to other audio rack gear, the manual states the reason as being, the AR1215 generates a small radio frequencey field that may cause noise in adjacent units. I never had a noise problem in any situation with the AR1215. It is easy to use.

The AR1215 does not have a sound quality of its own however, it does deliver a very stable signal voltage, thus it insures everything else will sound as good as it can. I tested the unit by setting it up with all the gear plugged in and on: three amps, six processors, a guitar synth, and some other stuff. Then I plugged in a super heavy duty shop-vac by Milwakee Electric and turned it on. I saw the voltage monitor lights dip close to "danger, danger" side of the scale, but the AR1215 kicked in and all was well. I ran the test like six or seven more times. Each time it seemed to have less effect on the AR1215, it was like it was getting used to it or something. I was satisfied with the results.

The unit is not cheap at 450$. A back up is not necessary. The AR1215 is super solid and if you have lots of expensive gear or just like the idea of good solid juice then get one. You may be able to find one used or the older model the AR117. The AR117 is the same thing as the AR1215.

Furman's website is cool and the phone help is great. I called inquiring about their IT1210 balanced power unit for my guitar rig. I found after talking to the tech I really didn't need it and the IT series is really for digital studio application and critical recording applications.

I had an AR117 before and I sold it. I realized that was a mistake and bought the AR1215. I run a bunch of gear so I need good juice yo.
Plus it protects all my gnarly studio gear from getting tweaked by brown outs and sorts of eletronic mishaps.