Richard Gray's Power Company
September 2001A Company You Can Trust
by Grant Clauser
As important as it is to the performance of your audio and video gear, rarely do people give a second thought to the quality of the electricity that powers their TVs, DVD players and receivers. Until a short time ago, I didn't put much thought into it either. Except under unusual circumstances, my electricity always seemed to be there when I needed it. My A/V system always turned on when I asked it to. I never knew that it was hungry for better power.
As these things often happen, I heard about a new product while browsing the exhibit hall of an electronics expo. The company, Audio Line Source LLP, was promoting a product called Richard Gray's Power Company. Richard Gray's isn't the name of the company, it's the product and the name of the product's inventor. The product, model 1200S in this case, is a power line conditioner (though the company prefers the term power line enhancer) that is supposed to enhance the performance of home theater equipment by supplying cleaner and more consistent power.
Looking at the unit gives you no impression of what it actually does. The front features only a small dimly lit logo of a power company building and the product name. Around back you find 12 sturdy, three-prong Hubble outlets for plugging in your gear. Out of the middle comes a power cord as thick as a rat snake.
Electricity is inherently noisy due to the backwash it picks up from all the electronic gear it travels through and the interference it has to fight to get to your speakers or TV. As most people don't have their house tapped directly into the power company next door, electricity in most homes is filled with the detritus of all the homes it's been to before it arrives at your doorstep. Add your own electronically noisy air conditioner, dehumidifier and dishwasher, and you've got some dirty power. Richard Gray's Power Company is a car wash for electricity.
The technology behind this product is relatively simple. Inside this heavyweight (it weighs over 40 pounds) are two copper inductor coils wrapped around an iron core. The inductors are wired in parallel with the AC circuit, so they don't interfere with the current. As wily electrons race though the coils, the power of induction creates electromagnetic waves which act a power reservoir, sort of like the overfill tank on a car radiator. When the current lessens, or your gear requires more current, the electromagnetic field collapses back and induces more current, so your gear gets the extra juice it's hungry for. This same process has the benefit of cleaning the noise out of your electricity by filling dips and sanding out spikes, restoring it to power company cleanliness. It also has the added benefit of resisting jolts up to 280 volts before blowing the two 20-amp fuses.
