Front Panel Controls
Overall I like the styling of the black S20 with its lighter colored metal accents. It goes very well with the rest of my
components that are a mixture of black and brushed aluminum.
The front panel of the S20 has a master on/off button, four buttons for navigating the menu system, changing values and
displays, and eight LEDs indicating the status of the unit, e.g. on “Battery”, Line OK, Voltage Regulation, Filtering,
Overload and the on/off status of two of the AC outlet banks. A two line vacuum fluorescent display allows display of
the menu system and monitoring of the system status. Both the LEDs and the display can be dimmed or turned off using
the menu system.
Rear Panel Inputs and Outlets
The APC S20 has 12 AC outlets arranged in 4 banks. All outlets include surge suppression, battery backup, voltage
regulation and device specific line filtering. (More on the functions of these various banks below.) The APC S Type
Power Conditioners also offer surge protection for two pair of coax cables and a telephone line splitter.
The back panel also has a connection for an external battery to increase battery backup time if desired, as well as an
Ethernet port, an environmental probe port, an RS-232 port, a USB port, a cooling fan, a circuit breaker, and a wiring
fault indicator.
The AC input to the S20 is via an impressive 1/2 inch diameter10-foot power cord.
Discussion
Now that we have the basics out of the way, let us continue this review by admitting the need for power conditioning,
line noise filtering, high-end power cables, things AC etc., are one of the more controversial topics in high-end AV. I
believe is lots of copper in power cords, and there is no doubt that the power coming out of the wall is not a pure 60 (50)
Hz sine wave, but also contains various harmonics, noise, spikes, surges, brownouts or sags(low voltage), etc.
Fortunately, our AV components do not use this AC line voltage directly, but rather use internal power supplies to
convert the AC power from the utility to the DC voltages needed for various amplification, processing or control stages
inside the AV component. In the process of conversion from AC to DC, spikes, noise and harmonics are, to a large
extent, removed. More expensive AV components typically have larger more expensive power supply components and
these typically will do a better job of cleaning up the dirty AC power as well as providing some reserve power to meet
short terms peak power needs.
So as long as your AV system is based on reasonably good components, adding a high end power conditioner to the
system probably will not lead to improvements in the transparency of the sound or more vibrant colors from your TV or
projector, etc. The power supply in the components are doing their job and do it well as long as there is enough AC
voltage and current available at the power cord. But therein lies the rub. Power today in many parts of the world, rural
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