March 2004 Reviewed by Doug Blackburn	Staco Energy Products UniStar SX SB20001 Uninterruptible Power Supply and Power Regenerator

Description Model: Staco Energy Products UniStar SX SB20001 Price: $1499 USD Dimensions: 14.4"H x 8.5"W x 17.6"D Weight: 70.4 pounds Warranty: Three years parts and labor (US), three years parts (outside US)	Features Hot-swappable batteries True online double-conversion UPS Operates on 50Hz or 60Hz Can act as a frequency converter Standard rack mount or tower configuration Automatic/continuous diagnostic readout Remote monitoring capabilities Sentry II Web-based power-management software Optional external battery packs Available at 230V

Staco Energy Products manufactures a wide range of power-related products for commercial and industrial use, some of them far larger than anything anyone would need or even consider for a home-theater setup. But then there’s the UniStar series of uninterruptible power supplies. These are packaged much like personal computers, in tower or horizontal desktop-style cases. The SX SB20001 ($1499) provided for this review was in a beefy tower case. Most people would probably assume it was a PC -- and it does have a computer inside that runs everything.

I wondered why anyone would want or need an uninterruptible power supply (UPS) for a home-theater system. A very large UPS would be needed to run an entire system, including power amplifiers, for more than a few minutes. In fact, the SB20001 will provide AC power for about ten minutes to 100% of its rated load. If you run at half the rated load, you can get power for 28 minutes. It seems obvious that no home-theater enthusiast would want to spend $1500 on a product that gives 28 more minutes of TV or a movie in the event of a power outage. There had to be more to the SB20001 than that. As it turns out, the UniStar series is packed with more technology than typical home-theater power-conditioning products.

The SB20001 is operated by its own internal computer -- not just a microprocessor with a little program to run an LED display, but an entire computer that measures, monitors, and controls everything the SB20001 does -- charging the battery, the state of the power line, the load on the SB20001, the operating mode. The SB20001 provides 1400W of AC power -- enough for relatively powerful home-theater systems. Companion models are available that provide 500W, 700W, 2100W, 3500W, or 4900W.

Much of the time, I ran the SB20001 at half load or less with these components connected: a 250Wpc stereo amp, a 150W mono amp, a 36" direct-view HD monitor, a 7.1-channel surround processor, a DVD player, a digital processor, and an HD cable-TV set-top box. I rarely saw the power gauge on the SB20001’s display panel exceed 700W.

The SB20001 doesn’t just output 120V-AC power; it regenerates, regulates, monitors, and cleans that power. It converts the power from the AC wall outlet to DC, and then creates a new AC waveform using a dual-inversion process. According to Staco, this eliminates the power line’s distortions, fluctuations, and noise. The SB20001 also has protection devices to keep lightning strikes and power-line spikes from damaging the connected equipment.

There are many other power-regeneration products on the market, but most of those are essentially analog audio amplifiers with a constant, internally generated 60Hz input signal. Because analog audio amplifiers are typically not highly efficient, such power regenerators produce large amounts of heat. They are also large, heavy, and, in the big picture, actually don’t output much power, and tend to be quite expensive for the amount of power they deliver. Most of them can’t drive powerful home-theater amplifiers.

The SB20001 regenerates power without excessive heat production -- yes, there’s some heat, but not nearly as much as from an audio amplifier-based power regenerator. The SB20001 will continue to operate your equipment with an AC power line voltage of 84V to 138V. Part of the technology package in the SB20001 is that the output voltage is essentially independent of the input voltage. The output voltage stays within 2% of 120V no matter what the power-line voltage does.

Front panel

The SB20001’s simple front panel has a power switch near the top and a smaller alarm-mode button below the display. The small orange-yellow display has a column of icons on the left: a sinewave indicates what wall power is running the SB20001; a battery icon indicates that power is coming from the internal battery; a bypass icon illuminates if you’ve elected to bypass the battery and operate without battery backup; an internal-fault icon illuminates if anything goes wrong with the SB20001 itself; a battery-charging icon lights up when the internal battery is being charged; and an overload icon goes on if the load on the SB20001 exceeds its output capability.

A three-digit numeric display normally indicates the SB20001’s output voltage, but if there’s a power failure, it will automatically change to a "remaining time" display so you’ll know when you’re about to run out of power. If you prefer to know something other than the output voltage, the three-digit display can be set to show input voltage, input or output amperage, input or output frequency, and the load (in watts) for the input or output. The battery icon fills up and empties as the battery is charged or discharged. A load-percentage icon that looks like a thermometer with a fat waistline displays a bar graph of the output load. If you connect amplifiers to the SB20001, you’ll see the bar graph climb during louder portions of movie soundtracks, when amplifiers require more power.

Rear panel

The SB20001 has four relatively widely spaced AC power outlets -- even the largest power-cord plugs will fit in all four outlets at the same time without interference. A solid panel in the upper left corner covers an access hole for optional cards (not discussed in the owner’s manual). A small button next to the slot is used to program alarm modes and front-panel display modes. At the top center is an access panel for the DIP-switches, which must be opened and set before you can use the SB20001. I found the information in the owner’s manual confusing, but the settings are silk-screened on the back of the SB20001 and are easy to understand. Next are AS400 and RS-232 communications ports and the Ethernet network-protection connections. There’s an access panel for connecting additional external batteries to extend the operating time in the event of a power failure. Circuit breakers for the input and output power and a captive power cord round things out.

To get 1400W of power, the SB20001 requires a 120V/20A circuit with a 20A outlet. A 20A outlet will have a sideways, T-shaped opening so it can accept normal 15A or 20A plugs.

The SB20001 has an "industrial" look, but I wouldn’t want to pay more for an appearance upgrade. The owner’s manual could be more useful to the average home-theater owner -- terms such as cold start are used but not defined. Clearly, the writers assumed that a techie familiar with the SB20001, and with UPSes in general, will set it up.

Installation

Despite being a consummate techno-weenie, I had to read the startup instructions a couple of times to get the SB20001 going. Even then, the sequence wasn’t intuitively obvious. I understood that I had to set the DIP-switch under the screwed-down panel on the back, and that the power switch on the front had to be pushed in. But my first attempt to power up produced a battery icon on the front-panel display instead of a sinewave. That meant the SB20001 was using the battery, not wall power, to generate power. I shut it down again and had another look. That was when I discovered, under a bracket, the input-power circuit breaker, which was in the Off position. I turned it On and tried the front-panel power switch again. Again, the battery icon illuminated and the sinewave icon did not. Hmmm. Back to the manual. I flipped a few things on and off, then tried again a few minutes later. Finally, the sinewave icon lit up, indicating operation from the wall outlet.

Operation

If you connect everything in your system to the SB20001, you’ll probably want to leave it on all the time, to save the various components’ clocks and memories. The SB20001’s internal alarm sounds (one beep every ten seconds) if it switches to battery operation for any reason. If there’s an internal fault, you’ll hear a constant tone and see an error code in the display. If the SB20001 is overloaded, a continuous tone sounds and the overload icon illuminates. If the battery condition is unacceptable (not charge, but condition) a short beep will sound once per hour until a new battery is installed. When battery power is low, the SB20001 beeps every five seconds.

But when everything is within expected parameters, the SB20001 just sits there and does its thing without requiring attention. However, I always knew it was there -- the two fans on the rear panel were very loud. I measured 65dB with an SPL meter placed to the side of the SB20001 close to the fan, but far enough away to the sides to keep the SPL reading from being affected by the wind (really!) coming out of the back of the SB20001. There was no escaping the noise; it was a constant companion. My wife, who claims to be unaffected by the static-filled sound of an old 20" TV with a bad audio board that we keep in the basement, heard the SB20001 running and told me it wouldn’t bother her at all.

But that much noise can quickly get to you. We thought we’d forget about the noise once the movie got going, especially when the soundtrack got lively. But when the soundtrack did get lively, the amplifiers needed more power, and the power meter on the SB20001 rose to a higher level -- as did the speed and noise of the fans. In less than five minutes, my wife was ready to turn off the SB20001.

Performance

Watching video, I saw results very close to the best power-conditioning equipment I’ve tried. The SB20001 improved video performance in every way I could imagine. Movies on DVD looked more filmlike, with less grain. Colors were richer, more vibrant -- as was very apparent in the excellent animated film Titan A.E. (Special Edition). From the brown tones of the opening scene to the scenes dominated by the saturated reds of an alien planet, and those dominated by the saturated blues inside enemy spaceships, colors were more faithfully and richly rendered through the SB20001.

High-definition programming was crisper, clearer, and shone with more detail and finer shadings of color. The contrasty, sometimes grainy look of Minority Report in hi-def nearly jumped off the monitor’s screen. Only the very-best-quality sources revealed the slight edge in image quality provided by the best power products I’ve experienced.

I was able to switch power sources several times during HD broadcasts of Daredevil so that I could observe the differences with and without the SB20001; the less-noisy images of this movie were easy to see in the many dark scenes, less obvious in more brightly lit scenes.

As for the SB20001’s sonic performance, its fans simply made too much noise for me to make any assessment.

Comparison

The only better results I’ve experienced came with balanced-power units, such as those from ExactPower, Furman, Monster Power, and Equi=Tech. The Sony KV-35XBR450 HD direct-view monitor clearly does best with balanced power. The remarkable clarity of the Finding Nemo DVD revealed a subtle but observable edge for balanced power over the conventional power produced by the SB20001. This was visible in most scenes, though it was easiest to see in highly detailed and colorful scenes, and in darker ones.

But the SB20001 gave quite a good performance with only a very slight increase in grain and a very slight loss of dimensionality compared to the balanced units. And power straight from the wall -- ugh -- degraded video performance in every respect.

Conclusions

At $1499, the Staco Energy Products UniStar SX SB20001 outdoes every other power-conditioning product I have evaluated (the number of these now approaches 80 different products) from a technology content point of view. There is stuff in this box you can’t begin to get in typical products targeted for the home-theater market. It even comes with software that allows you to monitor the status of the SB20001 and your power via an Internet web page you set up for your own SB20001.

With video performance as good as it gets this side of balanced power, the SB20001’s biggest fault is the noise from its cooling fans. If you store your home-theater gear in a soundproofed equipment closet, this won’t be an issue. But most home theaters don’t have soundproofed closets. The SB20001’s fan noise was so loud that I couldn’t tell what, if anything, the product was doing to the sound.

The UniStar SX SB20001 is a most interesting, technology-packed product that needs only a few fixes (easier installation, no fan noise) to make it a serious contender for the best in high-performance home-theater power conditioning.

Manufacturer contact information:

Staco Energy Products
301 Gaddis Blvd.
Dayton, OH 45403
Phone: (866) 261-1191

E-mail: sales@stacoenergy.com
Website: www.stacoenergy.com

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