Gear Review: Our favorite power strip of all time
If you own vintage gear, you must have a really good outlet to plug it into. There are a lot of options for this, but our favorite is the Furman SS-6B power strip.
Our Furman SS-6B is easily the most essential thing in our studio. Not even exaggerating: it is a pleasure to plug things into this strip. If you have only ever used cheap, flimsy surge strips — or, God forbid, you’ve been plugging all your gear straight into the wall — you are honestly in for a treat when you use this thing. If I could return to any moment in my life, I’d choose the first time I plugged something into my Furman SS-6B, just to relive the surprise and delight of it.
I’m not sure why or how, but power strips are designed by people who have apparently never handled a power plug in their life. They flop over when you plug too many things into them (sometimes even one thing). The outlets are spaced too tightly, so you have to constantly unplug and reorganize your devices if you want to plug two things into adjacent outlets. The switch is often hard to reach, so turning it on and off is a hassle.
These are never problems with the Furman SS-6B. It works the way a power strip is supposed to. Considering that a power strip is supposed to sit on the ground and passively provide outlets for you to plug stuff into, you might think that this wouldn’t be such a tall order. But it is and here we are, begging you to buy the Furman SS-6B (which, we should note, we are not affiliated with whatsoever). That’s how much we love this strip.
Features of the Furman SS-6B
Always sits flat on the ground, no matter what you plug into it. I’m not sure if this thing is intentionally weighted, or if it just naturally has a decent heft thanks to some high-quality construction. But the bottom line is that the SS-6B will stay flat on the ground regardless of what you plug into it. It can handle thick plugs and fat cables without immediately falling over. It also stays more or less where you put it, and won’t slide around unless you really knock into it (or something that’s plugged into it).
A lot of power strips can’t even handle the weight of their own power cord: you have to really finagle things to get them to stay still. This is not an issue with the SS-6B. Its power cord is clearly connected in a manner that does not compromise its overall stability.
Highly accessible power switch. This is important to us for a few reasons. First of all, we test a lot of old devices with deteriorating or comically small power plugs. It’s safer to plug them into a switched-off strip, than to attempt to keep your fingers off the prongs while shoving them into a live outlet. On a more day-to-day basis, we prefer to disconnect our electronics from the wall whenever they aren’t in use, and a switch is much more convenient than pulling the plug every time.
In a lesser strip, you often have to pick up the strip to functionally reach the switch, or it might even be hidden by the devices that are plugged into it. Not so with the SS-6B! The switch is never covered up by plugs. It’s just there when you need it.
15’ power cord. The SS-6B’s extra-long power cord is such a huge convenience. There are very few places in our studio where this power strip can’t reach. This is possibly the feature we miss most whenever we are forced to use other power strips.
Generously-spaced outlets, organized in two columns of three. Most strips organize their outlets in one column, which either places them too close together, or makes the switch excessively long. The two-column organization of the SS-6B keeps it compact, while ensuring that most combinations of six devices will be able to fit comfortably together on the strip — even bulky wall warts.
If you prefer the classic one-column orientation, Furman also offers the SS-6, which looks equivalent to the SS-6B and is probably also a great strip (although to be honest, we love the SS-6B so much that we’re unlikely to ever branch out and try its one-column cousin).
EMI/RFI attenuation. The SS-6B doesn’t provide power conditioning — that is, it doesn’t actively filter the noise that your wall outlets might introduce. However, it does have EMI/RFI attenuation, which will cut down on noise and other forms of interference that may leak into the power signal from outside sources. This may audibly reduce hum and is a great bonus considering how affordable this particular strip is. Furman manufactures power strips with more robust filtering, but they tend to be significantly more expensive.
We have a lot of rare and valuable vintage electronics in the studio, and we put a lot of thought and care into restoring our gear. But there will always come a point where our vintage circuits must leave the nest and plug into the black hole that is the wall outlet.
What you put between your gear and your wall matters, and the SS-6B is always a solid choice. There are other power strips with more safety features: over-voltage shutoff, voltage spike attenuation. But the SS-6B offers the most basic safety feature of all: it lays flat on the ground. It has a switch that you can always access.
Spoil your vintage gear: buy a nice power strip. The Furman SS-6B is an excellent choice.
Further Reading
Browse all of our articles on restoring vintage gear. Or, click on an image below.
