The authors present a comparison of the waveshape quality of six different artificial-line circuits used to produce the high rate-of-rise of recovery voltage specified by ANSI and IEC standards. For a purely capacitive and inductive pi-section circuit, it is shown that even eight pi sections do not meet the requirements. With the addition of a resistance in the first branch, this circuit design produces adequate solutions but requires a large number of components. The analysis reveals that the KEMA circuit easily meets the requirements for the rated peak factor of 1.6 but for the 1.8 peak factor a compensation would be required for the initial part of the wave. The simplest circuit comprising only three (RLC) components meets the specifications with a high voltage-peak overstress factor of 1.3. >